How we navigate the web is evolving rapidly. So, assuring your website is mobile-friendly, optimized for search, ADA compliant and designed for the user experience (UX) will help drive traffic and keep customers coming back.

1. Is the design current?

Review the design of your website every couple of years. Since technology and web standards continually evolve, its easy to look dated without regular maintenance. For best performance, follow the latest user experience trends and SEO practices. Awwwards, the website design and developer competition, has a vast inventory of award-winning trends to get you thinking.

2. Is it easy to navigate as a visitor?

Visit your website and put yourself in the mind of a prospect and client. Jot down the top five things you want a visitor to do on your site. Now, try navigating through your list. Does your website design lead your prospect to learn about your business? What action do you want them to take?  Do you have a form request or contact us? Was it easy?  Another great way to consider the user behavior is by reviewing your Google Analytics to see where users are navigating most often — from both mobile and desktop devices — and assure those pages are optimized (easy to use) on all devices.

3. Is it fully mobile-responsive?

Conduct your website inspection from a smartphone. Are users able to click and call you, easily submit a form and navigate the menu options? Does the mobile site provide key messages/services clearly and quickly?
[TIP: Use a dash for phone numbers 763-559-6058. ADA accessibility standards don’t recognize parentheses (763) 559-6058 or periods 763.559.6058 in phone numbers.]

4. Is there fresh content?

Refresh your content bi-weekly for better search optimization. When search engines crawl your site and find no new content, you lose brand authority. So, regular updates help your search position (without incurring the cost of website development) and provide your audience with new information. And keep in mind video content counts, but you will want to close-caption and transcribe it so viewers can watch or read.

5. Is it fast enough?

Test your site speed and work with your web host to resolve any issues.

Is it time to call us?

If your website fails to meet your expectations, then it may be time for a new website. Be sure to partner with a website design expert, like CEL, to ensure your website gets the full-service package.

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CEL’s own Chelsea Janke spoke at FinalsiteU 2019 in Chicago and brought home five great school marketing tips for you, in addition to sharing 45 tips on content migration.

Clients Know Chelsea’s Website Expertise

CEL Marketing | PR | Design had a ton of fun at FinalsiteU in Chicago in June. The two-day school marketing and website conference was exceptional as usual. Three clients joined us in learning and exchanging ideas with hundreds of other public, private and international school marketing professionals at the conference this year: White Bear Lake Area Schools, District 196 and Hopkins Public Schools.

CEL Director of Client and School Services, Chelsea Janke, was among a carefully curated line up of FinalsiteU presenters. Her fast-paced, information-packed sessions packed rooms and sparked great conversations around her favorite topics: Everything You Need to Know About Content Migration (45 Takeaways in 45 Minutes) and Top 5 Overlooked Pages on Your Website & Why They Matter.

We love sharing what we learn at conferences, so here’s a quick recap of our top 5 digital marketing takeaways that schools can use to gain better visibility whether focused on enrollment, retention or current family communications.

#1: Flexibility

When selecting a website vendor, make sure your contract gives you the flexibility to continually update your site, add major landing pages and grow as your needs change. During Jon Moser’s FinalsiteU keynote, The State of School Marketing, he shared great insight:  In 2000, the average length of a human’s attention span was 12 seconds, today it is 8 seconds. The attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds. Yes, we have a shorter attention span than a goldfish! Let’s connect that to marketing. We have modern expectations for communication when it comes to our families. We want instant gratification and expect personalized content. “Our millennial parents are looking for something ‘different’ than past generations were.”

Our key takeaway:
Don’t let the launch of your site be the best day of its life!!

Watch the rest of Jon Moser’s keynote on the State of School Marketing.

#2: Be True. Be Authentic. Be Real.

We are on the leading edge of the millennial-parent generation. They are, in fact, digital natives and the best researchers around. If something is out there, they will find it. So schools need to be completely transparent and authentic. Amplify student voices to tell your story and let them share their own truths; they will be your best assets to drive enrollment and even retention. With one of our school clients, we created the #PrincetonTigerPledge to drive engagement and community awareness. We asked students some hard questions to elicit their best advice in creating a positive and inclusive environment. Students are powerful change agents, so you have to let those authentic voices be heard!

#3: Use Data to Drive Decisions

Do you have data to back your opinions when making website navigation decisions? Informal user surveys, page views, bounce rates, and time on page are all valuable data points to drive informed decision-making and reach your short and long-term goals in a very strategic way. What lands on the highly-coveted home page is usually the most debated question during planning. But, the more important question should be – what is your goal? If your district focuses on enrollment marketing, then that should drive your home page content (images, buttons, statistics and stories). If increasing awareness of the music program is a more important goal, music should win the spot.

What about serving your current customers (yes, your constituents are your customers and should be thought of as such)? You still need to create a landing page or section for each of your core user groups, but that doesn’t always mean the home page. Giving students or families (formerly called parents – read this post for the why) their own space, instead of the home page, can provide better clarity on the messaging and communication without cluttering the home page.

#4: Inbound Marketing is Right for Schools

Businesses have been doing inbound marketing for years, but schools have to get on board. No matter what your goals are, parents are digitally savvy and school choice is everywhere. “We need to make sure we are marketing the right content, at the right time,” shared FinalsiteU CEO Jon Moser.

Face it! Content is king, queen and rules! Schools should be blogging and regularly updating content to improve their rank in the search engines. Even if you are not focused on school marketing, think about search rankings to improve communication with your current families. After all, what’s the first thing you do when you want to know something? GOOGLE!

