WEBSITE DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT
FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

From Scroll to Enroll

At Celsius Marketing and Interactive, we design and develop smart, effective websites for schools that need real results. For over 20 years, we’ve specialized in higher education website design and development, helping colleges and universities create sites that actually work. Your website isn’t just a digital brochure. It’s where prospective students form first impressions, parents find answers, and your team tracks engagement, applications, and enrollment. It needs to work, and work hard. With a proven process and a team of higher ed specialists, we help move your team out of frustration and into a focused strategy that improves your school’s perception and site performance.

Your website should be the number one tool in your marketing arsenal.

Through user research, we fix broken user experiences, reimagine your visual design, define brand architecture, launch smarter content strategies, and rebuild on platforms like WordPress, Drupal, Cascade CMS, Omni CMS, or Terminalfour. After launch, we help you reach and engage your next class of students through SEO, paid media, and content campaigns, so your site keeps working long after it goes live.

WHO WE SERVE

Schools Of Every Shape And Kind

Universities, trade schools, beauty academies, we don’t play favorites. If you’ve got students, we’ve got a strategy.

OUR PROCESS

We know higher ed comes with its own set of challenges: competing priorities, multiple voices, complex audiences, and limited resources. Our process is built to cut through that complexity. We start by asking the right questions, defining your goals, and identifying how the site needs to support recruitment, retention, and reputation. We know how students search, what makes them bounce, and what keeps them engaged.

Here’s what we focus on:

  • Clear user paths that guide prospective students toward conversion
  • Fast load times and responsive layouts across devices
  • Strong SEO foundations for higher education search behavior
  • Accessible design that meets current compliance standards
  • Content strategies that speak to real student concerns
  • Project flow that stays on track, even with multiple stakeholders involved

WEBSITE SERVICES

Schools Of Every Shape And Kind

…and whatever broke last week. With Celsius, you get the full stack, strategy, design, development, content, and more. Whether your site needs a rebuild or just a serious tune-up, we’ve got you covered. Here’s what we bring to the table.

Our award-winning designers shape a visual identity that feels like your program. Think purposeful design rooted in personality, set up to convert curious browsers into applicants.

Our in-house dev crew brings the site to life—whether it’s building on a content management system or crafting custom tools and web applications. We code clean, we test hard, and we make the backend feel manageable.

From on-site copy to blog posts and landing pages—we build messaging that ranks. We track how people find schools like yours and write content that moves them further down the funnel.

We’re not tossing darts blindfolded. We kick off with discovery calls, analytics, UX research, and site architecture mapping—all tuned to help you meet specific goals like enrollment growth, retention, or brand reputation.

Need paid media? Email flows? Retargeting? We help you scale your site’s reach and engagement once it’s live—so it doesn’t just sit pretty, it earns.

Because yes, your site needs to work for everyone—and pass audits. We handle the technical setup and train your team to keep content compliant after launch (think screen readers, alt text, ADA checklist stuff).

Websites age, browsers change, priorities shift. We offer training, content updates, refreshes, hosting support, and reporting so your site stays sharp—not stuck.

COMPREHENSIVE WEB DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Discovery & Planning

We begin with in-depth research to understand your institution’s needs, opportunities, and challenges. We identify project goals and segment target audiences to ensure the site’s content and structure resonate with prospective students, parents, faculty. We research your digital presence to determine your unique brand voice and develop a focused messaging and microcopy strategy to ensure every word supports your objectives. Finally, we develop and present a detailed sitemap, gather feedback, refine as needed, and secure approval before moving into design and development.

Prototype Design

Our prototype design phase begins turning strategy into a visual framework for your higher education website design project. We begin with wireframe presentations that outline the site’s structure and layout, gathering feedback to refine and finalize them. At the same time, content and image collection and development get underway to support design needs. We then create a homepage prototype, followed by initial interior page prototypes to establish visual consistency and usability. Each prototype goes through review and modification cycles until the design is approved and ready for full development.

Build-out & Brand Voice

Our build-out phase brings your higher education website to life, extending the approved design and functionality across all pages. We create secure development and staging environments to ensure a smooth, tested process. During this stage, the brand voice established earlier is reflected in ongoing content creation, while our team builds out the site’s code, integrates custom applications, platform connections, communication tools, and webforms. Interactive page elements are implemented to enhance user experience, and the entire site is deployed within the chosen content management platform. Finally, analytics and user behavior tracking tools are configured to provide insights that will guide future optimizations.

Quality Assurance & Testing

Our quality assurance and testing phase ensures your higher education website performs flawlessly before launch. We conduct thorough content accuracy checks to confirm information is complete and error-free. The site is tested across multiple devices and browsers to guarantee a responsive experience for all users. An accessibility review is performed to meet WCAG guidelines and ensure inclusive access for every visitor. Usability testing identifies and resolves potential navigation or interaction issues. We also test all forms, platform integrations, and custom tools to verify smooth functionality. A final code review ensures the website is clean, efficient, and ready for deployment.

Site Launch & Service Deployment

Our launch and support phase transitions your higher education website from development to a live, public-facing platform. We handle the technical steps for a seamless launch, including final server configuration, DNS updates, and deployment of all approved content and features. Once live, we closely monitor site performance to ensure stability, speed, and security. Our team remains available to address any immediate post-launch needs, from minor adjustments to troubleshooting integrations. We also provide guidance on content management, analytics reporting, and best practices to help your team confidently manage and optimize the site moving forward.

Our Work Speaks for Itself

Check Out Our Portfolio

FAQs

What to Know About Higher Education Websites

What’s different about designing websites for schools?

Higher education websites aren’t selling a product. They’re helping people make a major life decision. That means you need to strike a balance between emotion, clarity, and functionality. It also means your site must serve multiple purposes for multiple audiences, often simultaneously.

How long does a typical project take?

It depends on the scope and the level of involvement from your internal team. Most higher ed websites we build take 4 to 8 months from kickoff to launch. We’ll work with you to set realistic timelines and keep the process on track.

What’s different about designing websites for schools?

Plenty. We don’t build black boxes. You’ll have access to the tools and training you need to manage content, update pages, and make the site your own, without relying on developers for every little change.

Ready to build a website that does more than sit there?

Let’s talk about how to turn your site into something that actually moves the needle.

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