How To Design A Higher Education Website That Drives Enrollment

The Significance Of Higher Education Web sites

A Statista survey carried out in 2022 discovered that 89% of college-bound college students in the US mentioned that school web sites had been necessary for his or her school analysis. So, if establishments need to appeal to these potential college students and convert them into enrollees, greater training leaders should design web sites which can be useful, accessible, and interesting. On this article, we’ll focus on how greater training web sites affect enrollment and what steps your establishment can take to create an efficient, student-friendly website.

How Can A Higher Education Website Affect Enrollment?

In case your establishment’s web site is straightforward to seek out and navigate and helps college students entry the data they’re in search of, college students will probably be extra drawn to your school or college. College students’ skill to acquire info in your web site is very necessary since this can finally assist them make their enrollment choices. If they can not discover particulars about admissions, campus life, monetary assist, housing, and extra, they’re going to mistrust your establishment and lose curiosity in making use of.

Carrie Phillips, chief communications and advertising and marketing officer on the College of Arkansas at Little Rock, goes so far as to say that your establishment’s web site displays the campus expertise. “If the expertise they get on the web site would not match the campus expertise and features, it is simply going to frustrate and upset that pupil,” mentioned Phillips in an Evolllution weblog put up. In different phrases, in case your establishment’s website is inaccessible or unhelpful, then college students will suppose equally about your school or college. This can deter them from progressing additional within the enrollment funnel.

What Makes An Efficient Higher Education Website?

A number of components contribute to a better training web site that reinforces engagement and drives enrollment. We have a look at six of them under.

1) Findability

If college students cannot discover your web site, then they will not apply. So, how do you guarantee college students and their households discover your school or college on-line? The reply is through the use of Search Engine Optimization (website positioning).

website positioning optimizes your web site so search engines like google like Google can browse your website for info and categorize it, serving to your school’s web site and net pages seem in search outcomes. Some website positioning finest practices are to determine optimum key phrases related to college students’ wants and embody them throughout your web site. For instance, use them in weblog posts, information articles, course descriptions, and different areas of your website the place they naturally match.

Your establishment’s web page titles must also function key phrases, ship correct info, and differ from different pages. Equally, your web site’s meta descriptions ought to naturally incorporate key phrases and phrases and use distinctive descriptions to make sure larger visibility.

2) Navigability

A easy, navigable web site means all folks—together with these with disabilities—can discover and work together with it. That is vital for the reason that extra folks that may entry your establishment’s web site, the extra folks you may convert.

You may enhance the navigability of your college’s web site by offering a transparent navigation construction. For example, you could possibly arrange your web site menu by viewers (e.g. college students and college), essential matter (e.g. teachers), or each. Additionally, try for minimalism. Select clear, trendy designs for the online interface, present ample white area, and use sticky headers, hover results, and different student-friendly parts.

3) Partaking, Related Content material

Compelling content material attracts college students to your website and retains them coming again for extra. By way of weblog posts, movies, pictures, infographics, and extra, you may spotlight the tales of present college students and college in addition to your establishment’s choices. This builds your faculty’s belief and credibility. And should you incorporate your distinctive promoting proposition (USP) into these content material codecs, you may persuade college students to decide on your establishment over 1000’s of others.

For instance, should you satisfaction your self in your establishment’s famend examine overseas program, you could possibly have college students write weblog posts about their experiences taking programs in Paris, Rome, and different thrilling cities. Or, in case your faculty gives state-of-the-art services, you would possibly embody high-quality movies of scholars working in trendy laboratories.

4) Clear And Actionable CTAs

CTAs naturally information college students by the enrollment journey, nudging them nearer to conversion. Say a pupil visits your web site and desires to be taught extra about campus life. They navigate to the corresponding web page, learn a couple of paragraphs and brief testimonials, and take a look at a couple of images. The scholar likes what they see, however they know—and you already know—that textual content and images can solely say a lot concerning the campus expertise.

So, you embody a CTA directing the coed to take that pure subsequent step of visiting your campus. This fashion, the coed can expertise your establishment for themselves. In the end, the CTA evokes the coed to schedule a go to, serving to them proceed on the enrollment journey.

In fact, matching CTAs to the steps college students take as they navigate your web site is not sufficient. You may additionally need to place CTAs in distinguished locations; spotlight them utilizing distinct fonts, colours, and button shapes; and use actionable language to spice up conversions and engagement.

5) Cell Responsiveness

Within the final quarter of 2024, cell gadgets (excluding tablets) generated 62.54% of worldwide web site visitors. And with 95% of teenagers gaining access to a smartphone, making certain a mobile-friendly web site is crucial if establishments need to preserve guests on their websites.

Cell responsiveness encompasses a wide range of parts, together with web site format. For instance, your college’s web site ought to adapt to totally different display screen sizes and net parts. Cell CTAs must also be large enough to click on (a minimum of 44 x 44 pixels) and have adequate white area. You may additionally need to condense contact kinds so that they match the scale of a cell gadget.

6) Robust, Constant Branding

A distinctive and compelling model makes your establishment stand out from the almost 6000 schools and universities within the U.S. A 2023 literature overview additionally discovered that sturdy college branding improves college students’ satisfaction, loyalty, belief, and behavioral intention. This implies extra inquiries, purposes, and conversions in your establishment.

