As a first port of call for prospective parents looking for the best school, the presentation of your website is so important. To build a strong digital (and physical) identity you need to use consistent, cohesive branding with concise information and useful content that will engage potential and current pupils and their parents.
If your website is more than five years old then you might not be providing the most user-friendly experience for your users and it’s never good to get left behind in anything. As your school grows and evolves, your website needs to too! Take a look at what other schools are doing, if their site makes yours look outdated then it might be time for a revamp. A website that looks professional will reflect well on the school and persuade visitors that you provide quality education as well as making you appear reliable and trustworthy.
How to tell if your school website needs a refresh:
Your Website is Not Responsive
If your website it not responsive then you cannot predict how it will look on different devices. Mobile phones are now more popular than desktops for browsing so a responsive website design is imperative to ensure your school website looks good on all screens. A fully responsive website will be easy to navigate with a mobile menu, easy to click buttons and text you can read without needing to zoom in. A great way to test your site is to ask a friend or family member to load your website on their phone or tablet and watch them interact with it. If you find they are confused or have a hard time clicking from one page to another, then it’s time for a website update or redesign to improve mobile compatibility.
Your Website is Not User-friendly
A well designed, user-friendly website should be well structured, consistent and easy to navigate. If your school website doesn’t fulfil that criteria then it’s likely it leaves users feeling frustrated, struggling to find what they need or worse, to exit the site completely. Too many clicks and a disengaged audience is not what you want which is why it is so important to create a seamless, quick and easy journey throughout your site. While small tweaks can improve the visitor experience on an existing site, a new website designed with user experience at the forefront is often the best solution.
Your SEO isn’t performing
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a vital digital marketing tool and if your SEO isn’t performing well, then your website may not be showing up in search results. SEO is crucial in making your website more visible, therefore resulting in more traffic and more opportunities to appeal to potential students. Elements of SEO include things like keywords and content such as text, videos, blogs, social media posts and infographics. If all this hasn’t been updated for a few years then it might be affecting your SEO ranking as recent content tends to be favoured over dated content by search engines. Redesigning your website gives you a chance to take stock of the content you have and build a site that uses an SEO strategy from the off.
Sometimes, you just know...
If you feel like your school website isn’t reaching its full potential, consider giving it an update -whether it’s a small refresh or a complete redesign. Your website is the online face of your school and you should be proud to have it represent you! Not sure where to start? Get in touch – we’d be happy to help!