Last week, we released an article on How NOT to design your School Website, speaking on the things to avoid when designing your website. This article will focus on 5 important features a good school website must possess. The evolution in the marketing world has changed the view of people on how schools reach out to them, changing it from the traditional way to the online way. One of the methods by which schools reach out to parents is by their websites. A well-built school website as a great tool for Inbound Marketing can be used in promoting the school, and reaching out to larger audience (parents). It is most of the time the first contact people make with the school, which is why it is essential to make a long-lasting first impression with your school website as it can lead to an increase in application rates. The following list contains 5 features that make up a good school website.
1. APPEARANCE
The first thing that parents notice when they visit your website is the appearance. This comprises the color, the layout, images and fonts used to design the website. Ensure that these factors are all put into consideration when designing your website, as they all help to contribute to an outstanding impression of the school.
2. EASE OF USE
It all does not end at your website looking all beautiful, when visitors who in this case are the prospective/potential parents find it difficult to navigate through the website and easily access the information that they need, they get discouraged. This means you need to work on the layout of the website, making it as simple as possible and eliminating every irrelevant elements (images, colors, fonts, etc.) from the website.
3. QUALITY CONTENTS
The main aim of a school website is to create a platform where parents and students can have access to relevant information regarding the school. A school website should have relevant contents like school activities and programs (academic and extra-curricular), news, events in schools and some of the works done by students. Integrate a blog into your school website so parents seeking for information can get them. Contents also is useful to help in your website SEO ranking. Creating useful contents (articles, images, videos, infographics etc) will place your website higher when such contents are searched for in the search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc). By posting informative and educative contents regularly, you keep students, teachers and even parents (both incumbent and prospective) engaged.
4. CONTACT DETAILS
Every website must have a contact page. This page comprises the schools address and other additional contact information like phone numbers and email address. You can also provide a link to your profile on SchoolsCompass page, where parents have access to information like the tuition range, reviews by other parents, endorsements from current parents, and contact details of officials from your school. The major importance of this page is to allow parents to contact you when they want to.
5. VIDEOS AND PICTURE GALLERY
People believe in what they see. As a school, you can’t just keep to using only texts as a means of providing information about your school. Include videos and pictures on your school website, this video can be in form of a guide tour round the school, a welcome message from the head of school or a testimonial from parents or students. Pictures of facilities (playground, classrooms, sickbay, kitchen, dining, laboratories, buses, music and art studio, and sport facilities), staffs and students can be shared on the school website. By doing this, you build your brand and also gain the parent’s trust.
