You know your school’s website needs help. Maybe it’s outdated, hard to navigate, or doesn’t reflect the experience families actually have when they visit your campus. Maybe you’re hearing too often, “I couldn’t find it on the website.” So, you decide it’s time for a redesign.

But then things get messy.

Timelines slip. Decisions stall. Content isn’t ready. People give conflicting feedback. And by the time it’s over, the new site may look different, but it still doesn’t work the way it should. Many walk away from their first school website redesign feeling like they did everything right and still didn’t get the results they wanted.

Because it’s all about planning.

Most redesigns that go off track do so for the same reasons. You can avoid them, especially if your school knows to look for them before the project begins.

1. Too Many Voices, No Clear Process
2. Underestimating Time, People, and Energy
3. Leadership Isn’t Aligned on the Purpose
4. Content Planning Gets Ignored Until It’s Too Late
5. Forgetting Mobile Design, Accessibility, and Future Needs

If you’ve been through a rough redesign or are cautiously preparing for your first, this is a chance for you to take a smarter, more confident approach right from the start.

Because when a website project goes right, it transforms how your school communicates, connects, and grows.

When a School Website Project Goes Off Track

Most redesigns lead to a better outcome, but some stall, go over budget, or end in disappointment. One of the biggest reasons a school website redesign goes off track happens before any design work even begins: leadership isn’t on the same page.

1. Too Many Voices, No Clear Process

A school website serves a lot of people—prospective families, current students and parents, faculty, alumni, donors, board members, and more. So it makes sense that many people in your school community want a say in how the site looks and functions. But without a clear process for feedback and decision-making, those many voices can slow everything down, or steer the project in too many directions at once.

What Usually Goes Wrong

When every department wants homepage space or every stakeholder wants to weigh in on design choices, it’s easy for the project to lose focus. Teams stall because someone offers a new, last-minute opinion. Or the homepage becomes overcrowded with competing priorities (news, calendars, mission statements, buttons, banners, slideshows) because no one wants to say “no.”

What starts out as a school-wide effort can quickly turn into a project with no clear leader, unclear priorities, and too many rounds of approval. And that leads to missed deadlines, frustration, and a final product that feels like a compromise, not a win.

What to Do Instead

You can still include multiple voices, but you need structure. With the right boundaries and communication, your team can balance school-wide input with a focused, effective website strategy.

Establish a core website team

Choose a small group of 3–5 people to lead the project. This might include your communications director, admissions lead, someone from IT, and a representative from school leadership. This group makes the key decisions and keeps things moving forward.

Give other stakeholders a way to contribute early

Instead of waiting for people to speak up (or worse, push back late in the process), invite input early through surveys or a kickoff meeting. Ask: What’s working well on the current site? What’s frustrating? What’s missing? This gives people a voice without opening the floodgates.

Keep Reading: Help! There Are Too Many People Involved in My School Website's Redesign!

Set clear roles for feedback and final approval

Not everyone needs to approve everything. Decide who signs off on content, who approves the design, and who handles accessibility or technical issues. Communicate this structure clearly so everyone knows where to send ideas and when their input is needed.

Keep the focus on users, not internal politics

When making decisions, return to this question: Will this help families find what they need? A website is about serving your audience, and that clarity helps cut through personal preferences or requests that don’t support the site’s primary goals.

The most successful redesigns happen when schools balance inclusion with structure, and keep their eyes on the families they’re trying to serve.

2. Underestimating Time, People, and Energy

A school website redesign might sound like a straightforward task, but that assumption is exactly what leads so many schools into trouble. A successful redesign takes months of careful planning and a committed team. When those things are overlooked, projects often stall, stretch far past their deadlines, or get rushed to the finish line without meeting anyone’s goals.

What Usually Goes Wrong

Most teams don’t have extra time sitting around to manage a redesign, especially in schools where the same people juggle communications, marketing, tech, events, and more. Website projects often get added to someone’s overflowing plate with the hope they can squeeze it in between other tasks, but the demands grow quickly.

Even with your school website company handling design and development, your team still has to:

• Review and approve designs
• Gather new photos, testimonials, and write updated content
• Make decisions about site structure and navigation
• Coordinate feedback from multiple stakeholders
• Test the site before launch
• Learn how to use the new platform

If these responsibilities aren’t built into someone’s regular workload or calendar, they end up getting delayed or done in a hurry, and that’s when mistakes happen or the quality slips. Some schools reach the launch deadline only to realize the homepage is done, but the rest of the content is still missing. Others push the project out months because no one had time to provide feedback on the schedule.

