How to Make a University Website: A Step-by-Step Guide

This guide is for university administrators or department heads who need to build a new website from scratch. It assumes a modest budget and some comfort with digital tools. If you have a large budget, you might consider an agency instead. For those with a redesign project, the steps on content strategy and testing will be particularly useful.

We cover every stage from site structure and design to hosting, domain selection, and final tests. You will learn about key tools and how to navigate university-specific challenges like ADA compliance and the needs of diverse users, from prospective students to alumni.

Step 1: Plan Your Site Structure and Gather Content

Before you open any website builder, you must first create a clear blueprint. This foundational step ensures your final site serves its intended audience and meets university goals without costly rework. It is about strategy before execution.

Define Your Audience and Goals

First, identify your primary audiences. Are you focused on prospective students, current faculty, or alumni donors? List the top three to five actions you want them to take, such as “Apply Now,” “Explore Programs,” or “View Campus Events.” These actions will dictate your site’s priorities.

Map Your Website's Blueprint

Sketch your site’s navigation on paper. Most university sites need a Homepage, Academics, Admissions, About, and Contact section. List the subpages for each category. For example, “About” might contain pages for History, Mission, and Leadership. Keep your main navigation to seven items or fewer.

A common mistake is to model the navigation after the university’s internal departments. This structure confuses visitors who are unfamiliar with your organization. Instead, organize your site around user goals, like finding admission requirements or learning about specific degree programs.

Collect Your Content and Brand Assets

Create a shared digital folder with a service like Google Drive or Dropbox to centralize all materials. Organize subfolders by website section to keep everything tidy. This preparation dramatically speeds up the build process.

• Logo files and brand assets, including official color codes.
• High-resolution photos of your campus, faculty, and student life.
• Written content, including program descriptions, faculty bios, and FAQs.
• Documents for download, like academic calendars or application forms.
• Credentials for any tools you will integrate, such as social media accounts.

Step 2: Choose Your Design Approach

Your website’s design signals credibility. The right approach depends on your budget, timeline, and technical resources. You have three main paths to consider for your university site.

Select a Design Method

For most universities on a budget, pre-built templates are the fastest path. Marketplaces like ThemeForest offer education-specific designs with layouts for programs and faculty. Premium templates provide better code and support, a worthy investment for a university site.

For more brand control, use a UI kit from sources like Tailwind UI or Bootstrap themes. These provide components like navigation bars and forms to assemble. This route offers flexibility but requires some comfort with code to implement.

A custom design delivers a unique result but needs a larger budget and longer timeline. A designer creates mockups in a tool like Figma for approval before development. This is best for well-funded departments that need to stand out.

A common mistake is choosing a template that fails ADA accessibility standards. This risks legal action and excludes users with disabilities. Always verify a template’s compliance or have it audited before you commit.

Establish a Style Guide

Whichever path you choose, create a style guide for consistency. This document ensures the site looks professional, building trust with prospective students and faculty. Reference it for every page.

• Colors: Define a primary brand color, a secondary accent, and a neutral. Also include colors for success, warning, and error messages.
• Typography: Select two fonts maximum. Use a readable sans-serif for body text and a distinct heading font from a library like Google Fonts.
• Spacing: Use a consistent system for margins and padding. Systems based on multiples of 8px create a clean, predictable rhythm.
• Buttons: Define styles for primary actions (solid background) and secondary actions (outlined). This guides users to important tasks.

Step 3: Set Up Your Hosting and Domain

Your domain is your website's address, and hosting is the land it sits on. A proper selection ensures your site is reliable and easy for prospective students to find. This step requires a careful look at your university's specific needs and potential challenges.

Choose Your Domain Name

While many sites use a .com, universities should secure a .edu domain, which requires accreditation and signals authority. Departments can use subdomains like `english.university.edu`. Choose a name that is short, memorable, and reflects your department or institution clearly.

Register your domain through a service like Namecheap or Cloudflare Registrar. A common mistake is to let the domain expire during staff turnover. This takes your site offline and hurts credibility. To avoid this, use a departmental email for the account and enable auto-renewal.

