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Creating a Daycare Website Part 2

What To Put In It

In this second part of the Creating a Daycare Website series I'm going to get down to the "meat & potatoes" ... what a daycare website should have.  For the purposes of this "how-to" we are making a simple yet functional website to help you get started.  In part one I gave a quick and general overview of how the Webs Sitebuilder works and now we are going to just talk about what pages and information a website should have.  

From my experience I have found that all you need is five basis pages for your daycare website.  A Home page, About Us page, a Program page, a Parent page and a Contact Us page.  These pages can make up your basic site but give you the flexibility to add sub-pages later in the future.

Home Page

Your home page should be an introduction page to your business with a general description about your daycare.  I would include what type of daycare you have (large/small, family child care etc.), a general location of your daycare home to give parents an idea of where you are located, whether you are close to any major streets or freeways/highways, what type of care you provide (full-time, part-time, drop-in, weekends, evenings, overnights, after-school etc.), and a quick overview of what type of program you provide (care only, relaxed, structured, curriculum, play-based, educational etc.).  

I personally like to be very convenient for parents so I like to also include whether I have openings or not right on my home page so that they don't have to call or go fishing through the other pages to find this information.

Add a few colorful photos of your daycare children playing/doing crafts or of your space and voila!  Now let me say something about photos.  There are lots of providers that don't like posting photos of children for safety reasons ... totally understandable.  That being said, you don't have to post photos that show a children's faces.  Posting pictures that only show the back's of children work just as well without compromising the safety of the children and they look way better than any website or advertising that has no photos at all or that has generic photos of children taken from the internet.  Photos of children from the neck down or of the child's hands while they make a craft also look wonderful and really show parents what their child could be doing at your daycare.  


About Us Page

I like to say that the About Us page is both a history report and a resume for both the provider and the daycare.  Well ... at least that's how I like to use this page.

Add location and license information such as major cross streets, schools and parks nearby, major highways and freeways, license type, ratio limit and type of child care you provide.  This section will repeat a lot of the information you gave on your Home page except here you should give more detail.  

You should also take the time to write a mission statement and child care philosophy and add those to this page.  This will help parents get an idea of what to expect from your care.  

It is also a great idea to add a section about you as a provider.  Add things that are relevant to daycare such as how you got started, why you chose to do daycare, your experience in child care, education, training etc.  One thing that I do is actually make a resume for potential clients as well as a full list of training and education that I've completed and I save a PDF copy and add them to this section for them to download.

Program Page

Use this page to describe the day to day things about your daycare such as your approach to learning, your daily schedule or routine, curriculum etc.  Do you run a laid-back flexible program, a structured more rigid program, or something in between?  Do you follow a daily schedule for meals and activities or have a particular routine for the children?  What type of activities do you do with the children?  Do you take them on field trips?  Do the children tale walks or ride in a vehicle to get to places?  What type of meals do you serve to the children?  These are all important things to mention in this section.  I suggest adding a sample of your schedule/routine and meal plans to this page so that parents get a glimpse into a typical day in your daycare. 

Parent Page

This page is for both enrolled and potential clients alike.  Add special reminders or upcoming dates, photos, a wish-list of items that you would love to have donated to your daycare, enrollment information and other information that you think is important for parents to know.  

Other suggestions are to have your rates, contract and policies posted right here as well.  Doing so can save you time interviewing clients that aren't a good fit for your program.  Parents can see this information from the start and decide whether to keep looking or to give you a call for more information.  My recommendation if you add these to your site add links to downloadable PDF versions of these documents so that your page isn't forever long. 

Contact Us Page

This page should be much simpler than any of the other pages and can just have your daycare name, license number, contact name, hours of operation, telephone number, e-mail, and if possible a contact form that parents can fill out online.  

In General

Keep your website updated and change it often.  This will get you better search engine rankings.  I also strongly suggest that you add photos of your daycare space and of the children playing or doing activities while in your care. Use font styles and colors that are easy to read and please, please, please ... watch your spelling, grammar and punctuation.  If you use Google Chrome to edit your website it will catch spelling errors for you, otherwise you can simply use a word processor program like Microsoft Word to type out your content, use spellcheck and then copy and paste the corrected content to your website.  

If you missed Part 1 of this 2 part series you can check it out.  It gives a step by step walk through of the basics of creating a new Webs site and using the tools. 

Creating a Daycare Website Part 1

Using Webs.com

One of the best advertising strategies that I use is my daycare website.  I include my website address on all of my advertising and constantly change and update my website.  This helps keep the information on my site relevant, fresh and interesting.  It also helps me get a higher ranking when people search for daycare online.  Let's face it, we are in the internet age where consumers turn to the internet first to find and research products and services. Having a website that is informative and accessible creates a lot of leads for potential clients.  

