The Strategic Higher Ed Website: Your Enrollment Engine

The strategic higher ed website is a foundational tool in the student recruitment journey.

They do more than deliver information; they shape first impressions, communicate value, and serve as 24/7 brand representatives for your institution.

It’s not a box to tick off or a digital brochure you update every few years.

Yet for many institutions, that’s exactly what their website becomes—an archive of disjointed content updated only when a department insists on a refresh.

It’s the single most visible, accessible, and strategic marketing asset your institution owns.

And in the digital age, where prospective students begin their college search with Google (not a postcard or fair booth), that asset needs to work hard and work smart.

Conversely, when your website is neglected, misaligned, or bloated with outdated content, the cost is more than superficial. 

Inconsistent messaging and a poor user experience can directly impact your ability to attract, engage, and convert prospective students.

In this episode of The Higher Ed Marketer podcast, Troy Singer and I had the pleasure of sitting down with Kesha Boyce Williams, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Marketing and Communications at USC Upstate.

She did more than a website redesign. Kesha and her team led a complete repositioning of how the institution communicates its value to prospective students and the broader community.

What began as a conversation about a web redesign turned into a masterclass on digital leadership, cross-campus alignment, and storytelling as strategy.

It’s one thing to launch a new website; it’s another to build internal momentum and long-term digital discipline across the institution.

USC Upstate’s website project had been in limbo for nearly a decade with multiple failed starts and mounting frustrations.

The challenges they had are familiar to all higher ed marketers: lack of buy-in, inconsistent ownership, and a legacy platform weighed down by content clutter and institutional silos.

But under Kesha’s leadership, the institution launched a website that not only reflects its mission, but also fuels its enrollment goals.

In this episode, she shares the blueprint any institution can follow if they’re ready to start creating their own strategic higher ed website.

The Website as a Strategic Asset

Many institutions still treat their websites as digital filing cabinets or “online brochures.”

Content is added as needed, often without a strategic framework, resulting in pages that feel more like archives than engaging marketing experiences.

Pages accumulate without purpose. Each department adds its own content, often without coordination or awareness of the overall user journey, which leads to inconsistency and confusion.

Content is added without a unifying voice.

This lack of cohesion can make the site feel fragmented, causing prospective students to lose trust in the institution’s message or become overwhelmed.

Calls to action are vague or buried.

Instead of clear pathways that guide visitors to take next steps—like scheduling a visit or applying—users are left guessing or digging through cluttered menus.

It’s easy for a website to become bloated, inconsistent, and, worst of all, ineffective.

And when a website becomes ineffective, it stops doing its job: attracting, informing, and converting prospective students.

Kesha’s leadership at USC Upstate flipped that script.

She saw the website not as a static repository of information, but as a dynamic and evolving platform to drive engagement and enrollment.

“We decided to treat the website like a campaign. It was one of the most visible and transformative projects our office could take on. And it had been stuck for years.”

That mindset shift was critical.

Framing the project as a campaign—with goals, stakeholders, and metrics—gave it the urgency and visibility it needed to gain traction.

---

---

By treating the website as a strategic higher ed website, not just a digital infrastructure project, the USC Upstate team was able to position it as a tool for long-term growth.

This approach opened doors to conversations with leadership, faculty, and partners who began to see the site as essential to their success instead of just another IT project.

Her team was able to secure buy-in from top leadership and align the redesign with the university’s goals for enrollment growth and brand clarity.

When your leadership sees the connection between website strategy and enrollment numbers, the conversation shifts from “why are we doing this?” to “how can we do this better?”

In doing so, they repositioned the website from a liability to an asset, one that could help prospective students quickly grasp the value of a USC Upstate education.

And in a crowded marketplace, clarity, simplicity, and brand alignment aren’t just helpful, they’re essential.

Getting Campus-Wide Buy-In

One of the biggest challenges in any website project is governance.
Who owns the content? Who approves updates? And how do you ensure the site serves the institution rather than just individual departments?

