Well, now’s a good time to consider updating your website specifically to attract more visitors and more inquiries by extension.
In this post, we’re going to explain why updating your website is a great marketing move that may set you up for success in ways you had not quite considered before. That’s right. Your school website is your biggest marketing tool, and we will show you how well it can work for you.
Online Marketing by Muneeb Farman, 2016 for Pixabay.
Your School Website is Your Best Marketing Tool.
In the beginning, it was common for all institutions to have websites as a sort of address on the landscape that is the internet. Over time, however, the internet became one of the fastest ways to connect people across the world as they spent time online on various platforms.
Fast forward to today, and because of how easy it is to reach people online, your school website is not just your little address on the internet, but one of the best marketing tools for your school. Here are a few reasons why.
Your School Website Can Be Optimized to Rank Higher in Search Engines.
Being able to quickly find your school website online drives more traffic to your pages, leading to more engagement as a result. It all comes down to how well you make it easy for any search engine to locate it. It’s rare for users to go past the first or second page of a search, so making sure your school website appears among the first search results means more people seeing and visiting your website. A few things you could do on your website to rank higher in search engines include the optimization of keywords and elements like pictures and videos, improving page loading times, and making your site mobile-friendly.
Attractive School Website Designs Draw in More Traffic.
Did you know that over 90% of the first impressions people have of your website are based on its design? A Stanford University study on this is just one of many that demonstrate the impact of great and responsive design on the traffic that a website receives. Even as your “space” on the internet, you can incorporate attractive designs that not only showcase your school spirit but also make it easy for users to browse your pages. From a marketing perspective, this is the best outcome you can hope for many eyes on your website, and many users that stay to continue browsing.
Search Engines Rank Good Website Copy Higher.
Is the information on your school website helpful? Do people get what they need from engaging with your content? Is it captivating, relatable, or interesting? If your answer to this is yes, then search engines are more likely to rank your school website high on related search results. The better the quality of the content written for the pages of your website, the more people are likely to find it.
Looking at it in these three ways, improving your school website can be an investment that turns out to be far more profitable than traditional advertising. Don’t believe it? Here’s a practical example explaining how.
School website upgrade vs traditional ad spending, 2024 by Gradelink.
Updating Your Website vs Traditional Ad Spending: A Practical Example.
Consider two schools, each with heads of marketing who receive a similar amount in funds to spend on increasing the number of inquiries their respective school websites receive through advertising. Let’s break down what each of them does, and see the results they get. We’ll call them School A and School B.
- Initial number of website visits per month for each school: 1000
- Initial number of inquiries per month for each school: 100
- Marketing budget for each website: $5000
The head of marketing at School A chooses to spend their budget on making significant improvements to their website. Some of the things they pay for include:
- Improving site responsiveness and page loading speeds.
- Redesigning the website to be more visually appealing and mobile-friendly.
- Adding high-quality written content and updating existing content to be more useful and engaging.
- Optimizing the website for search engine optimization with a focus on using the most competitive keywords, alternative texts, and optimizing elements such as images and videos.
The head of marketing in School B chooses to spend their budget on running advertisements. This includes:
- Planning ad campaigns.
- Paying for ad runtime on various platforms online.
The End of School Year Result.
School A
- Number of website visits per month: 1000
- Number of inquiries after the budget spent on marketing: 200
School B
- Number of website visits per month: 2000
- Number of inquiries after the budget spent on marketing: 200
It may sound like both marketing methods are tied for effectiveness, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. In the next year, School B still required $5000 to spend on running ads to maintain the increased number of website visitors.
School A, on the other hand, didn’t need the money, since its improved website continued generating more inquiries on its own.
In the long run, spending your marketing budget on improving our school website ends up saving you more money down the line. Running ads will draw more traffic, but only for the time that the ads are running. To maintain that kind of traffic, you will need to maintain your spending on advertisements.
Conclusion
From a marketing standpoint, updating your school website to maximize its potential is a great investment. When optimized well, it is no longer just your school’s little corner on the internet, but the most effective marketing tool in your school’s arsenal.
Reach out to us and Gradelink and we’ll help you update your school website to effectively make use of its marketing potential.