What parents look for on a nursery website in ninety seconds

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 1 day ago

Introduction

A parent on a phone at half past nine in the evening is checking six nursery websites. They have about ninety seconds for each one, and they are looking for four things: where it is, what it costs, whether there is space, and how to arrange a visit.

Most nursery websites open with a welcome message, a photograph of a play area and a paragraph about a nurturing environment. The four things are somewhere, usually across three different pages, and one of them is not there at all. The parent moves to the next site.

1. What parents look for on a nursery website begins with the practical facts

Put them where they cannot be missed.

Location, opening hours, age ranges taken, and whether places are currently available. These belong on the home page rather than three clicks in, because they determine whether anything else on the site gets read.

2. Publish your fees

The most common omission and the most damaging.

A parent who cannot find a price assumes the worst or moves on, and settings that withhold figures to encourage a phone call mostly encourage a visit to a competitor. A monthly example for each common pattern answers it properly.

3. Show real photographs of the actual setting

Stock imagery is recognised instantly.

Your rooms, your outdoor space, your staff, taken on an ordinary day. Parents are trying to picture their child in this building, and a generic image of unfamiliar children in an unfamiliar room tells them nothing at all.

4. Introduce the people

The section that builds most of the trust.

Names, photographs, roles and how long they have been there. A parent choosing who will look after their child responds to seeing the actual people far more than to a description of your philosophy.

5. Make arranging a visit take one step

The action every other element is leading to.

A short form or a clearly displayed telephone number, on every page, with a note about how quickly somebody replies. Requiring a parent to find a contact page and compose an email loses a proportion of them at the final moment.

6. Explain how a place is arranged

Reduce the uncertainty of enquiring.

What happens after they get in touch, how the waiting list works, whether there is a registration fee, and what settling in involves. Families hesitate about starting a process they cannot see the shape of.

7. Answer the questions you get on the telephone

Your enquiry log is the content plan.

Meals, nappies, sleep arrangements, sickness policy, what to bring, funded hours. Putting these on the site reduces repetitive calls and, more importantly, lets a parent complete their evaluation without needing to speak to anybody.

8. Make it work properly on a phone

Where the site is actually being read.

Tappable telephone number, readable text without pinching, a form that works with a thumb, and a map that opens. Nursery websites are commonly designed on a laptop and encountered on a handset in the evening.

9. Keep it current

Neglect suggests a setting that is not on top of things.

Staff who left, an old inspection report, a news section stopping two years ago, or a fee page marked with a previous year. Parents read these as a signal about how the setting is run, and they are not usually wrong to.

Ask a parent who does not know the setting to find three specific facts on your site while you watch in silence. Where they hesitate is the whole answer, and it is nearly always the fees, the availability, or how to arrange a visit.

Conclusion

Lead with location, hours, ages and availability, because those decide whether anything else is read.

Publish your fees with a worked monthly example, use real photographs of your own rooms and staff, introduce the people by name, make arranging a visit a single obvious step from any page, explain what happens after an enquiry, put the answers to your most common telephone questions on the site, make everything work on a phone in the evening, and keep the content current.