As part of the continuous improvement process, websites must be subject to regular review to ensure an optimum user experience. This includes a review of competitor and private provider websites to understand how they are using web design and content to engage their audience, and also to keep up to date with any offers or incentives which are being provided which may impact potential applications and bookings.
Accommodation web pages must be functional for both students and parents with a responsive design so the experience is the same, no matter how a user accesses the website whether through a desktop, mobile or tablet. Your web team should be able to advise on any improvements you can make to ensure the mobile experience is optimum.
It’s key to ensure that the website is updated in line with the customer journey, so messaging can reflect the main audience needs in their research and application journey, whether they are returners, new students or clearing applicants, signposting to the correct information at the appropriate time and addressing the main audiences needs means having a regular review of content and schedule of future updates to pro-actively manage expectations is incredibly valuable.
Keep up to date with the student recruitment, marketing and admissions teams to review when and how they are communicating about the accommodation application journey for all markets, so updates can be made in line with these communications and the accommodation teams are aware when communications are going out to manage any increase in enquiries.
Liaising with the university web team on a regular basis is also beneficial to ensure that the accommodation content updates can be scheduled in where required, but also to obtain any analytics or data which can inform your key traffic months and reviewing the most frequently viewed content. Details such as monthly pageviews, number of users, average session time, bounce rate, referrals, country/location and device are easily accessible through analytics packages and can provide a lot of insight in order to identify potential improvements and opportunities.