Designing a website for a school

If you have been asked to design a website for a school then you may find it is a bit different to designing on that is there to increase sales or attract enquiries. A school website is there to help parents get information they need for a child that already attends the school or for parents that are looking to send their child there. It needs to be built in such a way that information they need is really easy to find and it needs to reflect the ethos of the school.

Often on the home page it is nice to have a bit of text about the school and then a statement from the current head teacher. It is also a good idea to have staff photos on a school website as parents like to be able to put names to faces.

Schools often need to have a lot of policies on their website so it is important that these are included and can be found with ease. You may sort the policies in to folders but it is good to have a search facility on the website so that parents can quickly jump to the relevant section they need.

 

 

How to get traffic to your blog

People create blogs for a number of reasons. You may have a stand alone blog site or you may have a blog that is part of your website. Often people have a blog on to their website to allow them an easy way to add fresh, relevant content. The blog can often be used similarly to a news section and may be updated once or twice a week.

Other people have a blog in which the only reason for it is to promote the content within in. These type of blogs may be personal such as someone’s journey through a certain time in their life, or may be to review products that come on to the market and inform customers of relevant updates in the industry. With a stand alone blog you may need to work a little hard to get traffic to it. This can be done in a number of ways, but more and more people are using social media to promote their blog posts.

Facebook and Twitter allow you to post links to articles that are hosted elsewhere. You may ask a question on the social media site and ask people to follow the link to find out what happened or to read more information on a topic.

 

Does your website show your branding?

Branding is not all about logos and colour ways. Much of your branding comes from the ethos of the company and straplines etc. A brand is a way of making a business recognisable and instilling trust in your potential and existing customers.

There are many companies out there that can help you build up your brand but be aware that this is not going to happen over night. Often it takes a long time and a fair amount of investment to be able to build up a brand effectively.

If you have a website then you need to be sure that your website reiterates your branding. IF for example you want to brand yourself as a local family run business, does your website say this in an obvious way? Having it written on your “About us” page may not be enough, but adding some text in to calls to actions etc you may be able to easily get the message across.

Having a branding strategy will give you tasks to focus on and allow you to have a plan of action that you and other staff can follow. You can also then look back over the last few months and start to tick off objectives you have achieved and add new ones.

 

 

What is the difference between marketing and branding?

Branding and marketing often get confused, as people think that it is the same thing when really it isn’t although the two are closely linked.

Branding is basically your whole company, everything from your logo and name to the uniforms your staff wear and messages and promises that you state you will deliver. Once you have a brand established you will need to promote it and this is where the marketing comes in.

You can opt to market your business and brand via a number of platforms online and offline. Social media has grown massively popular in recent years and can grow a brand literally over night with the instance reach that you have when it comes to communication with your followers.

Whatever form or forms of marketing you chose to do, be sure to track the results that you get from it as accurately as possible so you can then evaluate whether it is working for your brand or not.

A website is essential for any company that wants to market themselves. For a lot of people, the internet is their go to when looking for almost anything and if your business does not have a presence on there, then you may be missing out on a huge amount of business.

 

Having too much movement on your website

Over the last decade or so more and more businesses are incorporating movement I to their website. This may be by adding a scrolling ticker, adding a banner rotation to the site or even auto play videos. There can all be great ways to make your site look interactive and more modern, but is there a point where you can have too much movement on your site?

When something moves on your site, it automatically attracts the user’s eye. They will often glance at it to see if it is something of interest to them before they read further. For this reason, sales banners or Flash news articles may want a bit of movement to them but making too many elements on the page move at the same time can become confusing for the viewer.

Recent research shows that a larger percentage of the public find sites with too much movement hard to navigate round and too distracting.

If you are going to add movement to your site then don’t over do it and add it in a subtle way. Build on this gradually and always remember to seek feedback.