Select Your Hosting

For most departments, managed hosting from providers like Kinsta or WP Engine is the best choice. They handle security and backups, which frees up your staff's time. Shared hosting is cheaper but can slow down during peak admission seasons.

Alternatively, platforms like Squarespace or Webflow bundle hosting with their website builder. This approach simplifies management but locks you into their system. It is a good option for smaller departments that need an all-in-one solution without technical overhead.

Key Hosting Features

• SSL Certificate: Your host must provide an SSL certificate, often through Let's Encrypt. This encrypts data and shows a lock icon in the browser, which is vital to handle student applications and maintain trust.
• Automatic Backups: Look for daily backups. You need a reliable way to restore your site if an update fails, especially before important dates like enrollment deadlines or graduation announcements.
• Reliable Support: Choose a host with 24/7 support. A problem can arise at any time, and quick help is necessary to keep the site operational for users across different time zones.

Step 4: Build Your Site With Replit

Instead of a drag-and-drop builder, you can use an AI agent to construct your website. Replit is a development environment that interprets plain language to write code, build features, and deploy a functional site automatically, which removes the need for deep technical skill.

How to Direct the AI Agent

You direct the build process with simple instructions. For example, prompt the Replit Agent: “Build a website for our university’s English department with a faculty directory, a page for degree requirements, and a news section for publications.” The AI handles the rest.

Refine the output with follow-up commands. You can ask it to “Make the ‘Contact Advisor’ button green” or “Add a form for prospective students to request information.” The agent understands your intent and modifies the code, which allows for rapid iteration without manual changes.

• Full site generation: Describe the pages and features you need, from a simple contact form to a complex course registration system, and the agent builds it.
• Automatic backend: Replit sets up infrastructure for features like faculty logins or a database to store student applications, a task that often requires a developer.
• Instant deployment: Your site goes live on a Replit subdomain immediately. You can connect your official `.edu` domain through the settings panel.
• Team collaboration: Multiple department members can access the project to provide feedback or review progress in real time, which streamlines approvals.
• Built-in integrations: Connect tools like Stripe for application fees or import designs from Figma to match brand guidelines.

A common mistake is to provide vague prompts. This results in a generic site that fails to meet departmental needs. Instead, be specific: “Create a site for the chemistry department with a secure portal for students to view grades and a public-facing section with lab safety protocols.”

Step 5: Integrate Key Services

Your website connects to external services for specialized tasks. Set up these tools first, then connect them to your site. This approach adds powerful features without custom development, letting you focus on content.

Handle Scheduling and Data Collection

Embed a public Google Calendar to show department events. For one-on-one meetings, like academic advising appointments, use a tool like Calendly or Cal.com. These services let students book time directly, which avoids back-and-forth emails and manages time zones automatically.

Use forms for contact requests or event sign-ups. Options like Tally or Google Forms are free and easy to embed. For more complex needs, Jotform offers advanced features. Ensure submissions route to a monitored inbox so no inquiry gets lost.

A common mistake is to collect sensitive student information through a basic, non-secure form. This risks violating privacy laws like FERPA. Instead, for applications or grade inquiries, link directly to the university’s official secure portal.

Measure Traffic and Communicate With Users

Install Google Analytics 4 to understand your audience. It shows you which pages are popular and how visitors find your site. This data helps you improve content and focus on what prospective students care about most. Privacy-focused alternatives include Plausible.

Build a newsletter list to share department news or alumni updates. Add a signup form to your footer using a service like Mailchimp or Buttondown. These platforms manage your contacts and help you design professional emails that build community.

Step 6: Build and Populate Core Pages

Work through your pages systematically, starting with the highest-traffic ones first. Every page needs a clear purpose and a single primary action you want visitors to take. Focus on what prospective students or faculty need, not on internal department structures.

Construct Your Core Pages

Your homepage acts as a triage station. It must grab attention with a headline that states who you serve, like “A Premier Chemistry Program for Undergraduate Researchers.” Include a prominent “Apply Now” button and social proof, such as links to recent faculty publications or student success stories.

