| Website is an effective way to reach out to audience | | | | doubt are visually appealing but a good mix of flash |
| looking for information online. It allows one to broadcast | | | | and html would give it a balance by it being SEO |
| information to the public and they have the ability to | | | | friendly and visually appealing as well. |
| access it 24/7 from anywhere in the world. Websites | | | | Tip 4: Design and Develop a Effective Home Page |
| also serve as channel of communication between the | | | | Make sure home page of your site allows user to get |
| world and the entity. | | | | a glace of the most important things about your school |
| Schools need a website to reach out to current | | | | and allows them to choose a navigation path to dig |
| parents, potential parents, potential and current staff, | | | | deeper. |
| media and host of other people. A good website | | | | Tip 5: Use Content Management Systems (CMS) to |
| (visually and functionally) can make a lasting impression | | | | Manage Your Site Content |
| and at the same time a bad one can lead to | | | | School sites have lot of content update requirements |
| frustrations. | | | | and a static html site is not ideally suited for this |
| Here are 10 tips to make sure your school website | | | | requirement. It is best to have a CMS system driven |
| provides a good experience for your audience: | | | | website which allows easy update of the website |
| Tip 1: Host Your School Website With a Reliable | | | | content. This can make a difference world of |
| Hosting Company | | | | difference as lot of school sites out there have |
| Always ensure your site is hosted with a reliable | | | | outdated information on them. There are plenty of |
| hosting company and is up 24/7. Do some research | | | | quality free cms systems out there: drupal, joomla, |
| on the hosting service provider before selecting them. | | | | wordpress etc. |
| You should monitor your site for uptime using one of | | | | Tip 6: Ensure Ease of Access to Contact Information |
| the several free tools available on the internet. Some | | | | Make sure your contact details, phone, address, |
| of them are: siteuptime.com and Tip 2: Ensure the | | | | address map, email etc is well placed on the site for |
| Contact Form and Emails Work | | | | users to contact you conveniently. |
| I have seen this problem with lot of Indian schools and | | | | Tip 7: Avoid Flash Intro Pages |
| it in a way defects the purpose of two way | | | | Avoid intro flash splash pages as they do no good but |
| communication between the visitor and the school, yes | | | | harm you a lot. Splash pages mostly hide all the inner |
| I am talking about the email listing on the site not | | | | pages of the site from the search engines, resulting in |
| working or the contact form on the site not working. | | | | lower visibility of your website. |
| Imagine you are looking at the school website at mid | | | | Tip 8: Use Multi Level Drop Down Menu to Organize |
| night (for whatever reason) and decide to shoot of a | | | | and Show Pages |
| query to the school, only to get a bounce mail stating | | | | If you have lot of pages on your school website, it |
| “email could not be delivered as the user has | | | | might be worth while to create pull down / drop down |
| exceeded his quote limits” or “email could not be | | | | menus to expose inner pages. This company offers |
| delivered as the email id does not exist”. Believe me | | | | very stable drop down menu creator which is easy to |
| this is very common as schools have no one to | | | | configure: Tip 9: Use Quality Graphics and Brand Site |
| manage the emails they get. | | | | Effectively |
| Please make sure your school does not do this | | | | Ensure strong brand presence and quality graphics on |
| mistake and your emails and contact forms work. | | | | your site to leave a lasting impression. It may cost you |
| Test them periodically! | | | | a little but always seek professional help with website |
| Tip 3: Ensure School Website is Not All Looks But is | | | | creation. |
| Search Engine Friendly As Well | | | | Tip 10: Incorporate Social Media Features on the |
| Is your school site completely flash based? There is a | | | | School Website |
| big problem with that. Search engines, which are the | | | | Make the site social media friendly by incorporating |
| drivers of web traffic do not know how to read flash. | | | | flickr (for photo gallery), social bookmarking tools and a |
| Thus your site is a black box for them and most likely | | | | blog on your site. |
| won’t show up in their search results. Flash sites no | | | | |