School Website Design in Thailand

Your website is the first place parents look

Before parents call or visit, almost all of them search for the school on Google first. What they see in those few seconds matters. A news page last updated three years ago, a site that needs pinching and zooming on a phone, or a phone number that’s hard to find makes a poor first impression, however good the school really is.

Southern Whale builds websites for educational institutions at every level: nurseries, kindergartens, private and public schools, international and bilingual schools, vocational colleges and universities. We are an SEO team that builds websites, so “how will parents find this?” is part of the design from day one, not an afterthought.

We focus on three things for every school site:

1. Staff can update it themselves. News, events, announcements and photo albums should take minutes, with no waiting on anyone.
2. Children’s data is handled carefully. Student photos and personal data are managed with Thailand’s PDPA in mind.
3. Parents can find you and contact you easily, on Google, Google Maps and mobile.

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Different institutions need different websites

A kindergarten site and a university site have different audiences, questions and decision points. We don’t use one template for everyone; we plan the structure around the type of institution.

Nurseries and kindergartens

Parents of young children have one first question: “Will my child be safe?” The site needs to answer that before talking about curriculum.

• Safety and care page: drop-off and pick-up rules, who may collect a child, CCTV, what happens when a child is unwell, and the carer-to-child ratio as it actually is.
• Daily routine: the schedule from morning to evening, nap and play times, menus and how allergies are handled.
• Teachers and carers: qualifications and experience, because parents want to know who spends the day with their child.
• Gallery: classrooms, play areas, nap corners and facilities, favouring photos where children’s faces aren’t the focus, or only those with parental consent.
• Book a visit: a short form to pick a date and give the child’s age, sent straight to the school’s LINE OA. Almost every parent of a young child wants to see the place in person.

Private schools

Private schools compete on admissions, so the website works as a salesperson that never clocks off.

• Admissions: grades open, eligibility, steps, the admissions calendar and documents needed.
• Open house: event pages with registration and LINE reminders before the day.
• Fees page: a layout staff can update each academic year, or, if the school prefers not to publish figures, a page explaining what is included with a request-details button.
• Programmes and strengths: special programmes, languages, sport, music, EP/MEP tracks where offered, written for parents rather than in official-document language.
• News and student achievements, updated regularly as proof the school is active.

Public schools

Public schools carry an obligation private schools don’t: certain information must be published. The site needs well-organised documents.

• Public-disclosure pages as required by the supervising agency, grouped by the topics the school has been given, dated, and readable on mobile. Staff add new documents to the right category themselves. The school confirms the list of topics from the latest official notice, since details change from year to year.
• School profile: history, vision, management structure and staff.
• Announcements vs. news: official notices (admissions, procurement, results) kept separate from activity news so important documents don’t get buried.
• Downloads: forms organised by category and searchable.

We don’t fill in indicators or scores on the school’s behalf, and we don’t claim a website will make a school pass any assessment. Our job is to make storing and publishing information orderly, findable and easy for staff to maintain.

Vocational colleges

People searching for a college include students choosing where to study, parents, and employers looking for trainees.

• A page per programme: what students learn, where they intern, what jobs follow. Separate pages rank for programme-specific searches far better than one combined page.
• Admissions and quotas: calendar, eligibility, documents and an enquiry form.
• Dual-vocational and internships: a page for businesses that want to take interns or join the programme.
• Careers and placement: job postings from employers and further-study information. Graduate employment figures only where the college has real data.

Universities

University sites are large, with many faculties, offices and languages. The main challenges are structure and editing permissions.

• Faculty and programme structure: each faculty gets its own section within a shared design; each programme gets its own page.
• Thai, English and Chinese: separate URLs per language with correct hreflang, suited to universities recruiting international students or running international programmes.
• Research and faculty profiles: staff profiles, publications and research projects, which also strengthen credibility in Google’s eyes.
• Events calendar and news filtered by faculty and pulled into central listings automatically.
• Per-unit permissions: faculty staff edit only their own section, reducing the risk of accidental changes elsewhere.

International and bilingual schools

Many families here are expatriates or have relocated to Southern Thailand for work. The English site must read naturally, not as a literal translation. We cover admissions, curriculum (British, American or IB, whatever the school actually offers), the teaching team and mid-year transfers in both languages.

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Teachers post news in WordPress

The most common problem we see with school websites is that they go stale. Not because nothing happens, but because posting is too hard, or only one person knows the password. When that person leaves, the site stops.

We use WordPress as the back end because most teachers pick it up within a few hours, and it’s easy to find someone to maintain it later.

Everyone gets their own account. PR staff post news, admin staff attach documents, and a head or coordinator can approve before publishing. At handover we train the staff who will actually post, and leave an illustrated manual in Thai.

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PDPA, student photos and data

School sites are full of children’s photos, which are personal data of minors. This should be designed in from the start, not handled after a parent complains.