Families do the same. With Siri, Alexa, Google and other voice activation technology, search is driven by questions. “Siri, how can I help my child be a more confident reader?” or “Alexa, what’s on the elementary lunch menu next week?” If you are not thinking about search rankings in your communications strategy, it is a missed opportunity.

Writer’s block? Don’t stress about what to write. We encourage our clients to use a cool and free source called AnswerThePublic.com. Pick a topic and let AnswerThePublic.com provide the most popular questions to answer in your blog—that will help you rank in search.

#5: Repurpose. Repurpose. Repurpose.

You may be sick of hearing your key messages, seeing your photos and reading your content, but your families are not!

In our branding kickoff meetings, we remind clients that we all are inundated with 5,000 messages a day. So, how are you going to stand out? The answer is consistency. The reason that you recognize logos like Nike, Coca Cola and Harry Potter is that they consistently stick to their brand, logo and elements. You see them repeatedly and start to recognize them. Do the same with your district or school brand. Differentiate yourself with the emotion in photos, the elements in a video and the authentic messages your students provide.

Keep the integrity of your brand consistent and repurpose the content. Take a single blog post and turn it into social media posts, video content, advertising elements and more. Reuse the content by posting at different times across different channels. Spread it out over time, and then come back to it. We guarantee a lot of your “outdated” content can be spruced up and revived again to repurpose.

And make it visual. With 90% of information transmitted to the human brain being visual (source – HubSpot, 3M Corporation and Zabisco), visuals are the key to making your message stick.

Last but Not Least: A Shout-out Congratulations to Spring Lake Park Schools for their Double Diamond Award Winning Parents Portal from FinalsiteU!

Here are 4 tips that will help put you at the top of the search engines:

Mobile is starting to takeover, so make sure you’re optimized for it

Every website needs to be optimized for mobile or “responsive design,” which will allow people to interact with your business on the go. You may consider developing apps, but first design a website that is responsive and user-friendly.

Image heavy sites will gain more traction

With image-focused social media sites becoming more popular, the trend is spilling over into website design. Consider imagery instead of text when getting your message across on your site.

Typography takeover

With Google Web Fonts endless supply of free “web-safe” fonts, designers are experimenting with various fonts to make your website come alive. But be warned, make sure the design doesn’t go rouge and drastically move away from your brand guidelines.

Full background images and video

2013 brought a new trend to the scene, full background images on websites. As an artistic approach, the background video is making its way into mainstream for website design. Often they are very muted videos that are dark in contrast and not so distracting that they will give you a headache being on the site.

Make sure your website stays current and relevant, watch your website analytics, and monitor the traffic so you know what is attracting attention. Once you know, you can do more of it, while making sure to update it frequently.

We are pleased to share five of them with you, along with his reaction and recommendations.

Flat website design

Or in other words, simplistic, or clean. The flashy 3-D “over-designed” trend has gone away, making room for a simple “user-friendly” experience.

Typography takeover

With Google Web Fonts‘ endless supply of free “web-safe” fonts, designers are experimenting with various ones to make your website come alive. But be warned–make sure the design doesn’t go rouge and drastically move away from your brand guidelines.

Full background images and video

2013 brought a new trend to the scene–full background images on websites. As an artistic approach, the background video is making its way into mainstream for website design. Often they are muted videos that are dark in contrast and not so distracting that they will give you a headache when looking at the site.

One-page sites with lots of scrolling

With updated mouse technology making it easier to scroll, web designers have taken notice. Why click through multiple landing pages when you can scroll and find everything you need on one page. You will need a “flat design” to capitalize on this approach.

Video killed the copywriter

With YouTube being the second highest search engine, and the ever-increasing obsession with videos, the world is now looking to get their information via a “play” button. Now, producing, shooting, and editing video can put a little hole in your marketing budget, but it can be a good investment if you also utilize it in other aspects of your marketing, including social media.

Explore the web trends to see how you can give your site a boost. Strive to keep your website updated to attract new clients, while continuing to speak to your target market in a language that they can understand.

From our humble beginnings in a home office with a Mac Plus II computer and no Internet access to a staff of six, laptops, iPads and wireless, we’ve enjoyed the journey. We continue to be proud to help our clients bring their message to the marketplace in a Creative, Effective and Lasting way.

Author Sherokee Isle was our first client in 1988 and together, we increased awareness of the impact of pregnancy and infant loss on mothers, fathers and families. Sherokee has now written 17 books and continues to support families on a national level.

We have branded and rebranded businesses, helped non-profits raise millions, designed websites and marketing materials, secured local and national media coverage and produced a national television special called Faded Photographs – The Faces of Alzheimer’s.

Our passion for making a difference fueled our success with taking Alzheimer’s disease out of the closet and helping the public and the media realize that it strikes young and old and has a devastating impact on families.

We have also helped educate and influence military leaders and politicians to protect service men and women from sexual assault in the military.

As social media opened the door to new marketing opportunities, we greeted it by launching The Social Media Incubator (SMI). SMI gives small to midsize businesses affordable access to communities of prospective buyers and helps them manage the execution of their social media in a way that is relevant, measurable and effective.

CEL continues to help businesses and organizations get their message to markets across the country with strategic public relations, marketing, branding, graphic and web design, media relations and social media.

We look towards the next 25 years with gratitude to each one of you for the role you have played in bringing us to this milestone and we look forward to continuing to serve and celebrate success together!