Bonnie 0:00
Welcome to the School Communications Scoop by School Webmasters! Today’s topic is about Website redesigns and how to do them well. I’m Bonnie Leedy, School Webmaster’s CEO.
Thanks for joining us today and if you know someone who might benefit from our topic today, I hope you’ll forward along a link to our podcast!
Every few years, schools decide they need to update or redesign their website. Sometimes it is because there has been a change in administration and they want to put their own “stamp” on things. Sometimes it is because someone thinks they should update their school’s brand image. But the best reason is that you want to improve the experience your website visitors have when they visit your school’s online presence. If you don’t make that your primary goal then the effort will be a waste of time and money.
Your school website is your most important communications and marketing tool. It is also one of the most affordable ones. As far as employees go, it works 24/7 for far less than minimum wage and can provide outstanding and consistent customer service. It can make a positive and memorable first impression and save your staff time while they stay focused on their primary roles (educating students). But, the key here is that it can do all of this only if your website design and content are done right.
Doing the school website redesign right!
So, let’s talk about what an effective website (or redesign) should have.
#1 Navigation
This is often a bit of an afterthought and is sometimes determined by the software you’re using to create your website. Some CMS platforms have a defined structure that is impossible or difficult to change. Sometimes this is a good thing, as it keeps your navigation consistent, but often you end up becoming a bit of a Lemming and just mimic some developer's idea of what is intuitive.
Intuitive navigation means you need to use a bit of common sense and some analysis about what your site visitors look for most often. These important and popular bits of information should be easy to find and in a logical and consistent location.
For example, if a prospective parent lands on your school’s homepage, can they find the enrollment information with one or two clicks of the mouse? If a current parent lands there, can they quickly get to the district-wide calendar for those early-release days or school breaks so they can plan their lives around their child’s schedule?
Do you know what pages site viewers visit most frequently? If you don’t, check your website analytics first before deciding on the navigational structure and content, and factor that into your plans. If you haven’t set up Google analytics for your site(s), be sure to do that ASAP to start gathering data.
#2 Current, informative content
Keep in mind that anyone who visits your school website is there to get accurate, up-to-date information. Out of date and boring information is not only irritating, but it reflects poorly on your whole school. This is absolutely critical! Parents will become frustrated when they can’t find the information they need (from the device of their choice).
Remember, like you, they are all drowning in an ocean of responsibilities for themselves and their kids. Your website is, or should be, their lifeline to quick, accurate help. If your school website is more of an anchor than a life preserver, a good website redesign can make you a hero. What is good will and parental support worth to your school? You’ll find out next time you need budget approval, a tax override, or a bond election!
#3 Make it accessible
If you haven’t already complied with the website accessibility laws, use this opportunity to take care of that with your redesign. Be familiar with the WCAG 2.1 requirements, and audit your own website before the Office of Civil Rights does it for you. Be sure all of your attached documents are also remediated for accessibility (yes, all those posted governing board minutes and agendas, flyers, notices, videos, and more). Anyone who adds content to or updates your website must be trained on accessibility, and they must follow the guidelines. It means your website software platform must also be capable of assuring continued accessibility in navigation, layout, and responsiveness. This doesn’t mean an overlay work-around that forces disabled users to use a separate link to view your site either. Do it right because it is the right thing to do. and make and keep your school website ADA compliant.
#4 Meet your audience needs
These first three tips are designed to help you meet your audience needs. So, now let’s take a look at specific or unique audience needs.
What should it cost?
Depending on your school and your budget, the cost will vary wildly. Some school website providers recommend budgeting 1–2 times annual student tuition for the website redesign (for public schools, this is the annual per student funding amount). You can easily justify the expense by realizing that just one or two new students offsets the initial expense. And over the life of the student (12 years), it becomes a negligible expense, compared to the long term revenue. An effective website can certainly increase enrollment decisions—if managed right.
But what if you could do it for 1/2 of the cost? Is that worth checking out? We can’t speak for all other school website providers, of course, but we know what we can offer, and considering what you get, there is simply no value comparison. So, get a quote and make the comparison. Or, if you want, we can even give you a list of other school vendors to check out. There are lots of options out there, depending on your needs.
School Webmasters’ specific claim to fame is that we don’t just provide you with software and turn the hard work over to your staff; we do the behind the scenes grunt work day in and day out, including all those daily updates (keeping your website accessible, current, and informative). We even provide updates to many of our competitors’ sites. But, we also do all the copywriting and make content recommendations for an intuitive and effective website to address all the tips we’ve given above. So, if you’re looking for a redesign that will take your school website to the next level, we hope you’ll contact School Webmasters and let us show you how we can make you shine.
So, thanks for joining us here at the School Communications Scoop! We hope you’ll come back soon to get for more helpful tips on how to improve your school communication efforts, which include managing your website and social media, increasing enrollment and community support, and strengthening your school’s brand and reputation. For more tips, please subscribe to our blog at www.schoolwebmasters.com/blog
Have a great rest of the week! Bye for now.