Here’s something that might surprise you: over 90% of students check out a college or university website during their school search. That makes your website the first impression for nearly every potential student who walks through your doors.
Think about it. When prospective students explore schools online, they’re not just looking for information—they’re trying to figure out if your institution matches their values and expectations. Your website becomes their window into campus life, academic quality, and whether they can see themselves fitting in.
The mobile piece makes this even more critical—mobile usage is now dominant, with over 70% of higher education web traffic coming from smartphones. If your site doesn’t work well on mobile, you’re essentially turning away three-quarters of families before they even get started.
Then there’s accessibility. More than 61 million adults in the U.S. live with a disability. Creating an inclusive website isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s often required by law and opens your doors to students who might otherwise be excluded.
Here’s what we know from working with educational institutions: a modern, user-friendly website can boost enrollment, build credibility, and make life better for current students. But schools face a tricky challenge. You need to serve everyone—prospective students, parents, current students, faculty, alumni—while keeping things visually appealing and technically sound.
We’ll walk you through the essential pieces of a successful website redesign, from figuring out what’s broken to launching something that actually works for everyone who visits your site.
Assessing the Current Website Before Redesign
You wouldn’t renovate a house without checking the foundation first. Same goes for your website. Before jumping into a redesign, you need to know exactly what’s working, what’s broken, and what’s missing.
Website Performance Audit Using Google Lighthouse
Google Lighthouse is your best friend here. It’s built right into Chrome and gives you a clear picture of how your site performs across five key areas: Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, SEO, and Progressive Web Apps.
Running an audit is straightforward:
- Open Chrome and go to your website
- Right-click and select “Inspect” to access DevTools
- Click the Lighthouse tab and run the analysis
You’ll get scores on a 0-100 scale. Anything above 90 means you’re doing great. For schools, pay extra attention to accessibility scores—WCAG 2.1/2.2 standards compliance isn’t just recommended, it’s often required. Lighthouse also hands you actionable fixes like image optimization and server response improvements that directly impact how users experience your site.
Content Relevance and Accuracy Review
Stale content kills credibility fast. Nothing says “we don’t care” like outdated application deadlines or broken links scattered across your site.
Focus your content review on:
- Key policies and compliance documents
- Term dates and academic calendars
- Curriculum information and program details
Set up a review schedule that makes sense. Some content needs weekly attention (SEO content, term dates), other stuff can wait until each semester (open days, curriculum), and some items only need annual updates (policies, compliance information). The goal is preventing that moment when a prospective student finds last year’s application deadline still posted in March.
User Journey Mapping for Prospective Students
Analytics tell you what happened, but user journey mapping shows you why it happened. This process maps out how prospective students actually move through your site—not how you think they should.
Good journey maps capture:
- What students are thinking and feeling at each step
- Key decision points (“Should I apply?”)
- Questions they might be too embarrassed to ask
When you understand the complete path from “maybe interested” to “definitely applying,” you can design your site to meet students exactly where they are. It’s like having a conversation with every visitor, anticipating their needs before they even know what they’re looking for.
These assessment steps give you solid ground to build on. No guessing, no assumptions—just clear data about what needs fixing.
Setting Clear Goals for University Website Redesign
Nobody wants to spend months on a website redesign only to realize it didn’t actually solve anything. A successful redesign starts with knowing exactly what you’re trying to fix.
Aligning Redesign with Enrollment and Branding Objectives
Skip the vague goals like “make our website better.” You need specific targets that tie directly to what matters most—getting more students to apply. Try something like: “Increase inquiries from prospective families by 15% through the redesigned admissions landing page within three months of launch”. Now you have something concrete to work toward and measure.
Your redesign should also strengthen what makes your institution unique. What’s your school’s personality? Are you the innovative tech-focused university or the traditional liberal arts college with tight-knit community feel? Every design choice—from colors to navigation structure—should reinforce that identity. When students visit your site, they should immediately understand what kind of place you are and whether they belong there.
Defining KPIs: Bounce Rate, Time on Page, Conversion
Here’s what you should actually be tracking: website traffic, conversion rates, cost per acquisition, and lead generation. But don’t stop there. Monitor admissions inquiries, enrollment numbers, how long people stay on your site, and where they’re coming from.
Some results you can measure with spreadsheets. Others—like whether your site feels more trustworthy or professional—are harder to quantify but equally important. One university saw a 518% increase in admission inquiries after their redesign. Your results might not be that dramatic, but you should see real improvement if you’re doing things right.
Stakeholder Alignment: Faculty, IT, and Marketing Teams
Website redesigns fail when too many people have opinions but nobody’s actually in charge. Create a small core team to handle day-to-day decisions, backed by a steering committee representing different parts of your institution. Include finance, IT, marketing, administration, and someone who understands accessibility requirements.
Make it crystal clear who decides what. Use a RACI matrix if you need to—who’s responsible, who approves, who gets consulted, who just needs to be informed. Getting everyone involved from the start prevents the painful “nobody told me about this” conversations later.
The key is balancing input with efficiency. Too few voices and you miss important perspectives. Too many and nothing ever gets decided.
