Before most parents visit your campus, they visit your website. They usually do it on a phone, often late in the evening, and with a short list of questions: What are the fees? Is admission open? How far is the school from home? What is the school actually like? If the website answers those questions quickly, you get an enquiry. If it doesn’t, they move on to the next school in their search results.
Here is the checklist we use when we review a school website.
1. Admissions information in one obvious place
Admissions is the reason most new visitors arrive, so it should never be more than one tap away. Put an “Admissions” button in the header of every page, and make the admissions page answer the basics without a phone call:
- Which classes have seats this year, and the age criteria for each
- The process, step by step, with key dates
- The fee structure, or at least a clear way to request it
- The documents parents need to keep ready
- A short enquiry form that reaches your admissions office the moment it is submitted
2. Designed for phones first
Most parents will see your website on a phone, not a laptop. Check that text is readable without zooming, buttons are big enough to tap, the phone number starts a call when tapped, and nothing important sits inside a slider that nobody waits for.
3. Notices and circulars people can actually read
A scanned PDF of a printed circular is hard to read on a phone and invisible to Google. Publish circulars as normal web pages with a date and a category (exams, events, holidays, fees), and attach the PDF only when you need a signed copy. Keep older notices in an archive instead of deleting them, so parents can find last month’s instructions.
4. A calendar that stays current
Holidays, exam dates, PTMs and events in one calendar save your office staff dozens of phone calls. The calendar only works if it is up to date, which brings us to the most important point on this list: staff need to be able to update the website themselves.
5. Easy for your staff to update
If only one person, or worse, an outside vendor, can change the website, it will go stale. A good school website lets the office team post notices, events and photos from a simple editor, with permissions so that a class teacher can add a gallery but not accidentally delete the admissions page.
6. Compliance pages that are easy to find
If your school is affiliated to CBSE, the board requires a mandatory public disclosure on your website in its prescribed format. Other boards and regulators have their own requirements. Whatever applies to you, put these documents in one clearly labeled section, keep them current, and link to it from the footer of every page.
7. Photos that load fast and respect privacy
Galleries are what make a school website feel alive, and they are also the main reason school websites are slow. Photos should be resized and compressed automatically, and loaded only when a visitor scrolls to them.
Children’s photos and personal data need extra care. India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 gives children’s personal data additional protection, including parental consent. Check with your management or legal adviser how it applies to the photos and forms on your website.
8. Found on Google and Google Maps
Parents search for things like “CBSE schools near me”. To show up:
- Claim and complete your Google Business Profile, with photos and correct timings
- Use exactly the same school name, address and phone number on your website and your profile
- Give each important topic its own page, such as admissions, transport and academics
- Add structured data so Google understands that your website belongs to a school at a specific address
9. Fast and secure
Your website should load over HTTPS (the padlock in the browser) and open quickly on an ordinary Android phone on 4G. Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool shows how your site performs for real visitors. We explain what the numbers mean in how fast should a website load?
A two-minute self-check
Open your school website on your phone and ask:
- Can I find admission dates and fees within two taps?
- Is the latest circular readable without zooming?
- Does the calendar show this month’s events?
- Does tapping the phone number start a call?
- Did the homepage load before I got bored?
If you answered “no” more than once, it is probably time for a refresh. Our school and college websites page shows what we build, and the school website concept shows what the result can look like.