Get the Guide to Higher Education Website Redesign — and Get Better Results
In the face of increasing competition, decreasing enrollments, and lightning-quick digital first impressions, it’s harder than ever for universities to turn their websites into effective admissions marketing tools.
Our team is here to help.
Download our Guide to Higher Education Website Redesign to ensure your new site doesn’t represent a lateral move — and instead propels your school forward to reach its goals.
Get Your Free Guide
Hidden Pitfalls: Why University Website Redesign Projects Are Harder Than They Look
University website redesign projects are often described in simple terms: discovery, design, development, and launch. But in practice, they involve much more, from stakeholder alignment and audience research to information architecture, content planning, accessibility, SEO/GEO, CMS decisions, integrations, analytics, and long-term optimization.
Too many institutions move too quickly into design before they’ve aligned on messaging, audiences, goals, or ownership. That is where timelines stretch, budgets expand, and expectations get mismanaged. Eastern Standard’s guide calls these out directly as common web redesign traps.
Who It’s For
- University-wide marketing & communications professionals
- Admissions marketers
- Department heads & administrators involved in university digital marketing
- Institutions evaluating agency support for a university website redesign
With Our Four-Part Process, You’ll Learn How to:
Avoid common higher ed website redesign pitfalls before they impact budget and timelines
Align leadership and marketing teams around brand strategy, messaging, and value proposition
Plan for accessibility, CMS rollout, content migration, and redirects
Define audiences and understand the decision-making factors that shape conversion
Improve university website user experience across the prospect journey
Build a redesign process around content, not just design
Bring SEO, GEO, and AI search strategy into the project from the outset instead of treating it as an afterthought
Measure success through KPIs, OKRs, and post-launch optimization
Frequently asked questions:
How can a website redesign improve my college or university’s student recruitment and enrollment?
A strategic redesign focuses on simplifying the user journey — from program discovery to application — while effectively addressing the needs and questions of prospective students and their parents. Clear pathways, personalized content, and intuitive navigation can significantly increase inquiries and completed applications.
How do you balance branding with usability for diverse audiences?
Higher ed websites serve multiple audiences with different goals. Incorporating best practices in both UX and visual design strategies ensures that all groups — from prospective students to current students, alumni, and staff — can quickly find what they need without sacrificing institutional brand identity.
We have multiple departmental sites managed by separate teams across different campuses. How do you get everyone aligned?
Fragmented brands and user experiences are common byproducts of a disconnected digital ecosystem. Our team has deep experience in solving those pain points with a clear multi-site strategy that spans everything from a shared design framework to consistent UX and unified messaging. Through transparent communication and milestone checkpoints, we ensure that all necessary team members stay aligned and your brand performs as one.
Can you integrate with our existing systems (CMS, CRM, SIS)?
Yes. Most of our higher education projects involve integrating with platforms like CRMs, student information systems, and marketing automation tools to streamline data flow and improve the user experience.
How do you ensure accessibility and compliance standards are met?
Accessibility is built into our design and development process, aligning with WCAG guidelines to ensure your site is usable for all visitors while helping reduce institutional risk.
What does a typical redesign cost, and what should we prioritize if we can’t redesign everything at once?
Full design/build projects typically start at about $30,000, but the final cost depends on the complexity of the requirements. For many clients, we help revamp existing sites through UX audits, visual updates, and content in a more iterative fashion without a complete redesign. We often start with high-impact areas like admissions, program pages, and conversion paths, helping them achieve quick performance gains while planning for a larger transformation later.