Designing for Accessibility, Mobile, and User Experience
Your website needs to work for everyone who visits it. That sounds obvious, but most educational sites still fall short on the basics—accessibility, mobile optimization, and user experience. These aren’t nice-to-have features anymore. They’re requirements.
WCAG 2.1 AA Compliance for Higher Ed Sites
The U.S. Department of Justice doesn’t mess around with accessibility. Public colleges and universities must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards. This isn’t just about your main website—it covers learning management systems, course materials, and student portals too.
What does this actually mean for your site?
- Every image needs alternative text, and your headings need to be structured properly
- Students should be able to navigate your entire site using only a keyboard
- Text and background colors need sufficient contrast for readability
- All videos need captions and transcripts
- Forms need proper labels that work with screen readers
Getting this right shows students you care about inclusion while keeping you out of legal trouble. It’s a win-win.
Mobile-First Design for Gen Z Browsing Habits
Gen Z lives on their phones. They’re not switching to desktop to research your school—they’re making decisions about their future education while scrolling on their smartphones. Your site better work flawlessly on mobile, or they’re gone.
Essential mobile requirements:
- Layouts that adapt automatically to any screen size
- Buttons and forms big enough to tap easily
- Pages that load quickly even on slower connections
- Interfaces that make sense on a 6-inch screen
Stanford University gets this right with lazy loading techniques and optimization for Core Web Vitals. Their mobile experience is just as good as desktop.
Navigation Simplification for Multi-Audience Access
Here’s where educational websites get tricky. You’re serving prospective students, parents, current students, faculty, and alumni all at once. That’s a lot of different needs to balance.
Smart navigation design helps:
- Create clear pathways for each audience type
- Keep your main menu to 5-7 items maximum
- Use audience-based navigation that gets people to their information fast
- Make sure your mobile menu (like hamburger navigation) actually works
The key is consistency. Critical elements should be in the same place whether someone’s on their phone or desktop.
Visual Hierarchy and CTA Placement Best Practices
Your website needs to guide people’s eyes to what matters most. For schools, that usually means application buttons, tour sign-ups, and contact information.
Effective hierarchy means:
- Using size, contrast, and typography to highlight important stuff
- Following natural reading patterns (Z-pattern for homepages, F-pattern for text-heavy pages)
- Creating whitespace around critical content so it stands out
- Placing calls-to-action at moments when people are ready to take action
When you get this right, important elements like application buttons or virtual tour links naturally catch attention and get more clicks.
Content Strategy and CMS Selection for Long-Term Success
You can have the most beautiful website design, but if your content strategy falls apart, you’re building a house on sand. The platform you choose and how you manage content will determine whether your site thrives or becomes a maintenance nightmare.
Choosing a CMS for Website Design Schools and Colleges
The CMS question isn’t one-size-fits-all. Larger universities with complex needs often go with Drupal—it handles flexibility, scalability, and security well, which is why 71% of top 100 universities use it. Smaller colleges with tighter budgets might find WordPress more their speed. It’s user-friendly, and the plugin ecosystem can handle most needs without breaking the bank.
Then you have purpose-built options like Cascade CMS and Modern Campus CMS (formerly OmniUpdate). These come with higher education-specific features like workflow tools and built-in accessibility compliance, but they cost more.
Content Governance Policy for Academic Departments
Here’s where many schools get it wrong: they try to manage all content from one central team. That doesn’t work. The best approach? Give content ownership to the people who actually know their stuff.
Set up clear roles:
- Content Experts who understand the subject matter
- Content Managers who handle day-to-day updates
- Web Teams who provide oversight and maintain standards
Create review cycles that actually get followed. Static content should be checked at least once per semester—August 1, December 1, and April 1 work well for most schools.
SEO Optimization for Program Pages and Admissions
Program pages are gold mines for SEO. They’re what prospective students search for most. Focus your efforts on:
- Content that answers real student questions
- Headings that include strategic keywords naturally
- Geographic terms (most graduate students apply within 50-100 miles)
Don’t overthink it. Good content that serves users will rank well.
Real-Time Updates via Blog, News, and Events Modules
Nothing says “outdated institution” like a news section from three months ago. Set up news feeds, blogs, and event calendars that automatically show fresh content. Update your site at least three times per semester, but weekly is better for keeping both users and search engines engaged.
Conclusion
A website redesign isn’t just about making things look prettier. When you approach it right—with real assessment, clear goals, and smart implementation—you create something that actually works for everyone who visits your site.
The schools that do this well see real results. Higher engagement. More inquiries. Better user satisfaction. But it takes collaboration across your teams, clear metrics, and ongoing attention to what’s working and what isn’t.
Your website is the first thing countless potential students will see. It needs to welcome everyone—regardless of ability—while guiding them naturally toward next steps. When you invest in thoughtful design that prioritizes accessibility, mobile experience, and user needs, you see the payoff in recruitment, retention, and how people perceive your institution.
Building an exceptional educational website takes commitment. But when you focus on the principles we’ve covered—from understanding your current site to choosing the right content strategy—your institution will stand out.
A website that truly works for everyone becomes one of your most valuable tools in fulfilling your educational mission.
