When was the last time you took a look at your school website, or thought about your website’s purpose? Websites are a great tool that can really benefit any school or organization if they are done correctly. The point of a website is to have a centralized location where viewers can find relevant and important information. Below, I’ve listed 5 tips and tricks to help you improve your website right now.
1.Organize your Menu
One of the most important features of a website is its menu. A good menu should be organized, easy to navigate, and functional. An organized menu is one that only has “need to know” information. Information that is the most important to the site. Extra tabs and menus and pop-outs make a website seem messy and hard to follow. An easy to navigate menu includes appropriate tab titles, and smooth transitions in drop-down menus. Functionality is most important. Your menu should be at the top center of your home page, and stay there as you navigate from page to page. It should also be no longer than 4-6 main tabs, any more than that creates clutter, confusion, miscommunication.
2. Refocus your Homepage
Next to the menu, your homepage is another important feature to your website. A home page can do a lot for a school. It can tell a schools story, or express your mission and vision statements right off the bat. Another great feature of a home page is updated school colors and logos. Minor details like this really update a schools look, and keep the message on brand. Other tips include updating old photos, taking down old announcements or publications in general. Having old content be your main source of information can create a lot of confusion for users on your site. If updating your site isn’t something you want to maintain, try changing the format to something you know will remain consistent.
3. Clean up old pages
Just like old content can clutter up a home page, it can also really take toll on your web pages as well. Maybe your homepage is the only thing you have time to keep updated, but you don’t have time to update the entire site. Parents and students love to use a school website that has updated athletic and activities photos and rosters. Other great things to keep updated are school schedules and annou
4. Social Media is a must
A great way to keep your website updated is through social media on your website. It’s a great way to keep your announcements updated. On most websites, it’s really easy to have your Facebook or Twitter feed right on your home page. You don’t need to set it as an external link. There are lots of ways you can incorporate social media into a website. For students, parents, and the community, social media is a great tool to keep everyone in the loop.
5. Less is always more
The overall theme of a great website, and these top four tips is that less is always more. A website can say a lot, without having tons of menus, links, and texts all over the website. The cleaner, organized, and streamlined your website can be, the easier it will be to update, and the easier it will be to use. Which means less maintenance and questions from others on your end.
If any of these tips sound like something you think your website could use, we’d love to talk to you more about it. You can contact our website coordinator, Alyssa, at alyssa@striv.tv.
