In our extensive experience working with colleges and universities, we’ve noticed a few common issues on department- and college-level websites that can have a notable impact on enrollment. Thankfully, some of these problems are very easy to fix. These are 5 of the easiest ways to make your department’s website a more pleasant experience for visitors – not to mention a more effective enrollment tool.

1. Offer Immediate Access to Information About the Curriculum

Problem: Information about the program and its curriculum isn’t provided on the site. Prospective students are linked to the general course catalog instead, with minimal content describing the program’s objectives.

Why is this Important?: This forces current students and those interested in the program to do additional work to learn more about requirements and their available courses, which can turn students away before they even pursue more information.

Solution: Include a dedicated page for each program that details the curriculum and requirements of each program, allowing both attending and prospective students to easily get the information they’re searching for.

2. Add Individual Pages for Each Program

Problem: Larger colleges and departments may be tempted to create broad, general pages discussing all of the programs that they offer, neglecting focused content that goes into greater detail about each individual program.

Why is this Important?: The experience for every visitor to the site should be as effortless as possible. If a student comes to the site looking for more information on a specific degree or program and can’t find it, they might turn away in frustration and not take the next step of contacting your institution to learn more.

Solution: Create detailed overviews of each program (including learning objectives, curriculum, admissions information, etc.) and include them on your site. This can help engage and intrigue prospective students and make your site more visible to your target audience in search engines.

3. Remove and Avoid Duplicate Content

Problem: Identical content (like admissions requirements, student policies, or program-level information) is posted in multiple places on the same site.

Why is this Important?: Google and other search engines penalize a site’s position in search results severely if their algorithm identifies any duplicate content. These pages are dismissed as a spamming attempt, and reflect poorly on the entire site’s performance in searches.

Solution: Be pro-active. Identify any duplicate content on your site and either remove the content in question or condense multiple pages into one.

4. Avoid Embedding Keyword-focused Text in Images

Problem: High-traffic keywords aren’t being used in plain-text copy, but are instead embedded as text that overlays an image file.

Why is this Important?: Search engines aren’t intelligent enough (yet) to scan for text in images, which means copy in your compelling campus photo isn’t doing anything for your place on search engine results pages.

Solution: It’s fine to stick with whatever image copy has proven most effective, but for the sake of search engine visibility, be sure to also include keywords in relevant page titles, headers, and body copy.

5. Use Commonly Known Terminology

Problem: The terms used to describe the program(s) and the topics covered reflect the latest academic vocabulary, but not popular search keywords or common phrases.

Why is this Important?: While current students are likely aware of the latest terminology in the field, this might not be the case for prospective students. For programs in psychology (with terms dependent on new volumes of the DSM) or medicine, the general public and prospective students may still be looking for the terms they’re accustomed to, not updated ones.

Solution: Create copy that uses a blend of technical and popular terms, maintaining correctness but also appealing to broader audiences.

At AllCampus, we strive to provide traditional universities with the advanced insight they need to reach their enrollment goals. Learn more about what we can do for you.