A lot of people think it’s sufficient to just have a Facebook page, but it’s not. You need a website because you need a dedicated space where you can put all the information that matters to people who are looking for a college or institute like yours.
Your university’s website is a powerful tool that can be used to attract students and promote your courses. Over 50% of students search for universities and courses online and if you’re not showing up in the results, then you’re missing out on a huge amount of potential students.
The website of your institute is the first thing that people will see if they want to know about your college and what you are offering. So it is important that you have a professional-looking website that features all the necessary details of your institute in a clear way.
But before you hire a web developer to create a website for your college, you must know some of the essential features that your college website should have.
In this blog post, we have shared 9 essential features or sections that your website for college should have.
Let’s begin!
#1 Responsive design
Students are on the go and they’re using their mobile devices more than ever before. If your website is hard to navigate on a small screen, you’re losing customers.
According to Google, nearly 50% of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices. A responsive design means that a website can fit any screen size.
So, for example, if a student is using their smartphone to view the college’s website, then it will still look sharp and clear. Responsive design makes it easy for users to access your content from any device.
Every professional website developer knows the importance of making a website responsive. A responsive design is good not only for a better user experience, but it also helps in higher search engine rankings as well.
#2 Online enrolment/registration
The online enrolment feature is important for any college website because it helps in saving both time and money.
There are a lot of reasons why having an online enrolment section on your college website is a good idea.
First, it’s convenient for your students. Instead of them having to go through the hassle of printing out their forms and going to the administration office to fill them out, they can do everything online.
Secondly, it saves your manual process of registering your students’ details in your database.
Finally, the online enrolment feature on your college’s website can help you get more admissions because it’s quick & instant for the students to register online than to do it personally.
So, next time you go for your college website development, make sure that your website builder integrates an online enrolment system to your site.
#3 Testimonials
The testimonials page is one of the important features of any college’s website.
Why should your college website have testimonials?
Testimonials are a great way to show your potential students what other people think about your school. They help prove that you’re an established and credible institution.
Testimonials can be used to build trust with students who are still on the fence about applying to your school. In the same way that you might look at a menu to decide where to eat, your potential students are looking at your website to decide whether they want to enroll with you.
#4 About faculty
The biggest mistake colleges make on their websites is not having faculty information readily available. You’re doing a disservice to your students if you don’t have information about your professors readily available.
A college’s website should have details about its faculty. A prospective student will be able to learn more about their professors, such as where they went to school and what they’ve accomplished. This will let the student know if the college is a good fit for them.
#5 Image gallery
To make your college website more beautiful, you can add an image gallery to it. The image gallery will help you to display the pictures of your college campus, students, and staff. So it will be easy for the visitors to know your college environment.
Your college website can also have images of past performances & events. It doesn’t take a lot of effort for your website developer to create an image gallery on your website. But this small feature comes with several benefits for your college or institute.
#6 Contact form
Now, this is something every professional website should have. Your college website should also have a contact form to allow the users to get in touch with you easily.
But while developing a contact form, your website developer should take care of its responsiveness so that the mobile users don’t find it difficult to fill out the form.
Additionally, you must ensure that you do not ask for too much information from the users. The contact form should be short & sweet.
#7 Social media integration
Since most of the students may like to spend their time on different social media platforms such as Facebook, it would be good to integrate your social accounts to your website. This will help your website to showcase the latest feed from your social pages.
When your web developer builds your website using a CMS such as WordPress, you can easily add a social sharing feature to your college’s website by simply installing & activating a plugin.
Recommended post: 6 Reasons to use WordPress for your website development
#8 Videos
Videos can be a great way to bring a human voice to your college’s website. They’re also a great way to show prospective students what life at your college is really like. Therefore, the college’s website should have videos.
Adding videos to your college’s website will also increase its engagement rate and lower the bounce rate of the site.
#9 Call to action
The goal of a CTA is to get the visitor to take action, whether that be filling out a form, signing up for an e-newsletter, or making a purchase. Every page of your website should have a CTA, and that CTA should be obvious and easy to spot.
When creating your college or university’s website, make sure to include a call to action so that visitors know what they should do next. A call to action is a phrase or link that tells visitors what you want them to do next.
