How to know when it’s time for a school website refresh?

With 55% of internet users saying they wouldn’t recommend an organisation with a poorly designed and difficult to access website, having a well-designed and highly functioning site for your school has never been more important. A recent study found that people form an impression of a company based on exploring their website for a mere 500ms. With only 500ms to make a good first impression, your website not only needs to be technically functional, it should also be visually appealing and attention grabbing.

Whilst you may feel confident in your website’s design and functionality, with trends and algorithms in a constant state of change, sites are becoming outdated both technically and visually far quicker than they ever used to. Like fashion trends, websites regularly go out of style and new innovative ideas become all the rage. Current research suggests that the average lifespan of a website is 2 years and 7 months, but this very much depends on the industry and organisation. 

What we have established is that your school’s website has to have a big impact in a short space of time, and that is a lot of pressure. Knowing when the right time is for a school website refresh can also be difficult. Whilst you might think it looks strong and regularly update certain elements such as imagery, that might not be enough to keep your users captivated.

6 things that might signify its time for a school website refresh. 

Not responsive

Having a responsive website means its design responds to different screen sizes, devices and orientations. This means the site will automatically resize so that the design, text and images are carefully displayed to all users. Current Statista statistics show that 58.99% worldwide website traffic comes via a mobile device; this includes smartphones and tablets. That means that if your website is not responsive, you are not catering to more than half of your potential website visitors. 

Having a responsive website that takes mobile users into consideration is also hugely beneficial for SEO for schools. This is because Google has been prioritising and ranking mobile-friendly websites for a long time. If you aren’t sure if your website is responsive, copy and paste the URL into Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to find out. 

Doesn’t reflect well on the brand

An outdated and visually unappealing website will reflect poorly on your school. With technology constantly evolving and upgrading, people want to feel like their school of choice matches their ambitions and needs. In this sense, an outdated website can detract from a strong school brand. An out-of-date website can suggest a lack of digital awareness and if key information is difficult to find it may decrease the number of contacts your school receives from parents and key stakeholders.

You may also have recently updated your school’s branding or core messaging, which means your website will not align with this new brand face. Ensuring a brand refresh is part of your overall school marketing strategy is essential in ensuring continuity across all platforms and consistency of messaging.

Slow

Often a slow-loading website is all it takes for someone to give up and find themselves on a competitor’s website instead. With website conversion rates dropping by an average of 4.42% with each additional second of loading time, ensuring your website loads quickly could have a significant impact on brand perception and also ensures that members of the school community are able to find key information in a concise manner. 

Strong local area competition

Advertising for schools is very much about engaging with the local community. Convincing them that your school is the best in the area for their children is imperative to overall success. Strong competition in the local area is something to be aware of, both in terms of their messaging and what is being displayed on their website. If you are finding that other schools in your area have visually stronger and more appealing websites, it may signify that it’s time for a change. After all, you don’t want to be left behind in the local rivalry!

Difficult to use and not helping parents/students solve problems

Similar to website speed, poor website structure and navigation can make interacting with your website a nightmare. With 94% of survey respondents saying easy navigation is the most important website feature, making sure your website has a clear navigation map behind it is integral. Generally, people visit websites with a particular goal in mind. If they can’t find what they are after, it will likely increase the calls and emails from inquisitive parents incoming to your school as well as brewing a general sense of frustration within the school community.

Website is difficult to update

If you are avoiding making changes or updates to your school website because it is notoriously tricky and time consuming, this is a sign that it may be time for change. Choosing a content management system for your website is an important decision that will not only differentiate you from the competition, but also improve functionality and usability when adjusting content and making updates. Priorities should be to make it as simple as possible for admins to upload content and create visual updates without fear of it being time consuming or an inconvenience.

Is it time for a school website refresh?

The experienced team at Cleverbox are experts when it comes to re-designing school’s websites. Having led the school website refresh process for hundreds of highly established schools throughout the UK, our team are specialists at delivering school websites to be proud of.

To get a feel for our work, you can view some of the schools we have worked with in the past. If any of these points have resonated with you and your website, you may be in need of a school website refresh. A properly functioning and up-to-date website is integral for any organisation, particularly schools.