Easy Ways to Elevate your Edlio School Website

 

The new school year is just a few months away! While relaxing in the sun this summer, we encourage you to think about new ideas that could elevate the website. Luckily, our team has a variety of suggestions that will help upgrade the look and feel of your already beautiful Edlio website. Check out these 6 tips!

Let’s start with a basic one. One of the best ways to elevate your website is by having the most up-to-date content. This makes visitors feel like they can trust the information you post. Although “spring cleaning” the website isn’t always the most exciting task, it’s necessary when it comes to the reliability of the site.

We suggest starting here:

• Staff Directory: make sure all new members of the staff have been added in, and all past employees have been removed as to avoid any confusion. As an added bonus, refresh staff headshots to help students and parents get-to-know their teachers better!
• Photos & Videos: if your school has photos or videos on the homepage, we suggest changing these out as well. This will help put students in the right mindset to tackle the new school year.
• Calendar: before the school year actually begins, we suggest updating the calendar. This will help get the community excited about the new school year, upcoming events, and new opportunities.

One of the arguably best ways to jazz up the website is with an introductory video. This is a video that is on the very top of your school or district’s homepage and often starts playing automatically for visitors.

While hiring a professional videographer or even a drone video service is a great way to give the video a more polished look, the main point is to give visitors an idea of what life is like at your school or district. That means, it’s mostly important to convey what life is like at school for the students. This is helpful for prospective parents who are evaluating different schools while also helping the current education community feel more at home.

On a tight budget? Use your smartphone to record a homepage video for the school or district.

Another simple way to upgrade the website is by adding a brief message from the head of school, principal, or superintendent. The message usually contains a welcome paragraph, a small description of goals for the new year, and even a brief history of the school or district’s mission. Many schools or districts already do this!

If your school or district already has a welcome message, we suggest updating the message right before the new school year begins. This gives your community a good idea of what they can expect from the new school year.

There’s nothing like a testimonial. Testimonials offer prospective parents a real look into the experience their child could have. In today’s electronic era, testimonials can make or break a product or company. Think: when was the last time you purchase a one-star product off of Amazon?

We highly suggest adding testimonials to the website if they aren’t already there. Not only will they help your school or district seem more reliable, but they act as a third-party voice which increases credibility as well.

Your students work hard - and your website should reflect that. Aside from accolades and awards, one way to increase student engagement is through a student spotlight. Student spotlights are usually updated once a week or once a month, and features a deeper looking into an exciting project that a specific student is working on.

Student spotlights are an amazing way to get your students more involved in the school while also rewarding them for a job well done. Ultimately, this can boost engagement. Whether you choose to include a video spotlight or news post, we know it’ll shine bright on your school’s site!

Last, and possibly most costly on our list is professional photography. Professional photographers do a great job at capturing a particular emotion or moment in time. This lends to more engaging photos that make visitors with they were at your school or district with you.

Additionally, professional photographers have more extensive cameras that allow for higher quality resolution and more “clear” photos. Not only does this brighten up your school or district’s website, but it gives the entire site a more polished, fresh feel. If your school or district has a photography program, we also encourage you to reach out to your students and see if they’d be interested in taking pictures. If the cameras are of higher quality, this could save the school money while giving your students real-world project to work on!

 

Making small upgrades is an easy way to let your education community know that the school is constantly looking to improve and better themselves. So what’re you waiting for? Start brainstorming!