Bolster your faculty’s model by highlighting its USP in all advertising and marketing and communications. In case your college gives distinctive tutorial applications, promote that in your homepage and net pages, ship personalised emails to prospects who’ve expressed curiosity in individualized research, and highlight present college students with distinctive majors on numerous social media channels. Simply ensure that your messaging is constant in colours, fonts, logos, and model voice.

3 Examples Of Efficient Higher Education Web sites

These three schools and universities present ample greater training web site inspiration.

1) Rock Valley School

Rock Valley School (RVC)’s web site was acknowledged by Fashionable Campus as top-of-the-line greater training web sites in 2023. And we’re certain the positioning’s navigability was a key purpose why.

RVC’s web site has a clear, easy, and well-organized homepage. Distinguished button CTAs additionally enable customers to decide on the kind of pupil they’re (highschool pupil, new school pupil, and so forth.) to allow them to be directed to focused info. Moreover, college students can self-select based mostly on their intent (apply, get extra info, and so forth.) This helps them simply discover the data most related to them and take motion with none hassles.

2) College Of Montana

The College of Montana (UM)’s website options a variety of compelling content material. This consists of eye-catching infographics, function pictures, and a information part highlighting the tales of scholars and college.

UM even gives a microsite that comprises branded interactive and multimedia parts, together with quizzes, movies, video games, and playlists. College students can not help however work together with these engaging net parts, giving the establishment extra knowledge to allow them to personalize the web site expertise and pupil journey for prospects.

3) College Of Notre Dame

The College of Notre Dame (ND) is a case examine in sturdy branding. The establishment has sturdy model requirements, together with steerage on colours, logos, fonts, and web site necessities. The rules mandate that each one college web sites use the Notre Dame Internet Theme as a place to begin. This ensures net content material adheres to the varsity’s model signatures.

ND’s sturdy branding not solely builds potential college students’ consciousness of the college, maintaining it high of thoughts when it comes time to use. Nevertheless it additionally strengthens the establishment’s credibility—a vital issue since college students are making one of the crucial necessary choices of their lives.

How To Design A Higher Education Website That Drives Enrollment In 6 Steps

Preserve the next six suggestions in thoughts to design a high-converting greater training web site.

1) Inform A Story

An genuine story that delivers beneficial info and facilities human connection will encourage potential college students to take motion. Your establishment would possibly faucet into its storytelling aspect by publishing options about present college students so prospects get an thought of the coed expertise. In your homepage, you can too function movies breaking down your faculty, its mission, and what it gives to college students. This can enable college students to attach together with your college on a extra private and emotional degree.

2) Prioritize Easy And Useful Design

In case your web site is easy and navigable, college students will keep on it longer and sure take motion—whether or not that is scheduling a campus tour or requesting to talk to a consultant. You may promote web site performance and navigability by taking the next actions:

1. Use intuitive interfaces, clear and distinguished CTAs, and easy web site menus.
2. Observe a constant format throughout pages.
3. Keep away from litter and break up massive blocks of textual content.
4. Use sans serif as an alternative of serif fonts for enhanced readability.

3) Use Visuals

Potential college students are offered with copious quantities of visible content material every day. So, add visible curiosity to your web site to catch and maintain prospects’ consideration. Listed below are a couple of methods to make your web site visually interesting:

1. Embody a slideshow of pictures to spotlight happenings on campus.
2. Use GIFs and brief movies so prospects get a glimpse into pupil life.
3. Use icons and infographics for spectacular statistics like program rankings, variety of pupil internships, and beginning salaries for graduates.

4) Make It Simple For College students To See Themselves

College students seeing their numerous pursuits and backgrounds mirrored in your faculty’s web site and in its broader messaging can affect their school determination. Certainly, pupil variety and organizations had been among the many high components affecting college students’ school alternative.

Assist college students see themselves in your campus by providing digital excursions, interactive campus maps, and 360-degree views of campus services. Additionally, place testimonials from at present enrolled college students of assorted backgrounds on net pages so prospects can see their majors, ethnicities, and hobbies represented.

5) Attempt For Accessibility And Cell-Friendliness

A Concept3D report on the state of digital accessibility in greater training discovered that 55% of present college students both have a incapacity or know somebody near them who has one. If schools and universities need to appeal to and serve all college students, then they need to promote accessibility throughout their establishments, together with on their web sites.

So, prioritize responsive design, optimize all CTAs and make contact with kinds so college students can take subsequent steps with none trouble, and supply descriptive alt textual content for pictures. Moreover, use instruments to make sure compliance with Internet Content material Accessibility Pointers (WCAG).

6) Make It Interactive

An interactive web site permits potential college students to submit inquiries, schedule campus visits, pose inquiries to AI chatbots, and extra. In different phrases, it turns prospects into lively customers and helps them progress by the enrollment funnel.

Encourage prospects to work together together with your establishment’s web site by together with surveys and make contact with kinds. You may then use this info to personalize the coed journey even additional. Additionally use polls, quizzes, movies, monetary assist calculators, digital excursions, and different interactive parts.

Your Higher Education Website Is An Extension Of Your Establishment

Your establishment’s web site displays the expertise potential college students can have at your school or college. So, make your faculty’s net content material navigable, accessible, and beneficial. Moreover, guarantee it tells a narrative, incorporates high-quality visuals, encourages engagement, and makes it straightforward for college kids to see themselves in your campus. By taking these actions, you may persuade college students to decide on your establishment over the handfuls of others on their listing.