Without a clear plan, your website can quickly become a battleground of conflicting priorities.
Everyone wants visibility, but few consider how their content fits into the broader student journey.

Kesha navigated this common higher ed challenge with transparency, consistency, and—most importantly—executive support.

She made it a point to lead the project not just from the marketing department, but from a position of institutional strategy.

“Our chancellor was invested from the start. She gave us cover to push forward, even when there were institutional politics at play. That made all the difference.”

When a senior leader champions a project like a website redesign, it changes the dynamic.

Instead of endless internal debates, there’s a mandate to move forward and the authority to say “no” when necessary.

Cross-campus alignment wasn’t just a nice-to-have. It was foundational to the project’s success.

Kesha worked deliberately to create pathways for stakeholder input, while keeping the decision-making process efficient and mission-focused.

---

---

Kesha built a website governance model that balanced inclusion with clarity.

Departments had a voice, but the final say rested with the strategic communications team, guided by a clear set of goals.

“We constantly asked, ‘Will this page help a student say yes to USC Upstate?’ If not, it didn’t belong.”

That litmus test brought focus and purpose to their strategic higher ed website.

This kind of alignment takes time, but it also builds trust.

When stakeholders understand that decisions are made with strategic intent—not just aesthetics—they’re more likely to support the process.

Kesha’s team also provided education along the way.

They didn’t just make changes behind closed doors. More than that, they communicated the “why” behind each decision, which helped campus partners feel included, even when their preferred content didn’t make the cut.

That combination of leadership backing, open communication, and consistent messaging created a ripple effect across departments.

The project stopped being “the marketing team’s thing” and became a university-wide initiative with shared ownership.

From Content Chaos to Clarity

Like many higher ed websites, USC Upstate’s previous site had become a maze.

Years of patchwork updates, well-intentioned additions, and little governance had left the site bloated and difficult to navigate.

Redundant pages, inconsistent messaging, and broken links created confusion for prospective students.

Instead of inspiring confidence, the site presented a disjointed digital experience—one that didn’t reflect the institution’s values or vision.

It didn’t reflect the student experience.

And if your website doesn’t mirror the authentic voice of your campus community, it sends a mixed message to your audience.

When your website becomes a content dumping ground, it stops functioning as a strategic tool and starts becoming a liability.

Kesha’s team knew that solving this meant making bold decisions.

It wasn’t enough to refresh the homepage. 

They needed to restructure, rewrite, and reimagine the entire digital experience.

“We cut hundreds of pages. That was hard. But we prioritized the prospective student experience over internal politics.”

This wasn’t just a content edit. It was a content strategy shift.

Every decision was made with a clear audience in mind: prospective students and their families.

Early in the process, USC Upstate engaged Caylor Solutions for strategic consulting support.

We helped assess the site’s structure, identify enrollment barriers, and lay the groundwork for a more student-focused digital journey.

Our audit revealed what Kesha already suspected: the majority of the site’s content was either duplicated, outdated, or irrelevant to student decision-making.

With the clutter cleared, her team focused on clarity, simplicity, and student-centered storytelling.

That meant more intuitive navigation, streamlined academic program pages, and consistent language across departments.

They also emphasized strong, actionable calls to action.

Rather than burying key next steps, they made it easy for users to request info, apply, or schedule a campus tour within just a few clicks.

The result was a website that works like a strategic higher ed website should—clear, compelling, and built around the prospective student journey.

It became a place where future students could see themselves, understand their options, and take meaningful next steps toward enrollment.

And equally important: it became manageable.

With clearer ownership structures and a content strategy in place, the team could now maintain and evolve the site with confidence.

Students as Storytellers

One of the most powerful decisions Kesha’s team made was to hand the mic to the students themselves.

Rather than relying solely on institutional messaging, they invited students to help shape the voice and feel of the website.