What to Do Instead

You don’t need a large team or unlimited hours. You need a clear plan and the right structure. Here’s what makes the difference:

Start with a realistic timeline

Give your team enough time to work through each phase—discovery, design, content, testing, and training. For most schools, a full website redesign takes several months, not weeks. Be honest about your school calendar and build in buffer time around major events, holidays, or the back-to-school season. The website doesn't need to be 100% complete when it launches (it's never really done), just the high priority pages and those areas needed to be effective.

Assign a clear project lead

Make sure one person owns the project from your side. This doesn’t mean they do all the work, but they’re the main point of contact who sets deadlines, gathers input, and keeps things moving. Ideally, this is someone who understands your school’s goals, knows how to coordinate across departments, and can make decisions when needed.

Give the project priority status

If your leadership team agrees the website is a top priority, it should be treated that way. That may mean shifting other projects temporarily or giving team members protected time to focus on the redesign. Trying to do everything at once rarely works well.

Choose a partner that works with schools

Some vendors don’t understand how schools operate or how limited your time and resources may be. Look for a partner who knows how to guide your school through this process and can provide templates, planning tools, and support along the way, not just splashy designs.

3. Leadership Isn’t Aligned on the Purpose

Agreeing that something needs improvement is not the same as agreeing on why, how, when, or what the final result should accomplish.

When different departments or leaders have different expectations about the school website design process, the friction slows everything down. Marketing might want a modern, mobile-friendly design to support admissions goals. IT might focus on back-end functionality, platform security, and data integrations. Meanwhile, administrators might be most concerned with accessibility and board-level approval. 

Each of those goals is valid, but without alignment, they compete instead of supporting one another.

What Usually Goes Wrong

When there’s no shared vision for the site:

• The homepage becomes a battleground for space, and everyone wants their department, club, or program featured.
• The site structure changes mid-project based on new opinions or shifting priorities.
• The team wastes time revisiting earlier decisions, which causes delays.
• Final approval becomes difficult because decision-makers aren’t working from the same benchmarks, or administrators aren’t comfortable with change.

Worse, if no one clearly defines the purpose of the redesign, the project risks missing the mark completely. You could end up with a beautiful, visually appealing website for your school that doesn’t help with enrollment, doesn’t fix navigation issues, or doesn’t reflect your values. At that point, your team has spent time and budget on something that doesn’t deliver real value.

What to Do Instead

Getting aligned from the start doesn’t mean everyone has to agree on every detail. It means everyone understands the core goal and how success will be measured.

Here’s how to set your website project up with clarity:

Define the main purpose of the redesign and bring key voices in early

Ask leadership: Why are we doing this now? Is it to attract new families? Improve accessibility? Increase engagement? Better reflect our brand? You can have multiple goals, but it helps to agree on the top one or two that will guide decisions. Getting these conversations started early avoids major conflicts down the road.

Clarify who makes the final decisions

Decide upfront who will approve designs, content, and strategy. This keeps the process moving and avoids endless rounds of feedback. Not everyone needs to sign off on every part, but break it up by area of responsibility.

Document the shared vision

Once you have alignment, write it down! Use this as a reference when decisions come up later; it keeps the team focused. Most of all, you’ll end up with a site that works for families, for staff, and for your long-term goals.

4. Content Planning Gets Ignored Until It’s Too Late

Design might grab attention, but content is what keeps people on your site AND gets them to take action. Yet one of the most common missteps in school website redesigns is saving content for the end of the project. By then, teams are pressed for time, unsure of what to write, or tempted to copy and paste old content into a new layout.

That’s a missed opportunity!

Families come to your website looking for answers. If your content doesn’t speak clearly, show value, or guide them toward next steps, the design alone can’t fix that. And if you’re launching a new site with outdated or incomplete content, it reflects poorly on your school and frustrates the people you’re trying to serve.

Keep Reading: Five Common School Website Redesign Mistakes the Pros Don't Make

What Usually Goes Wrong

Here’s what tends to happen when content is an afterthought:

• Pages get migrated as-is without reviewing whether the information is still accurate or helpful.
• Content ends up duplicated across departments or hidden behind unclear navigation.
• Team members panic as deadlines approach and scramble to fill empty pages.
• The new design feels disconnected from the school’s voice and personality because the content doesn’t support the layout, or worse, clashes with it.

Many schools put energy into layout, colors, and homepage design, assuming the rest will “come together.” But a website is a storytelling and information tool. And that takes planning.