Create a dedicated page for each academic program. A common mistake is to bury tuition details or make them hard to find, which frustrates applicants. Instead, be transparent about program costs and link directly to the university’s main financial aid office for more information.

• Program Details: Describe the curriculum, who it is for, and the career outcomes. Use photos of real students and labs, not generic stock images.
• Clear Call to Action: Each page should guide the user toward a next step, such as “Contact an Advisor” or “Begin Your Application.”
• Faculty Highlights: Connect programs to the faculty who teach them. This adds credibility and a human element to your department’s offerings.

Your contact page must make it easy for users to connect. Provide a physical address, a departmental phone number, and specific contacts for admissions or academic advising. To reduce spam, you can use a contact form instead of listing a direct email address.

Finally, add legal pages to your footer. A Privacy Policy is necessary to comply with regulations like FERPA if you collect any user data. An Accessibility Statement shows your commitment to ADA standards and inclusive design for all users.

Step 7: Test Across Devices and Get Real User Feedback

Testing reveals problems invisible during development. A rushed launch with broken features damages credibility with prospective students and faculty. Allocate proper time for this phase to ensure a professional first impression for all visitors.

Test on All Devices

Your site must work flawlessly on mobile phones, tablets, and desktops. Check both iOS and Android devices, including older models that students might use. Verify that text is readable, buttons are easy to tap, and navigation menus function correctly in all orientations.

Browser tools can simulate screens, but services like BrowserStack offer remote access to real devices. Test on at least one physical phone to catch issues with touch interactions and real-world performance.

Check Functionality and Performance

Systematically review every part of your site. A slow or broken page can prevent a prospective student from completing an application. Use a checklist to track your progress and ensure nothing is missed during this important review.

• Click every link and submit every form to confirm they work.
• Test all interactive elements like dropdowns and video players.
• Verify that embedded calendars and booking widgets load correctly.
• Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to find and fix bottlenecks.

Ensure Accessibility and Gather Feedback

Your site must be usable by people with disabilities, a legal requirement for universities under the ADA. Use WebAIM's Contrast Checker for text legibility and confirm the entire site is navigable with a keyboard. Automated tools like WAVE can spot initial issues.

A common mistake is to only test the site with internal staff. They already know the structure, which hides navigation flaws. Instead, watch a prospective student try to find admission requirements to see where the design truly fails. Their confusion reveals what you need to fix.

Step 8: Launch Your Site and Establish Ongoing Maintenance

A successful launch maximizes visibility, and a maintenance plan keeps your site effective long-term. This stage ensures your digital front door remains open and valuable to students, faculty, and alumni.

Finalize Your Pre-Launch Checklist

• Replace all placeholder text with final content.
• Confirm contact forms route to a monitored departmental inbox.
• Verify all links work and your SSL certificate is active (HTTPS).
• Set unique meta titles and descriptions for each page.

Announce the Launch and Update Listings

Coordinate the announcement across channels, from email lists to social media. Update your URL on your Google Business Profile and ask partner departments to update any links pointing to your old site.

A common mistake is to forget redirects from an old site. This creates broken links from other university pages, which frustrates users and hurts search rankings. Instead, map all old URLs to their new counterparts before you go live.

Establish an Ongoing Maintenance Plan

Assign staff to update news, events, and faculty changes. Submit your sitemap via Google Search Console to speed up indexing. Use a service like UptimeRobot to get alerts if the site goes down during admission season.

Set calendar reminders for routine checks. Monthly, use a tool like Dead Link Checker to fix broken links. Quarterly, audit all pages for outdated information, such as old course requirements, to keep the site accurate.

Want a shortcut?

For a faster path, Replit offers an AI agent that builds your entire university site from plain language prompts. Describe your needs, like a faculty directory or a course catalog, and the agent writes the code, sets up the backend, and deploys it instantly. This approach removes the need for a developer to handle databases or user logins. You can refine the site with simple follow-up commands, which allows for quick changes without manual coding. This method is ideal for departments that need a custom, functional site without deep technical overhead. Sign up for free to start your project.