This wasn’t just for the sake of authenticity. They did this as a strategic move to align with how today’s prospective students make decisions.

Peer voices matter. Social proof matters. And when a student can hear directly from someone like them, the message lands differently.

“We brought in student ambassadors to help us shape the tone. We asked them, ‘Does this sound like us?’ And if it didn’t, we changed it.”

That kind of feedback loop created a tone that felt fresh, approachable, and real.

It also showed students that their input was being heard and implemented.

By involving students in content creation, voice development, and visual storytelling, USC Upstate’s website now feels like a true extension of its community.

Rather than being a collection of institutional talking points, their website is a digital experience shaped by the very people it represents.

The student voice appears across the site in several ways.

From testimonial quotes and student-led videos to narrative spotlights and social integration, the content speaks with students, not at them.

This strategic use of student voice builds trust.

Prospective students don’t want to be marketed to—they want to feel seen, heard, and understood.

By positioning students as active contributors, USC Upstate added both authenticity and relevance to its site.

And in doing so, they created a model that other institutions striving for strategic higher ed websites can emulate.

From Enrollment Brochure to Engine

The lesson here is simple but profound: stop treating your website like a digital filing cabinet.

Stop seeing it as a static brochure that exists only to satisfy internal stakeholders or house archived content.

---

---

Your website is your most visible, accessible, and dynamic brand asset.

It’s the first touchpoint for most prospective students, and often the deciding factor in whether they engage further or bounce away.

And when it’s built and maintained strategically, it becomes something more than just a website.

It becomes a recruiting tool, a storytelling platform, a brand amplifier, and a trust builder.

That’s what strategic higher ed websites are designed to do.

They make your institution’s message clear, your mission visible, and your student experience tangible.

Under Kesha’s leadership, USC Upstate shifted its mindset and, in doing so, shifted its results.

It didn’t require a flashy gimmick or a massive rebrand. What it required was clarity, focus, and the courage to lead with strategy.

If your institution’s website feels like it’s working against your goals instead of supporting them, it might be time to reframe the question.

Ask more than “What should our website look like?” Ask “What should our website do?”

Because when your website functions like an enrollment engine, everything else—marketing, recruitment, retention—starts to run more smoothly too.

🎧 For even more insights from Kesha Boyce Williams, listen to the full episode on The Higher Ed Marketer podcast.

Ready to Redesign with Purpose?

You’ve seen what’s possible when a higher ed website becomes a strategic enrollment engine.

Now imagine what your institution could achieve with a website intentionally built to attract, engage, and convert prospective students.

At Caylor Solutions, we specialize in website design & development tailored to the specific needs of colleges, universities, and seminaries—like the project here with USC Upstate.

From the first sitemap to the final line of code, every element we design is grounded in strategy, student usability, and enrollment growth.

Whether you need a streamlined update or a fully custom solution, our team walks alongside your institution to create a site that works as hard as you do.

Our services include:

• Strategic site architecture aligned with your enrollment goals
• Mobile-first, accessible designs that resonate with Gen Z
• Conversion-focused user journeys that drive applications and campus visits
• Integrated storytelling that reflects the authentic student experience
• CMS training and governance models to keep your site nimble and scalable

If your current website is holding you back—or if you’re ready to lead with strategy like USC Upstate—let’s talk.

---

Market More. Spend Less.

Set yourself free from your shrinking marketing budget with my popular ebook Marketing on a Shoestring Budget! This ebook is jammed with practical ways to produce high-quality marketing on the cheap.

Inside, I’ll show you proven marketing tactics like…

• How to leverage low-cost technologies to reach your target market,
• How to craft a content marketing strategy on a bare-bones budget,
• The number one thing your website needs to do,
• The key to getting free, organic traffic to your website, and more.

No hype. No pie in the sky. Just real solutions for getting the job done with the budget you’ve got.

Download your copy today!

Featured image via uscupstate.edu