Website Pitfalls

Some get it. Some don’t. By not getting it, we mean school websites that fall woefully short of websites in other industries when it comes to converting traffic to inquiries. For a quick pick me up, visit the Wayback Machine and type in your school's website. If think your website is bad now, look how far your school has come from the 1990s.

Of course, that was then and this is now. Your school website may look great, but chances are, there is room for improvement. Let’s look at some areas to improve by examining the four most common pitfalls or traps that schools fall into. Some small changes in these areas could make a big impact when it comes to results.

Muddied Tracking
Many schools fail to track the sources of their website traffic. Is traffic coming from people typing the address in (direct), browsing from one site to yours (referral), using a search engine and clicking on a link (organic) or using a search engine and clicking on an ad (paid)? What about a unique phone number on the site so you know those calls are unique?

By knowing the source of traffic, you can connect the dots to particular marketing efforts.  You can learn if SEO is working or not working, or if branding is paying off. Or maybe it was that email campaign that resulted in a spike in traffic.  Tracking not only reveals inquiry source, but also which effort converts the best.

Don’t make the mistake of the muddied tracking pitfall. By analyzing your website traffic, you can optimize your online and traditional marketing.

Too Many Stakeholders
School websites require the input of many when being built. But when it comes to managing the site on a daily basis, too many stakeholders or a complex decision-making process can results in missed opportunities and decisions by committee.

The key is to keep everyone on the same page—focused on your audience. Put yourself in the shoes of a prospective student and go through your website.  It’s easy to get in the school mindset instead of the student mindset.

This is especially true with the pitfall of too many stakeholders. Make sure your website is built so that navigating between different sections is easy, that content is student-friendly and visitors are taken logically from interest to inquiry.

Lacking Relevance
Many school websites lack the authority and trust that search engines look for and are more closely associated with traditional non-profit colleges and universities. The good news is, thinking like a search engine can help.

Search engines reward relevancy. To become more relevant, optimize content to key terms that students search for, take advantage of meta tags and descriptions, link to quality websites and update content frequently and twist it topically to make the most of Google’s latest algorithm update.
Irrelevance is a pitfall that many schools make online. By making your high traffic pages more relevant, you can turn this negative into a solid positive.

No Clear Conversion Path
From your home page, how hard is it to contact your school. Is the contact form one click away at all times? What about the phone number? Is it easy to spot? Making it hard to contact your school is a pitfall that many schools make. The result is a poor user’s experience or worse, they visit a competing school’s website and enroll.

A quick contact form offers a clear conversion path. The minute a visitor thinks they’re ready to contact your school, the contact form is visible and easy to use.

That’s four common pitfalls or traps that we’ve seen schools fall into with their websites. Fortunately, they are easy to avoid and there are best practices to consult with in order for your website to become a powerful admissions tool.

Contact us to learn more about online strategies for school websites. We've also put together a useful list, Five Surefire Tips for Website Marketing, that can help you identify ways to optimize your website for inquiry generation.