School marketing has evolved immensely over the past decade. Families scroll through social media feeds, rely on recommendations from friends, online reviews/forums, and increasingly turn to AI-driven search tools to narrow their options. With all that change, it’s easy to question whether a school website still plays the central role it once did.
But the reality is that a school website remains one of the most influential digital assets a school has — it’s where scattered impressions become informed decisions. Social posts, AI summaries, and word-of-mouth might spark interest, but a website is where families go to confirm details, compare options, and decide whether your school feels like the right fit.
In this post, we’ll explore why school websites continue to influence enrolment decisions even as technology shifts. With the help of our website assessment tool, you’ll be able to step back, assess what’s working and identify where focused improvements can make the biggest impact.
A website shapes how families discover and choose schools
For many families, the enrolment journey begins online, often in small moments: a quick search after hearing about a school at soccer practice, a glance at a homepage from a phone during the morning commute, or a late-night comparison session with multiple school websites open side by side.
Before a family reaches out, books a tour, or downloads admissions information, they’re already forming impressions based on what they see and what they can’t find — making these early visits matter more than most schools realise. Visual design, clarity of information, and ease of navigation all contribute to whether a school feels trustworthy, modern, and welcoming. Small frustrations, like slow loading pages or broken forms, can quietly push families away before they ever engage. And parents may be left wondering what that suggests about the school’s overall attention to detail.
Just as importantly, a website functions as a school’s most authoritative source of information. While social media can be engaging, it’s fragmented by nature. Posts get buried, messages evolve, and comments can steer conversations in unexpected directions.
Your website is where families expect to find the definitive version of your school’s story: fees, curriculum, values, enrolment steps, and the details that give them the confidence to move forward at any phase of their enrolment journey. It needs to work equally well for a casual visitor and a highly motivated one — that’s a big part of why websites remain essential.
The hidden advantage: ownership
In a digital world dominated by platforms and algorithms, the school website is one place where your team controls the full experience.
It’s where you decide how your brand looks and sounds, what message leads the story, how accessible the experience is, and how easily people can move from curiosity to action. Social media platforms can change rules overnight, and even high-performing posts can disappear into the feed within days. On the other hand, a website is designed to be navigated intentionally. It’s built for clarity, confidence, and progression.
And expectations are only rising. Families now evaluate schools much earlier than they used to, and they often do it through direct comparisons. A site that is modern, mobile-first and visually strong doesn’t just look good, it communicates readiness and professionalism. It signals that the school pays attention to details and cares about how it presents itself — helping you stand out among peer schools.
Assessing the current state of your website
If a website plays such a central role in a family’s enrolment journey, how can you be sure where yours stands today?
Gathering sentiment about your current site gives you dedicated time to evaluate what’s working, what’s getting in the way, and what matters most to improve. It’s not about reaching perfection, it’s about gaining clarity and seeing the website through a user’s eyes instead of through internal assumptions.
To help you dive into the overall health and performance of your school’s website, we’ve put together an easy assessment tool to identify areas of opportunity. This tool will provide you with a high-level sentiment of where your website stands today, and ideas for taking the next step.
The website assessment is designed to evaluate your site based on five practical categories. Together, they provide a high-level view of your website health without requiring deep technical expertise:
- Overall impressions: How the site feels and how it compares visually and functionally to peer schools
- Strategic alignment: Whether the website supports enrolment growth, community engagement, or other school goals
- Brand alignment: How well the site reflects the school’s identity and on-campus experience
- User experience: How easily families can find information and navigate key content
- Website Management: Content management system (CMS) usability, page performance, and technical or support barriers
This framework moves the conversation from vague dissatisfaction (“our website feels outdated”) to actionable priorities (“our navigation is too complex, and our most visited pages aren’t optimised for mobile”). While the assessment can be completed alone, for the greatest impact we recommend asking your department staff and/or leadership team to also complete it. Then, come together and compare the results. This method tends to uncover the most useful insights because it exposes where different stakeholders see different problems.
Additional tools to strengthen your presence
Assessing website performance becomes even more valuable when combined with tools that show what real users do, not what teams assume they do. These tools aren’t required, but they can add valuable insight when you’re ready to dive deeper:
- Google Analytics to understand top pages, traffic sources, drop-off points, and conversion behavior
- Heatmap and session recording tools (such as Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity) to see where users click, scroll, hesitate, and get stuck — revealing usability issues that analytics alone can’t explain
- Performance and accessibility auditing (such as Google Lighthouse) to pinpoint what slows pages down and what fails modern web standards
- SEO crawling tools (like Screaming Frog) to identify broken links, metadata issues, and technical fixes that can improve discoverability
These tools work best together: analytics can show you where a problem is happening, while session recordings and audits can help explain why.
AI and your school website
AI tools are increasingly becoming another layer between families and your content. When families ask AI questions — such as “Tell me about the best schools in my area that have a strong STEM program, as well as a focus on wellbeing?” — tools like ChatGPT often pull from publicly available website content. That means your site’s headings, program descriptions, enrolment steps, news articles, and even text embedded in certain media can shape what AI summarises about your school.
If information on your website is outdated, scattered across multiple pages, or buried behind confusing navigation, the story that AI tells may be incomplete or inaccurate. A strong website foundation isn’t just good for humans — it’s increasingly important for how your school is represented in AI-powered discovery.
Five improvements you can make today
While not every school has time for a complete redesign, almost every school can make meaningful improvements quickly — especially when those improvements focus on high-impact areas.
- Start with your most visited pages: Look at which pages get the most traffic and make sure they are current, functional, mobile-friendly, and aligned with your marketing goals.
- Simplify navigation by removing redundancy: Many school websites accumulate pages over time, creating crowded menus and duplicated content. Consolidating pages and reducing top-level navigation choices makes it easier for families to find what they need.
- Make sure your calls-to-action (CTAs) match reality: If your school isn’t actively taking applications, language like “Apply now” may create confusion. Updating CTAs to reflect your actual enrolment flow improves clarity and trust.
- Add testimonials where decisions are being made: Enrolment-focused pages benefit from proof and reassurance. Student stories, short quotes, or videos can strengthen confidence at exactly the moment families are weighing options.
- Review PDFs for readability and accessibility: Schools often rely on PDFs for key information like fees or policies but scanned or image-based PDFs create major usability and accessibility barriers and may not be easily interpreted by AI systems or assistive technologies.
Even as technology changes, the role of a school website stays consistent: it’s the place where your message becomes clear, where trust is built, and where action happens.
The most effective school websites aren’t necessarily the flashiest. They’re the ones that are easy to navigate, aligned with strategic goals, built around what families actually need, and maintained in a way that keeps information accurate and accessible.
In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, a strong website doesn’t need to do everything — it just needs to do the right things well. By completing the website assessment, you’re taking the first step to ensure you have a reliable, adaptable hub that supports your school’s goals today — and positions them well for whatever comes next.
