These days, before visiting your campus or even talking on the phone with someone, the first impression that someone will have with your school is through your website. When researching existing schools, most people will automatically undertake in-depth research to obtain more information about their options. Therefore, it is crucial that your website contain enough relevant information that is eye-catching and easy to navigate to provide useful information and not confuse the visitor, causing them to leave the website. After enrollment, the website will serve as a vital link between parents, students and the school administration.
The content seems to be key here, however, it is not simply sufficient, which means that if it is not organized in the right way, it will be difficult to find or there will be too much, therefore, it will not fulfill its purpose. This is where design plays its role in providing solutions for the visualization and organization of content.
That said, design is not something to fear, since it does not present a difficult task, given the development and advancement in the CMS that allows even those without many design skills to achieve great results. However, there are some steps you should consider and implement if you want to maximize the effectiveness of your website.
Simplify
We’ve seen tons of time-consuming content, complicated navigation, or great-looking websites that are devastating both. The logic behind it – the more your visibility is, the more you have to offer. Instead, think of your visitor coming to your site with thought. Yes, beautiful spectators may be attentive for a while, but they come to them for information and content, so do not let flashy things get in the way of knowledge. Here are some of the most important features that a school should simplify in order to get results in the website.
Home Page Content- Although it is understandable that you want to impress your visitors with future customers, your home page should not be overflowed with useless information and too much content. With a little help from the elegant WordPress LMS theme, you can have a beautiful and personalized home page and still keep it simple in terms of content. Your home page should contain a short profile of your school with clear and convenient links to the most important pages, such as school calendar, graphs, course descriptions, teacher profiles, contacts page, etc.
Navigation- Your website must have a natural stream, which means that users should quickly and easily navigate to the right pages, so as not to get confused and finally give up. Again, think about the visitor on your website and place banners with a call to action, buttons in social networks and menus, where people expect to find them without spending time searching for them.
User Integration- Registration process, as well as login should be simple, easy and fast, so that the user does not have problems. If you offer courses or license plates for purchase on the site, you need an effective way to deal with this (payment systems, such as PayPal and WooCommerce, are integrated into every modern LMS WordPress theme).
Multimedia
When designing a school or any website, it is important to include visual features as they tend to be an effective way to present the school. Make sure you include the appropriate pictures and videos that convey the correct message and tell a story about your school, classes, students and staff. Do not forget to place too many multimedia files in place to fit the content page, and also slow down the loading of your website.
Social Media
The integration of social network buttons on the website is one of the most useful tools to promote any section that can be shared on your website, such as the events page, blog posts, etc. helping you to inform and interact with your followers. In addition, it is very likely that most of your potential students use social networks to search nearby schools, so make sure your profiles are clean, active and updated regularly.
Mobile Ready
Since the number of people who use smartphones to surf the Internet increases every year, you should make sure that your website has a responsive design for desktop computers and smartphones, in order to give each visitor to your website the best experience.
Personalize
In addition, if you assume that you want to create a recognizable picture for your school, be sure to add personal feelings to yourself. This means choosing LMS solutions with a lot of special options so you can choose colors, fonts, customize banners, student badges and certifications, and other features that can help you and give your students a unique experience.