Website design guide for Primary Schools

January 7th, 2024

In the modern day, the best way to maintain Public Relation is the website. It also acts as a face for any organization/brand and the same goes for the schools as well. A perfect way to blend with the students, educators, parents and anyone involved in the educational field is through the website. Educational website is a perfect Public Relation tool for any educational institution to mass interact with students and parents. Since the majority of students look for tutors online, if your company doesn’t have a polished, high-performing online presence, you risk falling behind the competition. Students can easily access information on your website that keeps them engaged with you. It’s a very affordable marketing tool for any educational institutions and especially for primary school students whose parents are worried about the type of school their child will be going to.

Today we will be talking on how to design an educational website.

1. Strengthen the branding and marketing of your institution.

With new trends arising each day, following the trend and marketing with the same strategies has deemed to be very helpful. Remember consistency is the key. It will leave your audience intrigued and interested in your brand. Know your audience and give them the content they want. Customizing and personalizing your content can help you get more closer with the students, parents and educators. Any organization which feels homely, comfortable or relatable, their audience’s attention gets attracted. This can be done by surveying what sorts of messages and information the students and the guardians like to receive in your school, you can estimate that other people checking your website will want the information of the similar type from your educational institution. Using a personalized messages and replying to their queries can help you to connect with your audience even more. Using a similar color theme and design and being consistent around it also shows that your educational website is consistent in performing other tasks.

2. Designing can be done with the help of free website design platforms:

Would you believe me if I tell you that designing a website is right on your fingertips. You are just one search away from having your website designed the way you want. There are tons of website that gives you your desired website designing tools just for free. All you have to do is search along the lines of ‘Free Website design Platforms’ and tons of website giving free designing services will pop up. Go on any site you like to gain the desired result and there you have it, designing a website as simple as just surfing the internet. For example: If you use ‘Canva’ to design your website, then all you got to do is go on the official website of Canva, choose any website template that you like and then customize the site according to your will. You can even personalize some other elements and then finally Publish it in the form of a website. This experience helps your institution to become your designer. Some examples of free web designing platforms are: Wix, Jimdo, SquareSpace, Webflow, Weebly, Elfsight, Dribble etc.

3. Use WordPress as a website design CMS for a long-term investment

WordPress is the most efficient free platform which can be used as CMS for your website design.

WordPress is the best CMS for website designing because of the following reasons:

a. Precise markup for HTML: HTML markup makes it simpler for search engines to comprehend the website’s design and content types. Additionally, some of the newest HTML5 WordPress themes increase its allure for both users and search engine crawlers.

b. Effectiveness of content generation: The best way to expose your website to search engines is now through content. Because of WordPress’ roots with blogging, the platform is now more user-friendly for those who create material for blogs, media, news, and a variety of other purposes.

c. Permalinks that help with SEO: Permanent Links, also known as permalinks, are most effective when they include keywords that are pertinent to your content, and WordPress makes it simple to alter them.

WordPress is also a long-term solution. It can exist in any location of the world, it is very flexible to use, and it is also great for SEO which in-turn can help your institution to get better promotions. According to Web Technology Surveys, WordPress powers 42% of the total internet and is used by 63.3 percent of the total websites. This Content Management System also grows up with our business so, it’s one easy way for your educational website to succeed. Another amazing fact about WordPress is that it is forever evolving. It changes in response to how the world and technology is transitioning which helps best to keep up with the recent updates. So, you can hire a professional web designer to build a WordPress theme for your website. This works for both private and Public Schools.

4. WordPress Designing can be done with the help of free website design platforms:

Word Press CMS styled website for primary schools can be designed free of cost as designing it is just some few clicks away. You are just one search away from having your WordPress website designed the way you want. As it is a free and an opensource website working it the way you want is very easier with WordPress. There are tons of web hosting platforms that gives you your desired WordPress website designing tools just for free. All you have to do is sign up for any Web Hosting Platform and choose a domain name for your website. Now you can easily install a free WordPress software and choose the best theme from WordPress which works the best for your primary school website. After choosing the theme you can create the required webpages for your school website and install some necessary plugins to make your website viable. You can even personalize some other elements and then finally Publish it in the form of a website. This experience helps your institution to become your designer. You can also add widget and feature section to it as well.

5. Making the website in a way which causes it to load fast:

Everybody hates a laggy website which is why educational institutions need to take a very great care of the fact that the website loads in a lightning speed. Especially if we are dealing with younger age, primary school students, patience is not something that we are expecting from their side. So, to increase the loading speed of the website is a must. If the image size is bigger than it should be or the codes are bloated then it causes the site to be laggy and if your visitors are not patient enough, they are not going to wait for the site to open or even if they wait, they might get irritated which in turn can cause damage to the brand image. A good website builder is the most important content for any site to load in a proper way or it can definitely not open without lagging. Even the oversized photos look the same when uploaded but it causes the site to load really slow which is why considering the appropriate size for the picture to upload is very necessary. The site can get slow also because of data discrimination, network congestion, bandwidth throttling or even content filtration. If you notice that your website has been slowing down for a while then you can run a traceroute between the website and the computer to test out the connection. This can be reduced also by enabling OPCache and optimizing the CSS. Using Content Delivery Network also greatly helps in increasing the speed of the website.

