Your prospective student arrives on a program page. The virtual tour link breaks. The cost calculator shows last year's tuition. The faculty directory returns zero results because the search index hasn't rebuilt since January. She leaves. Your university website is the first filter in your admissions funnel — and right now it's rejecting qualified applicants before your team ever sees their names. Modern university web development means engineering sites that work for every audience: prospects researching programs, current students accessing portals, faculty managing research profiles, alumni reconnecting with your network. It means program finders with real-time availability, WCAG 2.1 AA compliance that prevents lawsuits, multi-language support for international recruitment, and department subsites that don't fracture your domain authority across twenty disconnected Drupal installs. It means architecture that doesn't force a $150K rebuild every time your CMS vendor ships a major version.
Waar projecten falen
Compliance
Program Finder Engine
Faculty Directory with Schema.org
WCAG 2.1 AA Accessibility
Multi-Language International Hub
Student Portal with SSO
Admissions Funnel & CRM
Wat we bouwen
Migrate away from the Drupal treadmill — D7→D8→D9→D10→D11 cost you $140–300K and built zero new features for your students
Stop burying 200 programs in unsearchable PDF catalogs while competitors rank for every "[subject] degree [city]" search your prospects run
Fix faculty profiles with no structured data or research linkage — Google can't identify your researchers, so grant-related traffic goes to rival institutions
Eliminate WCAG 2.1 AA failures before Section 508 complaints turn into $50–500K settlements and reputational damage with disabled student families
Remove English-only barriers killing 73% of international prospect conversions — no visa guidance, no localized calculators, no tuition transparency
Consolidate twenty-plus department Drupal multisites fragmenting your SEO authority and confusing students navigating between schools on your domain
Ons proces
Content Architecture Audit
Program Finder & Directory Design
Next.js Build & Data Migration
Accessibility & Performance Testing
Launch & Training
Veelgestelde vragen
How much does a university website redesign cost?
Community college sites — 25 to 50 pages, a program finder, and forms — run $25–60K. Mid-size university builds with 100–300 pages, faculty directories, and department subsites cost $60–150K. Full-scale projects adding student portals, multi-language support, and virtual tours range from $100–200K. All fixed-fee. No hourly billing surprises.
Why should a university switch from Drupal to Next.js?
Drupal's migration tax hits every 2–3 years. D7 to D8 cost $50–100K. D8 to D9 cost $30–50K. D9 to D10 cost another $30–50K. D10 to D11 arrives late 2026. Add it up and you've spent $140–300K rebuilding the same site over and over. Next.js has no forced migrations — your investment compounds instead of resetting. You also get faster page loads, better SEO, and accessibility that's actually built in.
How does a program finder improve university SEO?
Each program gets its own page targeting queries like "computer science degree [university name]." With 200 programs, that's 200 indexable landing pages, each aimed at specific searches your prospective students are already running. Add Schema.org Course markup and those pages start earning rich snippets in Google — pulling in long-tail enrollment-intent traffic that generic program lists simply can't capture.
Can you integrate with our student information system (SIS)?
Yes. We build SSO connections using SAML, CAS, or Shibboleth to authenticate students against your existing identity provider. The student portal surfaces registration links, grades, financial aid status, and campus services — all secured with Supabase row-level security. Your SIS stays the system of record. We never duplicate it.
How do you handle accessibility compliance for university websites?
We build WCAG 2.1 AA compliance into the architecture from day one — semantic HTML, ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, screen reader optimization, color contrast enforcement, skip links, and focus management. Next.js and Tailwind give us precise control that WordPress and Drupal plugins genuinely can't match. We target Lighthouse scores of 95+ and test with actual assistive technology, not just automated checkers.
How long does a university website build take?
A community college site ships in 10–12 weeks. A mid-size university with a program finder, faculty directory, and department subsites takes 14–18 weeks. Full-scale projects with student portals, multi-language support, and virtual tours run 18–24 weeks. Every project includes a content migration plan — your team won't be copy-pasting 300 pages by hand.
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something together.
Whether it's a migration, a new build, or an SEO challenge — the Social Animal team would love to hear from you.