How to plan your school website upgrade

Undergoing a website upgrade can feel like a daunting task.

It can feel even scarier though if you haven’t thoroughly planned for such a project.

Following our recent infographic that helps to identify signs it is time to update your school website, we now look at how to successfully plan for the project.

First off, identify what your website needs to achieve.

All projects should commence with understanding what the website needs to achieve.

A website can be created for many different reasons.

Whether it’s for sharing thought leadership content, launching a new product or service into the market, helping to build brand awareness or even possibly as a lead generation or revenue tool.

It could even be a combination of all of the above!

Knowing what needs to be achieved puts you in a great position to determine your website aims and objectives.

As a school, you have more stakeholders than most industries.

With so many EdTech platforms available for different stakeholders, understanding who in fact will be using your website and who will just be looking for a link to their chosen platform will help you define your user journeys.

Once this has been identified, you can set your website goals and move on to understanding whether the existing website design meets them or not and if not, then why.

Understanding your design style preferences.

A great place to start here is by understanding what you like about your current website, and also what you don’t.

Think about whether the existing design best showcases your school’s personality, brand and culture, and also whether it clearly communicates your key strengths and unique selling points.

Ask your key stakeholders what they think about your website.

Particularly existing parents of pupils, as they might provide valuable insight into what they found useful (and possibly what they didn’t!).

Look at your competitors’ websites and others within the industry too.

Is there anything within their website experiences that you like? It might be how a particular page is laid out or possibly the transition a page makes as you scroll through.

Looking for inspiration and thinking about these different elements, helps provide a detailed picture of your website preferences and requirements.

This will help whomever you decide to work with on the website, enabling them to provide recommendations that best fit what you are looking for.

Knowing what your website needs to do.

If you have successfully completed the first point and identified what your school website needs to achieve, you can now look at whether your website has everything in place to succeed.

Think about the different steps within the user’s wider customer journey, and where your website fits into it.

Most school websites are still positioned as a digital brochure or prospectus, and whilst it may help to inform your audience, you might be missing out on many other opportunities.

Your school website should be integrated with your social media accounts, pulling feeds and posts directly to your website to keep the site updated with dynamic content.

You should have news and blog sections, providing your audience with insight and thought leadership content about the school and the wider industry.

Online forms should be enabled to ensure that the user’s interest and information can be collected quickly and easily, integrated with any technologies to allow that data to be fed directly into your internal tools.

If you haven’t made any changes or feature upgrades to your school website in the past 3 years, then it is likely that you are missing out on some essential modern-day functionality.

Setting your budget and timeframe

When it comes to planning for a website project, confirming how much you would like to spend and when the website needs to launch are essential.

Having a budget for the project helps inform whomever you are working with on what they can possibly recommend and the scope they have to work with.

It’s also a great benchmarking tool for you too, as you can collect different quotes and proposals and use them to understand what may be the best option.

Completing a website upgrade or refresh can be a lengthy process, as there are many things that need to be considered.

Are all of your website’s assets ready and gathered? Or do you need additional photography or website copy?

Have you confirmed the availability of key team members for the various planning and review meetings with your chosen provider over the coming months?

By thinking about these things before you begin the project, you are helping to reduce the possibility of any possible project delay factors, enabling a smooth project process.

Lasting thoughts

Embarking on a website upgrade or refresh can be a lengthy process, however, it doesn’t need to be a daunting experience.

Don’t forget that a new website project should be fun!

Whilst there are lots of steps and important tasks, successfully planning for such a project will help to reduce the likelihood of any possible delay factors or surprise encounters along the way.

By running through all of the above points before you decide on how to deliver your new website, you are putting your school in a better position for success.