Your school’s website is the main platform to broadcast what your district has to offer, making it one of your most valuable marketing tools. Whether prospective students and families are looking for enrollment information, or community members are looking for the latest news, the website is the first stop! Ensuring that your website is up-to-date and maintaining your school district’s brand is important in making a strong first impression.
As a general rule of thumb, website redesign should be implemented every 2-3 years to remain up to date. It’s time for a redesign if your website has:
- Outdated Design & Imagery
Imagery is what draws the eye, so up to date visuals are imperative to maintaining a modern website. Use of video is a keyway to tell your district’s story with style, with areas of opportunity including virtual campus tours, virtual open houses, and student and employee testimonials. Ease of navigation is key to any good website, featuring templates that showcase your most crucial information visibly and quickly. Your website users should be able to find any information with a maximum of 3 clicks to get there.
2. Isn’t Mobile Friendly
Websites should be designed with cellphones in mind, formatting easily to different screen sizes. In today’s digital age, there is a good chance that your viewer will be using their cellphone to visit your website. Be sure that information is not lost to users on mobile by selecting simple, bold templates and streamlined imagery.
3. Low Traffic & Leads
Low website traffic and leads are not helpful when it comes to increasing enrollment and engagement in your community. Boosting your SEO will help increase traffic, using the right keywords to direct traffic to your site, along with the right tags to get to your audience.
4. Loading Issues
Slow loading times will detract new website visitors and prevent you from getting your message out effectively. If your site takes more than a few seconds to load, people will likely click away or miss out on vital information. If your site is loading slowly you need to look into factors that can slow it down, such as an overload of images and video, or the heavy use of PDF’s.
5. Poor Web Accessibility
Maintaining web accessibility is not only important in promoting equity, but also in remaining ADA compliant to avoid fines. Failing to comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines can result in serious fines and complaints from the Office of Civil Rights. Getting important information out to all students and families is vital, therefore ensuring that you aren’t breaking web accessibility standards such as color contrast and the use of PDF’s is key.
If it’s time for a redesign, or even just a revamp, let us help you elevate your district’s website!