Your University Site Loses 40% of Applicants Before They Click Submit
If you're an enrollment VP watching prospects bounce from your program finder, you've just inherited a seven-figure conversion leak.
97% of prospective students check your website before they apply. We build university sites with program finders, faculty directories, and student portals on Next.js -- so you're never stuck in another migration cycle.
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.
What is holding your current website back?
Common gaps we find in nearly every audit.
How We Build This Right
Every safeguard, built in from Day 1.
Program Finder Engine
Search 200+ programs by degree level, subject, campus, delivery mode, duration, tuition range, and career outcomes. Every program gets its own SEO page with curriculum details, faculty listings, tuition figures, and application links.
Faculty Directory with Schema.org
Searchable by department, research area, or name -- and every faculty profile includes Person structured data for rich snippets. Five hundred faculty members means 500 indexable pages working for your search rankings around the clock.
WCAG 2.1 AA Accessibility
Semantic HTML, ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, screen reader optimization, color contrast ratios, skip links, and focus management. We target Lighthouse accessibility scores of 95+. Not plugin-dependent guesswork.
Multi-Language International Hub
Native i18n for Mandarin, Hindi, Korean, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and more. Each language version includes program info, visa guidance, scholarship finders, and tuition calculators in local currency.
Student Portal with SSO
An authenticated area that connects to your SIS via SAML, CAS, or Shibboleth. Course registration, grades, financial aid, announcements, and campus services -- secured with Supabase Auth and row-level security.
Admissions Funnel & CRM
Inquiry capture flows into automated email sequences and application tracking. It integrates with Slate, Salesforce Education, or a custom Supabase CRM -- turning site visitors into enrolled students.
What We Build
Purpose-built features for your industry.
Migrate away from the Drupal treadmill -- D7→D8→D9→D10→D11 cost you $140–300K and built zero new features for your students
Deploy one Next.js app serving /schools/[slug] routes -- centralized brand, department-localized content, replacing fragmented multisites with a single manageable codebase
Stop burying 200 programs in unsearchable PDF catalogs while competitors rank for every "[subject] degree [city]" search your prospects run
Embed Matterport 3D walkthroughs and interactive campus maps natively -- 73% of prospects explore virtual tours before contacting your admissions team
Fix faculty profiles with no structured data or research linkage -- Google can't identify your researchers, so grant-related traffic goes to rival institutions
Launch filterable event calendars by type, campus, and audience -- with structured data for Google event rich results and automatic timezone conversion for international prospects
Eliminate WCAG 2.1 AA failures before Section 508 complaints turn into $50–500K settlements and reputational damage with disabled student families
Build interactive cost calculators estimating tuition, housing, and scholarships -- with local currency conversion that stops international students from doing exchange rate math
Remove English-only barriers killing 73% of international prospect conversions -- no visa guidance, no localized calculators, no tuition transparency
Create a searchable newsroom linking faculty research, press releases, and student stories back to relevant programs for internal SEO lift across your domain
Consolidate twenty-plus department Drupal multisites fragmenting your SEO authority and confusing students navigating between schools on your domain
Ship an alumni directory filterable by graduation year, program, industry, and location -- drives donations and gives prospects the career outcome proof they demand
Built on a Modern, Secure Stack
Our Development Process
From discovery to launch. Quality at every step.
Content Architecture Audit
Weeks 1-2We map every program, faculty member, department, and content type across your existing CMS. We find the SEO gaps, accessibility failures, and information architecture problems. You get a migration blueprint with page counts and feature specs before we touch a line of code.
Program Finder & Directory Design
Weeks 3-5We design the program finder search experience, faculty directory structure, and department subsite templates. Wireframes and interactive prototypes get tested against real prospective student user flows. Your team reviews and approves everything first.
Next.js Build & Data Migration
Weeks 6-14We build the full site in Next.js with a Supabase backend, migrate content from Drupal, WordPress, Cascade, or OMNI, implement SSO integration, and configure the i18n engine. Schema.org markup goes on every program and faculty page.
Accessibility & Performance Testing
Weeks 15-17Full WCAG 2.1 AA audit with assistive technology testing. Lighthouse performance and accessibility scores pushed to 95+. Load testing for enrollment surge periods. CRM and SIS integrations verified end-to-end.
Launch & Training
Weeks 18-20Zero-downtime cutover with 301 redirects preserving every indexed URL. Content editor training for your marketing and department teams. Thirty days of post-launch support covering bug fixes, content questions, and analytics setup.
Ready to discuss your your university site loses 40% of applicants before they click submit project?
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Whether it's a migration, a new build, or an SEO challenge — the Social Animal team would love to hear from you.