We’ve summarised our essential school website content tips for your school website based on our work with schools:

1. Comply with the statutory school website content requirements
2. Ensure your website is smartphone-friendly and optimised for visitors using their smartphones
3. Use google analytics to analyse what your website visitors are looking for – make it easy for them to find this information
4. Purge old content and clutter
5. Appoint a website champion to oversee and coordinate the school website
6. Keep your school website up to date to keep current parents engaged
7. Keep the home page focused, neat and tidy

 

1. Comply with the Statutory School Website Content Requirements

Since 2015 there has been a statutory duty on schools to publish certain content on their school websites. So even if you do nothing else, our number one tip would be to double check that you meet these requirements. We know from reading Ofsted reports and guidance to Ofsted Inspectors that Ofsted will be checking compliance during inspection. They will also check the school website as part of their risk assessment when deciding on whether to inspect a school.

You can get a copy of our content checklist from our website.

2. Ensure your website is smartphone-friendly and optimised for visitors using their smartphones

We know from our usage statistics that over half of your school website visitors will be using a smartphone to view the school website. It’s very easy to imagine a parent checking the diary dates whilst waiting to collect their kids. So it’s best to ensure that these parents have a smooth experience with a special mobile menu and content which resizes to display much larger on their phone. This will also have the happy side effect of encouraging your parents to use your school website more and keep up to date.

3. Use google analytics to analyse what your website visitors are looking for – make it easy for them to find this information

Google Analytics is extremely useful in providing statistics about how your school website visitors use your website. You can view how many visitors you’ve had and the which are the most popular pages for example. Use this information to make your post popular pages easy to find. And if you find certain pages are less popular then you’d like, consider making them easier to find. Don’t hide important pages deep within the menu structure or use jargon or cryptic menu names.

4. Purge old content and clutter

It’s a fact that school websites tend to grow and, just like your garden, if left unchecked can grow into a jungle. Have an occasional tidy up and prune unnecessary content from your website. Make it easier for visitors to see the wood from the trees.

5. Appoint a website champion to oversee and coordinate the school website

It’s good if staff are enthusiastic about your website. The good thing about our website Content Management System is that it’s so easy to use everyone can add content! But allow anarchy and your website can soon turn into an uncoordinated mess.  Having someone acting as a coordinator and champion is a good idea. It’s a particularly good idea to at least have a gatekeeper for the school website home page.

6. Keep your school website up to date to keep current parents engaged

There’s nothing more disheartening for an enthusiastic parent than to view the school website and find that it is out of date. Keep your content fresh with newsletters, news stories, term dates and photo galleries of recent events.

7. Keep the home page focused, neat and tidy

Your school website home page is often the page everyone will see even if they don’t view anything else. Pay particular attention to this page. Try not to fall into the trap of continually adding new things to the home page, cluttering it up.

 

If you’d like any to discuss any aspect of school website content or how we can help your school, please just get in touch and we’ll be happy to chat.