Fabulous School Website Content

Our recent blog post series, The Power of Rich Media on Your School Website has covered lots of ways that rich media can be used to enhance your content, and all of this still rings true. Combining your media and your text provides the fullest coverage of your school possible. Following previous tips and the guidance here you will be well on the way to creating fabulous school website content.

Types of school website content

Content appearing on a website belongs to one of two groups. Either Static content or Dynamic content. Static content will usually appear on your statutory web pages, information pages, policy pages etc. Generally content on pages is static. While it may change occasionally, this type of content isn't usually updated weekly, or monthly. Dynamic content on the other hand is things like News, Events, Blogs. This type of content is usually output onto the website via the website software and ordered by date of posting to prioritise the newest content.

How to make your static school website content fabulous?

Static school website content is usually informative content, some of it is statutory. Often static content includes links to documents, or documents included within pages. The information presented on these pages needs to be easy to read. So some of the tips about using media in your content might be useful to help break up the text. Ensure the content is up to date. Old out of date information can provide incorrect information to website visitors and potentially provide a wrong impression of your organisation. In addition, keeping your content up to date ensures you are presenting the best and truest picture of yourself. Sometimes there's just too much content on a website. Some pages appear to have no purpose in being on the website. It's possible they don't. Clean through the content and ensure that information provided on your website is concise and useful.

How to make your dynamic school website content fabulous?

Dynamic content is a little different from static content. There are no statutory requirements governing what dynamic content should be provided. However dynamic content is a really effective way of communicating with your school community. Dynamic content like news stories or blog posts provide an method to communicate the story of the school. Paint the picture of what school is actually like with real stories and experiences of your unique school or college. The success of your students, the day to day activities. People don't want to be told what something is like, they want to be able to see what it is like and infer judgement themselves. This can be drawn from static content, but a much richer picture can be painted with dynamic content. Imagine the static content is the frame, and the dynamic content is the picture itself. Together they work the best.

Next steps

What content does your school website include or focus on? Is static content well presented, up to date, useful and easy to read? Is dynamic content, well written, interesting and updated regularly? Answer these questions honestly and think strategically about what your school can do to make your school website content fabulous.