Build a faster, easier-to-edit site that supports recruitment, integrates with campus systems, and gives your team real publishing freedom.
Your website should speed up recruitment, not slow it down. Many higher ed sites lag on mobile, rely on workarounds, and turn simple edits into IT tickets. Vital builds custom WordPress platforms that load fast, connect cleanly to your stack, and let non-technical editors publish in minutes.
With a foundation that moves as quickly as your campaigns, new program pages go live on cue, content stays consistent and accessible, and prospects land on clear, conversion-ready pages. The result is a site that actually works for enrollment.
Goal-focused, bloat-free WordPress sites that rank high, load fast, and fill classes.
Built to attract qualified traffic, capture inquiries, and move prospects to applications and deposits.
We track leads, visit sign-ups, applications, and deposits so the site proves its value.
Goals, audiences, and admission milestones inform IA, UX, and content.
No heavy themes or page builders. Clean code plays nicely with campus systems.
Optimized for the screens prospective students use most.
Reusable blocks and clear workflows cut bottlenecks.
Grows as you add majors, locations, or online offerings.
Stable UX/SEO patterns sustain performance.
WCAG-AA compliance, privacy safeguards, and 24/7 monitoring.
| Custom Websites | Templated Websites |
|---|---|
| Ideal for complex requirements, unique integrations, and advanced content models. Includes discovery, UX, custom components, and tailored workflows. Pricing: Scoped to features and complexity. | A faster, cost-effective path using Vital’s proven higher ed layout library, styled to your brand with targeted customization. Pricing: Fixed packages based on template and add-ons. |
At Vital, we plan the work and work the plan. Our process ensures that every detail on your site serves one ultimate goal: building a foundation for long-term success. Here’s how we do it:
We gather details about your institution’s brand, your audience, competition, current website performance, what’s worked, what hasn’t, and where you’d like to be — all of which helps us generate a project proposal.
We work with you to define your website’s architecture, navigation, and other critical aspects of user experience (UX) design. Together, we aggregate, curate, and update all existing site content as necessary and identify areas where new content needs to be developed, either by our team of copywriters or your internal team.
Our designers create a custom design system that establishes the elements of your website’s unique look and feel, while your Vital strategist pinpoints unique integrations and functionalities that will give your website an edge.
This is where the rubber meets the road. Our highly experienced development team begins to transform all design elements and content assets into a beautiful, functional, easy-to-use website using a custom block editor.
We meticulously test your site’s functionality and compatibility across browsers and devices, aligning with WCAG 2.0 AA accessibility standards. We provide training for your team on navigating the back end of your site to make updates, post content, etc.
Once all the boxes are checked, there’s nothing to it but to do it. Let’s launch this thing!
Every web build includes 30 days of post-launch development support to fix any bugs. We also offer a suite of ongoing support programs to handle the post-launch maintenance and support, plus digital marketing and project-based retainers to maximize the long-term value of your site.
Walk through Vital’s halls, and you’ll meet developers who debate Gutenberg releases before breakfast and creatives sketching enrollment funnels before coffee kicks in. Most days, they’re the same people. We love spotting the WordPress tweaks your competitors miss and turning them into faster sites, cleaner code, and higher conversion rates. Pull up a chair. Let’s talk shop.
With over a decade of experience in WordPress, Vital’s team ensures that your website can adapt to your institution’s needs — not the other way around.
We’ve Built Our Own WordPress Roadmap
Our proven web development process is a product of our extensive experience with both WordPress and higher education clients.
Our Developers are Top-of-the-Line
We have a dedicated team of web developers and strategists that specialize in higher education websites and digital marketing services.
We are Hard-Wired to Think Strategically
Our SEO strategists are constantly developing tactics to enhance website ranking potential and ensure maximum visibility and reach.
We’re Always Looking Ahead
Following your site launch, we’ll create a customized 12-month plan to increase your conversion rates and identify opportunities for improvement.
Security is Our Top Priority
We provide 24/7 monitoring services, so we’ll be the first to know if your website needs back end support.
We’re Committed to the Long Haul
We offer post-launch maintenance support packages to keep your website updated, functional, and secure.
Years of Web Design Experience
WordPress Sites Built
Web Design Awards Won
Percent of the Web Powered by WordPress
Every higher education institution is different, and success starts with understanding your audience, your goals, and your challenges. We bring a unique combination of higher education-specific expertise and out-of-the-box thinking that drives enrollment and revenue growth for a wide variety of institutions. Here are a few of our specialties:
What’s in the eBook? This 30-page guide is your digital marketing playbook for attracting more qualified applicants, building your academic brand, and bridging the gap between acceptance and enrollment to fill more seats and grow your school’s programs.
Get more clicks at a lower cost with these highly effective but often overlooked campaign strategies.
Everything you need to know about working with Vital on a higher ed WordPress website design and development project.
That depends on the size and scope of your institution’s website. During our discovery phase, you’ll receive a detailed project timeline and a dedicated project manager to keep you up to date on the status of your website.
Nope — our experienced development team is well-versed in the security measures required for the WordPress open-source platform. As with any website, a secure hosting provider, up-to-date plugins, ongoing maintenance, and tight code are your best defense against security breaches.
Yes! WordPress is our favorite block editor for a reason, due to its ease of use. That means, with the training we provide, our clients can make updates and changes without the help of a developer (though we’re always just a couple clicks away).
Nope, what you see is what you get! Everything you need is taken care of in-house by people you’ll know by name. That includes web development, design, copywriting, project management, photography, videography, and anything else you may need.
We use a cloud-based content organization platform called GatherContent to make sure all of your existing website content is transferred to the appropriate new pages. This tool also helps us identify areas where you may need new content (which we can help you write).
No we do not. WordPress themes aren’t designed to highlight your school’s unique offerings, and they can be difficult to integrate with your existing third-party software. Instead of using themes, we created our own blank framework that allows us to customize and control everything on your new website.
Ready to trade CMS headaches for a site that moves students from first click to enrollment?
