When you use traditional measuring parameters, it becomes very easy to evaluate the effectiveness of parental engagement. These measuring parameters are better grades, better test results, and similar guides.
However, when it comes to measuring the effectiveness through the school’s website, this task becomes a lot harder. There are different parameters that have to be analyzed to see if parental engagement is where it should be.
Generally, you need someone with experience in web design to know which analytics will provide you with the correct information. Measuring the effectiveness of parental engagement through your school website design is not always that cut and dried.
Measuring Clicks and Engagement: A Guide to Analyzing School Website Effectiveness
The art of measuring the effectiveness of a school website is not always clear. One can only analyze the data that is recorded on the statistical pages on your dashboard.
Some of the data recorded on that page will give you an idea of how effective your school’s website is being and they may help in restructuring your online strategies.
Some of the data you can use will come from the following areas:
– average time parents spend on a given web page
– average session time for each parent
– the number of page views each visitor does
– the number of pages they visited per session
– the bounce rate of each visitor
– the exit rate of each of your visitors
High numbers in most of these categories will help you determine your school’s website effectiveness. The area where you want low numbers would be bounce time. You will want to see the school’s website visitors have long sessions and not leave too quickly.
Get Data-Driven Insights by Evaluating Parent Engagement on School Website
What makes this difficult is that many of your school’s website visitors may not be current school parents. The data doesn’t always indicate who is or isn’t a parent and a lot of your website activity could be done by visitors who came across the site for various reasons.
One way to get data-driven insights would be to look at the number of returning visitors. Most non-school parents will not return to the site unless they have school-age children and are looking for a good school to send them to.
The majority of returning visitor data would indicate a healthy engagement by current school parents. Another good source for data-driven insights would be the click rate and scroll depth.
This analytic option records how many clicks your school’s website visitor made on the website and tracks how far down the web pages they scrolled. This information provides you with an idea of how well your current parents are engaged with your website. And school.
Of course, there is no way to separate the data from school parents and interested potential school parents.
What are the Key Metrics for Assessing Parent Interaction
The key metrics that can be used for assessing parental interaction can come from the ones already listed above. How much time they spend on the school website, their click rate, scroll depth, as well as length of time they spend on the website are good indicators.
However, those metrics do not tell a clear and full story. While parents can spend little time on the school’s website yet be fully involved and have good interaction with their child’s teachers.
The best metrics to use also include their length of session time, page views, pages per session as well and access to the teacher-parent portals to check on their child’s progress.
The drawback to most of these metrics is that it is hard to distinguish between a current school parent and an interested potential parent. The latter may spend a lot of time on the website to see if the school is where they want to send their children.
Understanding the Parental Experience on School Websites
The way to achieve this objective is to put yourself in the current and prospective parents’ place and analyze your school’s website, navigation, pages, and other features.
You have to think like a parent to get a better understanding or even an idea of their understanding before you can fully appreciate what parents have to go through to be engaged with your school through its website.
The drawback to this method is that the web designer has to accept the perception as reality which may not be true in a majority of cases. The best way to understand the parental experience is to talk directly to the parents and see what they say.
Do not dismiss their critiques or experiences but use them to help guide your upgrading of the website. Keep in mind that what one parent likes another may not so you may end up pleasing one parent while excluding another.
Using Parent Input to Gauge School Website Effectiveness
This is the best and most plausible method you can use. Opening up communication channels and engaging parents by asking for their input are the clearest and simplest methods you can use.
There are different techniques you can use to get that input. Surveys, multiple-choice questions, or direct questions are the most effective methods to get parental input.
Then you can take that information and analyze it to see where improvement can be made on your website. Clear communication is the key to this option.
Some Additional Words
When you need to do this evaluation contact our company. We have had years of experience identifying and analyzing key metrics to gauge parental engagement through the school website and its effectiveness.
Our company has experts on analytics ready to help you in this tough process. Using people who know what they are doing and what to look for is essential if you want accurate results.
Contact us today to see how we can work with you in this area of your school website. Helping you get the information you need is just part of what we do, so contact us today for all your school website needs.