• Privacy policy explaining what the site collects, why, and whom to contact for correction or removal.
• Photo guidance for staff: prefer group and activity shots, no full names beside photos, only children whose parents have consented.
• Removal requests via a form or LINE OA, which staff can act on immediately in the back end.
• Minimal forms: enquiry and booking forms ask only what’s needed, with clear consent and HTTPS.
• Cookie banner where analytics tools are used.

Parental consent forms and legal wording should be reviewed by the school’s legal adviser or supervising agency. We build the technical side; we don’t provide legal advice.

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Mobile speed and accessibility

Most parents open the school site on a phone, often from a link forwarded in a LINE group. It must load fast on mobile data and be readable without zooming.

• Fast even with lots of photos: images are compressed and converted automatically and lazy-loaded.
• Readable type and strong colour contrast.
• Keyboard and screen-reader friendly: alt text, clear button labels and correct heading order, designed with WCAG guidelines in mind.
• Key information as web pages, not just downloadable PDFs.

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SEO so parents find the school

Parents search in two ways: by school name, and broadly, such as “kindergarten near me” or “international school Phuket”. The site needs to handle both.

• Google Business Profile with the right category, hours, photos and website link. See our Local SEO service.
• Education schema so Google understands this is a school and where it is.
• One page per search intent: grade levels, programmes and admissions each get their own page.
• Seasonal timing: parents search months before term starts, so admissions pages should be ready before then.
• Search Console and GA4 connected at handover so the school can see which searches bring visitors.

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LINE OA and online admissions

Thai parents contact schools on LINE far more than by email, so we connect the site to the school’s LINE OA: add-friend buttons on every page, tour and enquiry forms that notify the admissions team on LINE, and an admissions FAQ that cuts repeat questions.

If you need more than forms, such as online applications with document uploads, applicant tracking, student records, results or parent notifications, we build a separate school management system and link the website’s Apply button to it. The website stays light and fast, and student data lives in a system with tighter access control.

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Our process

1. Goals: what kind of institution, who needs to find the site, who will maintain it.
2. Review the existing site: how much news and how many documents exist, which URLs get search traffic, so nothing valuable is lost.
3. Structure and design: you see the main page designs and approve them first.
4. Build on a staging site hidden from Google, migrate old news and documents, and 301-redirect old links. See website migration.
5. Pre-launch checks: mobile, speed, forms and accessibility.
6. Training and handover: staff training, manual, and domain, hosting and all accounts in the school’s name.
7. Ongoing care (optional): security updates, backups and help when staff get stuck.

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Why Southern Whale

• An SEO team that builds websites, so the site is ready to be found, not just to look good. See our web development service.
• 50+ websites delivered, and 10+ years of web and SEO experience from our founder.
• Based in Southern Thailand, familiar with local schools, from those combining religious and general education to schools in tourist towns with many foreign families, and working with institutions nationwide online.
• The school owns everything: domain, hosting, code and data in the school’s name.
• Straight talk: if a very small school has no one to maintain a website yet, a well-kept Google Business Profile and an active page may be enough to start. We’ll tell you.

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Getting started

Message us on LINE OA with your institution’s name, type and current website link if you have one, and we’ll tell you for free what to fix first. Priced on real scope — message us on LINE for a free consultation first. Or email [email protected].

Frequently asked questions

Can teachers update the news themselves?

Yes. We build on WordPress with separate accounts and roles, so each department can post news and photo albums, with an optional approval step. You get a Thai-language manual and hands-on training at handover.

Do you build websites for public schools?

Yes. We organise the public-disclosure pages required by the school's supervising agency so documents are easy to find and update. The school confirms the list of required topics from the latest official notice; we don't define the criteria ourselves, as they change by year and agency.

What should a nursery or kindergarten website include?

Parents of young children want to see safety arrangements, the daily routine, meals, the carers, the classrooms and an easy way to book a visit. We build those pages and a tour-booking form connected to your LINE OA.

Can we show school fees?

Yes, as a fees page staff can update every year. If you prefer not to publish figures, we make a page explaining what is included with a button to request details.

Is posting student photos a PDPA problem?

Photos of children need care. Common practice is written parental consent, a privacy policy on the site, no full names next to photos, and a way to request removal. We build the structure for this; legal wording should be checked by your legal adviser or supervising agency.

Can parents apply online?

A light version is an enquiry and tour-booking form that notifies LINE OA and email. For full applications with document uploads and status tracking, we build a separate school management system and link it from the website.

Can a university or college site be multilingual?

Yes: Thai, English and Chinese, each with its own URLs and correct hreflang tags, organised by faculty, programme, research and events.

Will the school rank on Google?

The school's own name usually ranks quickly with the right structure and a complete Google Business Profile. Broader searches take time and good content. We don't guarantee rankings, but we do everything we can.

How much does a school website cost?

Priced on real scope: number of pages and languages, admissions features and content migration. Message us on LINE for a free consultation first; we put the scope in writing before any work starts.