5 vital points to consider in a school website redesign
Are you wondering how to improve your school website? In an ever-changing digital world, keeping your school website up to date is more important than ever. With 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide, it is clear that your online presence is a crucial part of how your school is represented. Acting as an extension of your school environment. Furthermore, considering web design influences perceptions of 3 in 4 users, a perfectly designed website that looks fresh and current is key for reflecting your school ethos. Most importantly your school website is a hub of information for parents, pupils and staff. So optimising the user experience of your website makes a great difference.
We want to help you understand what really matters when considering how to improve your school website. So in this blog post we’ve broken this down into 5 key points. These sum up why your school website might need a redesign, or even a simple refresh.
1. Your website design is not responsive
Putting it simply, responsive website design means that your website and its pages can visually adapt. This delivers the best experience to all users without sacrificing design and quality. Responsive web design means your website adapts to any screen size, whether it’s desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile. So whatever platform your website is being viewed on your website works beautifully.
A website without responsive web design often becomes difficult to navigate when it is used cross-platform as it cannot respond and adapt to the different screen sizes. Problems with unresponsive websites not only includes unnecessary scrolling and wrong resizing, but also inappropriate zooming.
Currently, mobile accounts for over half of web traffic worldwide and having a responsive web design eliminates the need for a separate mobile site. As a result, you can spend less admin time on website updates as everything is easily accessible and all in one place.
2. Your SEO isn’t performing well
What exactly is SEO? And how to improve a school website with it!
SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the art of getting pages to rank and appear higher in search engines such as Google. Having a well-designed website means better SEO. A website redesign takes into account search engine optimisation from the code all the way to the CMS. Therefore, your website will appear higher in web search results, making it more easily accessible for users.
Poor SEO ranking means your website is less accessible. With 5.6 billion worldwide google searches per day, it’s incredibly important that SEO is taken into consideration with your school website. In short, optimising your website SEO means your school is visible to as many prospective parents as possible.
3. You’re ready to rebrand
If you’re considering a rebrand for your school, a new website design is a vital part of this process. Starting from scratch allows our web design team to create a stunning new design which takes into account user experience, accessibility, SEO, responsiveness and more from the beginning. Rebranding allows you to redefine your identity, creating a refreshed and positive image of your school to parents, pupils, and stakeholders.
4. Your website navigation is poor
Great website navigation allows users to easily access the information they need. This is especially important for compulsory statutory requirements such as Ofsted links, school policies, and more. Good web navigation is achieved through using a mix of text and image navigation. In order to create an aesthetically pleasing, yet effortless experience. Part of a website redesign or refresh can be as simple as rethinking your website’s user experience. Collaborating with our web design team on a restructured site map can be the start to unlocking your website’s potential.
Furthermore, creating a user friendly experience must take into account web accessibility.
“Web accessibility is the inclusive practice of ensuring there are no barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to, websites by people with physical disabilities, situational disabilities, and socio-economic restrictions on bandwidth and speed.” – Wikipedia
At Hive we pride ourselves on creating stunning website designs with an accessible experience.
5. Your website doesn’t integrate with social media
From Twitter to Instagram – how to improve a school website by integrating social media.
Integrating social media into your website design gives your audience more ways to engage and interact with your school. There are several ways to integrate social media into your website, from simple quick link buttons to embedded social media feeds. Combining beautiful web design with social media content is a powerful way to amplify your school’s online presence. In addition, it will keep content looking fresh without the need to be constantly updating the website. News stories about trips and events can also be instantly visible via social media feeds on your website home page keeping parents informed and engaged in school activities.
What to do next
If you would like to find out more about how we can help on how to improve a school website, please get in touch.