For some that feel they are not savvy or simply don't know where to start I will create a step by step lesson on how to create a simple starter website using the free web page service from Webs.com.  I am most familiar with this web design tool and feel that it is easy for even the least technology literate users.  You can make up to 10 pages for your site for free.  

*I should mention that the web designer works best with Google Chrome so make sure to have it installed and use this browser when creating or making changes to your website.

Getting Started

The first thing you will want to do is go to Webs.com and sign up for your free account.  Once you're signed up and signed in click on Add a New Site.      

Pick a site title relevant to your daycare.  This should be the name of your daycare such as "Valenzuela Family Child Care" or "Helping Hands Childcare", depending on what is on your license.  Now pick your Site Category which should be Education & Children (you'll see child care listed to the right of it).  


Next pick a template theme. Don't worry, you can change it later without disturbing your content if you don't like it or change your mind (I chose Crafty).  


Now choose which pages you want to start off with.  I like to start with nothing and add to it as I go so for now let's just leave the Home page selected and deselect the others.  Don't forget to click the little box at the bottom that says Agree To The Terms of Service and click the Create My Website button.  

This next step is where you pick your domain name.  That's what your website address is going to be.  If you pick something pretty generic you'll probably have to play with it a bit until you get a URL address that's available but if you've stuck with something more unique you'll have better luck.  Whatever name you choose it will have webs.com after it.  Once you're done click the green button to generate your bare bones website.  

Setting Up Your Foundation

Before you can do anything else a screen with a 3-minute tutorial video will pop up.  I recommend you watch it since it talks about different parts of the Webs SiteBuilder.  Click on the X and now you can start creating your website.


Near the bottom of your screen you'll notice boxes, these are your tools called Modules.  I'm not going to spend any time explaining them because they're all pretty much self explanatory.  I will address them as I go and as I need them.  

Next look up near the top of the screen.  Next to Builder is Theme.  Click on that and there you can change the theme, colors & fonts and background.  Any changes here will be applied to your entire website.  Click on the Colors & Fonts tab.  For now the only thing I will change is the font style so click on Body and change your Text and Titles to the font of your liking.  I chose Architects Daughter for the titles and Coming Soon for the text.  When you are done click the green Apply button near the bottom and then Return to Builder.

Learning How to Edit Your Pages

Now that you have your website set up it's time to start adding content.  I personally like my home page looking a little less simple and so I want to change the layout.  Look near the top of the screen and you'll notice a little cog with a tiny arrow under it next to the magnifying glass.  That's your drop down Settings menu.  Click on Change Page Layout.  A pop-up window will open up with  different layouts.  Choose a layout that you like and click Save Layout. 


Okay, so I chose the Banner Sidebar Left layout and now I can really get started.  I like having any openings that I have available to show right on my home page so I will use the left side of the top banner for that.  Just click on the text and start typing to change the content.  


On the right the layout that I chose automatically added a slideshow so I will double click where it says Double Click to Add an Image :P.  Double click again to add an image and you can upload a photo in the My Images tab.  If you have a Photobucket account you can upload a lot more photos there and then click on the Image URL tab and enter your photo's direct URL from Photobucket (this is what I do).  Select your photo and then you can zoom in and out and move the photo around.  Once your photo is just where you like it click on the box with the + in it to add another photo and repeat the steps above until you are satisfied with your slideshow.  Once you are done click the green box with the check mark. 


So now we get to use those Modules near the bottom of the SiteBuilder.  It's all drag and drop so it's pretty easy.  Let's start by adding a brief description to the Home page.  Left click on the Text module and drag it onto any lighted area of your page.  Now you just click on that module and start typing your description.  


Next let's add a title over the description.  Drag and drop a Title module right above the description.  When you hold the new module in this area you will see a blue line.  This line represents where the module will be added.  If the blue line falls on the left of the text box then that is where it will be added, if it appears under it then that is where it be added etc.  Drop it above the text box and type your title.  


Use the other modules to add more content to your page in the same manner.


Creating a New Page

Remember that cog from earlier?  It's that little symbol next to the magnifying glass near the upper right hand of the SiteBuilder.  Click on it and select Create a New Page then select the type of format you want for your new page (I picked Sidebar Left) and type in the title of your new page and click Create a Page. 




And that is pretty much how you use the modules and other SiteBuilder tools to create a website.  Now that you are somewhat familiar with the Webs SiteBuilder you can move on to Part 2.

If there is something in Webs SiteBuilder that you don't understand or don't know how to do please feel free to contact me at HelpingHands@Daycare.com and I will add it to this post.  Thanks!