6. Keep it mobile-friendly

For obvious reasons, not everyone is going to be opening your website in their PC or the laptop which is why you need to make sure that your website is suitable for mobile phones as well. Especially primary school students would love to access a website through mobile phone as it is easier and more accessible. People spend too much time on their phone and it is very much accessible to work on which is why, the go to option to search most of the things is the mobile phone. Another important reason for your website to be mobile-friendly is that, nowadays google only grants ranking to your website through the visits made by the mobile phone due to which SEO ranking is impacted and making your website mobile-friendly should be your one of the biggest concerns. Mobile responsive designs are the must for the user traffic to inflow. Your website builder needs to keep in mind that the website is designed in the way in which it works best for both the desktop and the phone version. A proper suggestion to do this would be to blend the sophisticated software with the visual confirmation which makes your website design look good in both of the versions.

7. Focus on Headlines:

Most of the people these days have the memory and the concentration span of the Goldfish due to which they will not be patient enough to read all the contents line by line and words to words. And to think about the Primary students’ parents who have already a lot to do on their hand, scheming is the best option for them. This is why the website designer needs to be very intact about the content creation for any form of websites. You should focus more on the headlines, highlight the important points and present data in the form of bullets which will easily drag the attention of your targeted audience. We all get subconsciously intimidated by long blocks of text and find ourselves dragged to read more of the short contents which gives enough information in the short span of time. Time is Money for everyone due to which no one heeds to spend very long time on your website. They just need to get the desired result or the answer they want and move on which is why focusing more on important insights and sidelining the others is a very important task for any website designer to attend to. General surfing, scrolling and just scheming and scanning across the webs has caused people to just look through the bullet points and not read in detail. One needs to summarize important points in short form so as to keep the concentration of your audience intact.

8. Selecting the right image is a must

Let’s all come to the term with the fact that images attract us more than texts do which is why selecting right image according to the context is a very important thing to do. Including the video content on the internet, there is 80 percent of total image content across the world wide web. Images speaks thousand words without speaking, which is why it also acts as the face for your Primary school educational website. This is the reason for which your organization needs to upload qualitative pictures captured from good cameras and hire professional journalist if you have to. Using a stock photo does not make your website standardized, do not get fooled of it. A good image quality sets a good brand impression which is why using it in a better quality is very important. Using photos of whole primary class students wearing school uniform, participating in different educational and extra-curricular activities, interacting with professionals, field visits etc can intrigue your students, parents, educators and your audience to know more about your educational website. It is very important to get consent from the parents for the photos of the minors which are published in the website otherwise it might raise difficult issues for your academic institution and your students but if that is done then these forms of pictures can help your website to get a good look. This is because your audience will feel like they are getting more intricate and intimate details about the working of your institution and feel involved in your internal activities. This also helps in increasing brand value and make your organization more recognizable among the people.

9. Making it search friendly is a must

To be in the top rankings of the google, Google considers your website from lots of different factors but ensuring its fundamentals helps you to go a long way. This will help you to reach in the search result of the parents and students who are trying to find your educational institution or any other analogical forms. Making your website search friendly can be definitely done by creating user interactive platforms and user-friendly interface. Your website should be easy to visit and surf through so that the visitors do not get confused about it and clear their doubts or confusions if they have any. Using SEO keywords, metatags and frequently used terms can help you to get higher rankings in Search engines and make your website Search engine friendly. Simple and sophisticated design goes a long way. Sometimes little is more so as to make your website timeless you should use clear, concise and sophisticated designs. Filling up the meta descriptions and infusing key words in your website helps you reach educators in an easier manner. While using language too, keep it simple and user-friendly. I know it feels like using heavy words makes us sounds cool but no it just makes us pretentious. To reach a vast number of audiences using daily life language with simple to read and understandable words make your website more user friendly. Even students from primary levels can easily access their school website, if the content used there is designed in a way which is suitable for people of all age groups.

10. Tracking analytics is a must:

Even in schools, exams are taken in order to track the progress of the students, similarly to improve the working capacity for your website using tracking analytics is a must. You can only improve if you have a tracker. Even if you use Google Analytics, you need a help from the professional to set up proper filters so as to get the right results. This helps you to stop falling into any form of false impressions. These metrics helps you to analyze how well your website in performing and can help you survey the areas that needs improvement.

11. Setting a better site structure:

Setting a right site structure is the must for designing a website. A proper strategy and planning are required to design a website well. A proper plan on what are the pages required for a website needs to be planned firmly. The website needs to have homepage involving the major details about your educational website. The subpages need to have ‘About’ menu which has the detail about your primary school, its faculties, values of the organization, motives etc. Similarly, your website needs to have a separate section for ‘Admission’ where all the required details for admission and the prospectus is embedded. Another section can be of all the courses that your institution is providing. Last but one of the most important menus is the Contact through which Students, Guardians and educators are able to contact the concerned department of your school.

Did you know that BugCrew Software can help you design just the right website mentioned above?

A website and content creation firm called BugCrew offers year-round technical support on problems, improvements, and ongoing feature development requests to schools and educators around the globe.

We have built websites for companies all across the world for more than 13 years. We genuinely care about the objectives, vision, and missions of their clients’ businesses. Our focus is on online design, development, and upkeep supplying educators with a special means of starting their digital journey.

We can assist educators in showcasing their teaching experience, specialization, and credentials online through website design and development. The websites created by BugCrew incorporate functions to improve students’ learning experiences, such as online scheduling, payment processing, and interactive learning aids. Additionally, we can assist tutors and educators who might lack the technical know-how to manage their websites and other digital tools by providing technical support. We also provide direction and help with website upkeep, upgrades, and potential troubleshooting.

Similarly, we also provide copywriting, content production, and search engine optimization (SEO) services to assist tutors and educators in creating interesting and educational content that draws in students and improves their online presence. Our team of skilled professionals has a demonstrated track record of boosting engagement, gaining followers, and producing quantifiable outcomes for any organization.

Get in touch!