What to Do Instead

Content planning doesn’t have to be overwhelming; it just needs to be intentional and start early.

Audit your current site

Before you even talk about new design ideas, look at your current content. Which pages are essential? What information is outdated, duplicated, or missing? Use this as a chance to trim the excess and focus on what matters most.

Map your core content

List the top pages families need: admissions, tuition and financial aid, academics, calendar, contact info, and key programs. Make sure these pages are clear, findable, and up to date. Think about what families actually search for, then structure your site to answer those questions quickly.

Assign ownership

Don’t leave content creation up to one person. Divide responsibility by department: admissions updates their pages, athletics handles theirs, etc. Provide guidance on tone, length, and deadlines, so the voice across the site feels cohesive. It’s also a good idea to have one person do a final read-through to confirm your site’s content has a consistent voice and style.

Write for action and clarity

Use plain language. Lead with the most important information, avoid jargon, and add clear calls to action on every key page, whether that’s inquiring, applying, scheduling a tour, or contacting staff. Remember, people don’t read websites—they scan them. Make your content easy to skim.

Involve your vendor or partner

If your website design company understands content strategy, lean on them for guidance. They can suggest templates, review your draft pages, and help organize content in ways that match best practices for user experience.

Content is where your school’s voice, values, and strengths come to life. When your content is clear, helpful, and easy to navigate, it builds confidence. When it’s vague, outdated, or hard to find, it raises doubts.

5. Forgetting Mobile Design, Accessibility, and Future Needs

When schools start planning a website redesign, most of the early conversations focus on how things will look. And while visual design matters, too many teams miss the mark by not thinking about how the site will actually function, especially on mobile devices, for users with disabilities, and in the years ahead.

These oversights often aren’t intentional, but when a user-friendly design, accessibility, or long-term planning aren't built into the project from the start, schools end up with websites that might look polished on a desktop… but frustrate families, break compliance rules, or quickly become outdated.

What Usually Goes Wrong

Here’s what happens when schools forget to factor in mobile, accessibility, and long-term needs:

• Pages look fine on a large screen, but become cluttered and hard to read on a phone, which is exactly where most parents are actually visiting from.
• Content like PDFs, menus, or calendar downloads aren’t accessible to screen readers or those with visual impairments, putting the school at risk of non-compliance with ADA requirements.
• The platform doesn’t support easy updates, content scheduling, or the ability to grow with your school, so the site feels dated within a year or two of launching.
• There is no plan for who will update the site.

All these issues affect how families interact with your school, how included they feel, and how easily they can access information. And in some cases, ignoring accessibility is a legal risk.

What to Do Instead

A modern school website needs to be accessible, flexible, and built for the way people browse, especially on mobile.

Think mobile-first, not desktop-first

Parents aren’t sitting at a desk to browse your site. They’re checking lunch menus, contact info, and event calendars on their phones, and they’re often in a hurry. That means your most important content needs to be easy to find, read, and click on small screens. Choose a partner who designs with mobile usability as a priority, not an afterthought.

Make accessibility part of the design from the start

Web accessibility isn’t optional anymore. Work with a provider that understands ADA compliance and builds tools that support accessible practices, like alt text for images, keyboard navigation, readable font sizes, and proper heading structures.

Plan for long-term flexibility

Your school will grow and change, and your website should, too. Choose a platform that lets your team easily update pages, create new content, and adjust layouts without needing a developer. Think about how your needs might evolve—like adding microsites, landing pages, or special content—and make sure your website can handle that without a total rebuild.

Assign ownership for post-launch success

Don’t launch and leave. Decide who owns the ongoing health of the site. This could be a communications staff member, IT lead, or a shared responsibility. Either way, someone should regularly review analytics, update content, and make sure everything stays current and accessible.

If those issues aren’t addressed until after launch, fixing them is harder, more expensive, and more frustrating.

Key Takeaway

Many schools start a redesign with good intentions, only to hit roadblocks they didn’t see coming. A website should work for you, and be one of your most helpful tools, not one more thing that drains your time or limits your message.

When you treat your website project like a strategic investment, you can build something that works for you. It becomes a tool that supports enrollment, builds trust with families, and strengthens your communication.

So, you’ve learned what doesn’t work, and better yet, now you know what it takes to do it better.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Connor has spent the last decade within the field of marketing and communications, working with independent schools and colleges throughout New England. At Finalsite, Connor plans and executes marketing strategies and digital content across the web. A former photojournalist, he has a passion for digital media, storytelling, coffee, and creating content that connects.