Education
WEBSITE DESIGN
FOR SCHOOLS
Most university and TAFE websites are managed through Umbraco, Drupal or an education-specific CMS that requires a developer request for every content change. Publishing a new course page or updating a programme entry can take two weeks by the time the ticket is raised, reviewed and actioned. Meanwhile, prospective students are searching for those programmes and landing on your competitors. We build education websites in Next.js so your team can publish what they need, when they need it, without waiting for a developer ticket.
GET A QUOTE →THE PLATFORM IS
THE BOTTLENECK
Education institutions manage a publishing environment that most other organisations would find unworkable. A marketing team trying to promote open day registrations, update course fees or add a new research page cannot do it without raising a request with IT or the incumbent agency. The platform charges for every customisation and the contract renews every year. The people who understand the system most deeply are the vendors, not the institution.
The search problem sits underneath all of it. Course pages built inside a legacy CMS rarely have the URL structure, internal linking or schema markup that organic search needs to work. Prospective students searching for a specific programme, delivery mode or intake date land on pages that were never designed with search in mind. Rebuilding the site correctly addresses both problems: a URL hierarchy that search engines can index properly and a publishing workflow that your marketing team can operate without developer support.
WHAT WE
DO
COURSE PAGE ARCHITECTURE
Education websites carry hundreds of course and programme pages that are often buried three or four levels deep in a CMS menu with no consistent URL pattern. We plan the URL hierarchy and internal linking structure before any design work begins. Each course or programme page targets the specific terms prospective students use, with schema markup for course name, delivery mode, duration and intake period so search engines can read what the page covers.
CMS MIGRATION TO NEXT.JS
Moving from Umbraco or Drupal to Next.js removes the dependency between your team and a vendor for every content change. We handle the migration from audit through to launch: URL mapping with 301 redirects to preserve search equity, content migration, page template build and Vercel deployment. New pages go live in hours, not weeks.
TECHNICAL SEO FROM BUILD DAY ONE
Education websites often fail Core Web Vitals because they carry years of plugin additions, tracking scripts and template overrides on top of a slow CMS. We build in Next.js with performance as a requirement from the start. Pages load in under a second, canonical tags are set correctly at launch and the sitemap only lists pages you want indexed.
SEO FOR COURSE AND PROGRAMME PAGES
A prospective student does not search for your institution by name. They search for "bachelor of early childhood education online" or "diploma of nursing full-time." We map those searches to the pages they land on, identify where your existing site is missing coverage and build or optimise the pages that connect search intent to enrolment inquiry.
COMMON
QUESTIONS
- Can you migrate a university or TAFE website from Umbraco or Drupal?
- Yes. We have migrated education websites from Umbraco and Drupal to Next.js. The process covers URL audit and redirect mapping, content migration, page template design, integration with existing student management or enrolment systems and Vercel deployment. Existing URLs are preserved with 301 redirects so organic search equity built up over years is not lost in the transition.
- How long does a school or university website rebuild take?
- A focused rebuild from an existing CMS to Next.js takes six to twelve weeks depending on the number of page types, integration requirements and how much content needs to be migrated. Institutions with large course libraries, including several hundred course pages, faculty profiles and research listings, should expect the longer end of that range. We scope each project in detail before any work begins so the timeline is fixed from the start.
- How do you handle content compliance requirements for educational institutions?
- We design and build the website and the technical SEO layer. Content compliance under TEQSA or CRICOS is the institution's responsibility. We design page templates to separate factual programme information, including course code, duration and delivery mode, from marketing claims, and we flag schema fields that carry regulatory risk. We do not write or approve regulated content, but we build systems that make compliance management practical.
- What does a school or university website need for good search performance?
- Most education websites are missing three things. The URL structure reflects how departments are organised internally rather than how students search for programmes. Schema markup telling Google what each page covers, including course name, delivery mode, duration and location, is either absent or incomplete. The page hierarchy buries programme detail behind three or four navigation levels. Technical performance matters, but most education websites fail on structure long before they fail on speed.
- Do you work with K-12 schools as well as universities and TAFEs?
- Yes. The technical approach is the same across all education levels. K-12 schools have different content priorities, including event calendars, staff directories, term dates and policy documents, but the platform problem is identical. A school website that requires a vendor or IT request to update term dates or publish a news item is a website that runs behind. We build systems your administration staff can manage directly.
YOUR COURSES NEED
TO BE FOUND
Tell us what your institution needs to publish and where the current platform is holding you back. We audit your existing site, map the migration path and come back with a clear project scope.
GET IN TOUCH →