Finalsite to Webflow Migration: American School of Paris | Webodew Case Study

The Challenge: When Finalsite Becomes Your Biggest Bottleneck

Here's something that happens more often than you'd think: You're paying premium prices for an enterprise school website platform, but every time you want to make a simple update, you're waiting days for changes or being charged a ridiculous amount.

That was the reality at The American School of Paris.

Want to tweak the homepage design with a new component? Submit a ticket. Pay thousands. Trying to optimize for search so international families actually find you? That'll be extra costs on top of the expensive maintenance contract that still required additional fees for any substantial work.

As one of Paris's leading international schools competing in one of the world's most intense education markets, ASP decided not to renew their engagement with Finalsite.

The decision to migrate from Finalsite to Webflow wasn't just about switching platforms. It was about taking back control.

ASP had already moved to Webflow with another agency, but the initial build was missing key elements. We stepped in to finish what their previous agency started and optimize what they'd overlooked.

The Real Challenges

ASP had specific design elements missing from their Webflow build that board members spotted immediately. It created brand inconsistencies that made the site feel off.

The transparent banner. The animated red line under titles. The exact shade of blue that said "this is us."

Migration projects often lose these details, and ASP needed someone who could step in and handle the grunt work to get everything right.

But it wasn't just about design details.

The initial Webflow build had functional gaps: no search function, parent portal in the wrong spot, missing quicklinks to PowerSchool and Schoology. And with families researching from London, Dubai, Singapore, the mobile experience had to be flawless.

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The Solution: Strategic Optimization That Completes Your Migration

Working with ASP's Director of Institutional Advancement and their Community Relations Manager, we tackled both the immediate technical needs and the bigger picture of digital presence.

Design that honors brand identity: Restored the original blue palette, rebuilt the red line animation, fixed the transparent banner effect with custom CSS. These details matter when prospective families are evaluating your school during a stressful international move.

Functionality that matches how schools actually work: Implemented robust search, repositioned the parent portal to the top menu, added quicklinks to all the daily tools families need (PowerSchool, Schoology, calendar, cafeteria recharge).

SEO and AI discoverability: Schema markup for local listings so ASP shows up when families search "international schools Paris." But we didn't stop at traditional SEO. We optimized for AI tools like ChatGPT since families increasingly use them to research schools. Compressed images, cleaned up unused CSS, ensured accessibility standards.

Team empowerment: Provided a practical SEO report they could actually use, not a 47-page PDF they'd never read.

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The Outcome: Control That Changes Everything

Here's what really matters: the ASP communications team now has control. They can update content during inquiry season, test new messaging, respond to enrollment cycles without external dependencies slowing them down.

As Clive Watkins, Director of Institutional Advancement, put it: "Mike fine-tuned our school's website, improved the structure, and delivered a helpful SEO health check to make sure the site is optimized for international families."

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What This Means for Your School

If you're on Finalsite, another enterprise platform, or a custom solution that's become impossible to manage, the pattern is usually the same: you've outgrown what the platform can do. Updates take forever. Your website could be working harder for enrollment, but your hands are tied.

Migration doesn't have to be painful. The schools that make this move now will have a real advantage while competitors are still waiting three days for homepage tweaks.

Worth considering:

• Can you update your site yourself during enrollment season, or are you stuck waiting on support tickets?
• Does your mobile experience work flawlessly everywhere? (International families research from every device and timezone)
• Are you showing up in both Google and AI tools like ChatGPT when families research schools?
• Does your design reflect your school's caliber, or does it look like a template seventeen other schools use?

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Ready to Talk Strategy?

Every school's situation is unique. If you're curious about what a redesign could look like for your school, or want to talk through whether migration makes sense right now, let's have that conversation.

No pressure. No generic sales pitch. Just strategy about helping your website work as hard as your admissions team does.