A childcare centre website rarely breaks. It just slides: the phone version gets awkward, the photos age, the prices disappear because nobody updated them. Here are the signs that a refresh is due, and the order in which to fix things.
Sign 1: It does not answer childcare near me with vacancies within ten seconds
Open your homepage on a phone. If a stranger cannot tell what you do, where you work and how to call you before scrolling, the structure needs work, not the colours.
Sign 2: The photos are stock, or five years old
A childcare centre website should show the rooms, the outdoor play area and educators at work (with consent), not stock toddlers. Replacing stock images with your own is the single highest-impact change most refreshes make.
Sign 3: Prices have quietly disappeared
Publish daily fees by age group and a subsidy example or calculator link. Parents compare centres on price before touring. Sites lose their prices over time because nobody wants to update them; a refresh is the moment to put them back.
Sign 4: The mobile version feels like a compromise
Tap targets too small, menus that hide the phone number, text that wraps badly. Most of your visitors are on phones, so the phone version is the website.
Sign 5: It describes last year's business
Services have changed, areas have changed, the team has changed. Check that long day care, kindergarten and preschool programs and before and after school care and the suburbs you actually cover are what the site says. Enrolment enquiries peak from September to November for the following year and again in January; keep the vacancies page current through spring.
Sign 6: The trust signals are missing or hidden
Customers look for your NQS rating and approved provider details, educator qualifications and ratios and current vacancies by age group. If those are in a footer or an about page nobody reads, move them to where decisions are made.
Refresh or rebuild?
A refresh keeps your domain, structure and useful content while fixing presentation, mobile usability and outdated sections. A rebuild makes sense when the information architecture itself is broken — visitors cannot tell what you sell — or when you need features the current site cannot support. For most childcare centres and kindergartens, a refresh is enough. See website refresh for how that works.
What to fix first
- Phone number, hours and service area visible on the first screen of the homepage.
- Replace stock photos with your own.
- Put prices or ranges back on the service pages.
- Check every page on a phone and fix the three worst problems.
- Match every detail with your Google Business Profile.
Common questions
Should childcare centres publish fees?
Yes. Parents shortlist on fees and vacancies, then tour. Hiding fees removes you from the shortlist.
What do parents look for first on the website?
Vacancies, fees, hours, location and photos of the actual rooms, in roughly that order.
What should be on my homepage?
What you do, who you help, where you work and how to contact you, all visible on a phone screen without scrolling. Everything else supports those four points.
If you would like a second opinion on your current site, send the URL through the contact page and we will reply with three practical fixes. New builds start at $499 for a one-page site and $999 for a site with service pages — see pricing.
