More than just a website.
Today’s students aren’t impressed by design alone. They expect compelling content, modern technology, and seamless functionality. Everything—from your CMS and hosting to SEO and analytics—needs to work together. With LuxEd, our specialized in-house teams and centralized Project Management Office keep every component aligned and on track, delivering measurable results without the complexity of managing multiple vendors.
Flexible options, predictable costs.
Choose from three flexible payment options to fit your school’s budget. Our fixed monthly fee model spreads costs over 18 or 30 months, turning your project into a predictable marketing expense instead of a large upfront investment. Prefer a more traditional structure? Opt for progress billing, with invoices issued as work is completed. No matter which approach you choose, LuxEd keeps pricing transparent and cost-effective.
Nobody delivers faster.
By managing every phase under one roof, we eliminate the delays and finger-pointing that often slow projects down. Our dedicated Project Management Office strategically schedules resources using a hybrid waterfall-agile approach to keep momentum steady and costs in check. While other vendors may take up to two years, LuxEd typically delivers a fully customized, enterprise-grade website in just 8–12 months, so your institution can begin realizing ROI sooner.
A proven partner with decades of higher-ed results.
With more than 300 higher-ed engagements under our belt, Beacon brings unmatched knowledge and technology expertise to every LuxEd project. Our award-winning culture fosters exceptional team retention, so you work with seasoned experts who understand the latest higher-ed digital marketing trends.
Our Team
Your website is more than just a digital billboard—it’s a reflection of your institution’s identity, values, and academic excellence. With LuxED, our expert design team creates a visually stunning, user-focused website that captures the essence of your school while delivering an intuitive, engaging experience for students, parents, faculty, and alumni.
Our collaborative design process ensures your new website is both creative and strategic, with a focus on:
From concept to launch, Beacon’s award-winning designers work with you every step of the way to ensure your website not only stands out but also builds meaningful connections with your audience.
Based on 25+ years of experience and research, we believe there are two very clear CMS choices for Higher Education: Cascade CMS and WordPress. These are the best proprietary and open-source solutions, respectively, and why these are the only two CMS options available with our LuxEd solution.
While the CMS you choose is certainly an important part of the solution, its primary role is to simplify and govern the management of your ever-changing content. In other words, it plays a support role for your institution's overarching marketing objectives to reach, engage and win students.
We created a comprehensive side-by-side overview of Cascade CMS and WordPress that highlights the key factors and differences.
One of the most underestimated—but absolutely critical—factors in any website redesign is content strategy and migration. Higher education websites often contain thousands of pages, making it essential to determine what to keep, rewrite, or remove. LuxED includes Beacon’s 3-Step Approach to ensure your content is organized and optimized for performance.
A well-structured website is just the beginning. Effective content strategy doesn’t just enhance your website—it fuels your entire digital marketing ecosystem. SEO rankings, paid ad performance, and user engagement all depend on content that is optimized, accessible, and strategically developed.
A senior-level project manager will serve as your primary point of contact, expertly orchestrating Beacon's talented creative, technical, and marketing teams throughout your redesign journey and beyond. Your project manager will manage all deliverables using our Basecamp platform, schedule necessary meetings, organize training sessions, engage resources efficiently, track issues, and be your personal guide to success through this long, seemingly daunting project.
What's more, the same project manager and team members will continue working with you for the duration of your partnership (after launch) with the same consistency, expertise, and a deep understanding of your institution and team.
Beacon not only creates and markets higher education websites; we host them, too! Our high-performance, secure hosting ensures a superb user experience and supports your SEO strategy. Speed and performance are often-overlooked factors in Google's ranking algorithm.
Beacon has been hosting websites since 1998 in our co-location facility with full managed hosting services that include proactive website monitoring, 24/7 support desk, high availability options, data backups, redundant networks, generators (to guard against power failure), and direct access to our staff when you need us.
But the benefits go well beyond speed and reliability. During a redesign, seamless communication and coordination between the development team and the hosting team is essential for an efficient and stress-free launch. With Beacon and LuxEd, you'll have a hosting partner you can rely on for exceptional performance and clear communication every step of the way.
With Beacon, you’re backed by one of the longest-standing Google Analytics Partners in the United States. We specialize in GA4 and provide a higher ed-focused reporting platform designed to accurately track activity, collect key data, and produce reports that drive insights and better marketing results.
Our HighEd Intelligence Dashboard empowers you to make smarter, data-driven marketing decisions. From day one, Google Analytics is integrated into the strategy phase, guiding your audience experience analysis to inform the redesign process. Once your new website is fully tested, we validate your GA accounts before, during, and after launch to ensure data integrity and a smooth transition between reporting periods.
Post-launch performance monitoring, reporting and ongoing consultation are provided through our SEO Jumpstart Program and our Website Health Management Program.
After the launch of your new website, Beacon’s Digital Optimization Team will remain engaged to firmly establish a strong SEO baseline configuration to ensure ongoing SEO health. They will focus primarily on your home page and main landing pages to optimally position them in the search engines for the attributes and key phrases that students are searching on. SEO performance is monitored monthly and remediation is achieved as needed through technical and content boosters. Lastly, local profiles will be regularly reviewed and optimized to further increase visibility and traffic.
With LuxEd, your partnership with Beacon doesn't end at launch—we're here to support you long after your website goes live. Where else can you find ongoing maintenance and support from a vendor who understands your website, marketing strategy, brand, and team?
Whether you need a design tweak or assistance in integrating a new third-party app, your dedicated project manager will ensure the team addresses your needs promptly. We reserve time each week to respond to client requests, guaranteeing quick and reliable support.
Many of our clients have worked with us for years, collaborating with the same project managers and developers for over a decade. As a stable firm with minimal turnover, we pride ourselves on building consistent, long-term relationships—providing an extension of your team that truly gets to know you.
A high-performing, accessible website isn’t just built—it’s maintained. With LuxEd, we ensure your site remains fast, accessible, engaging and optimized long after launch.
Your website is a dynamic marketing channel that evolves with new content, images, and features. But without regular monitoring, poor performance can impact student engagement, SEO rankings, and overall user experience. As they say, prevention is more cost-effective than repair—so protecting your investment is key.
That’s why Beacon’s Website Health Management Program monitors five critical areas to keep your site performing at its best:
With LuxEd, you receive six free months of Accessibility, Performance and Content+Platform Health Management to keep these vital areas in A+ condition as your team transitions into your new website and implements long-term best practices.
Beacon was a great partner. They were really helpful as we kept adding to our project, whether it was content migration, setting up Google Analytics, or other site features.
Kristen Titsworth
College of Southern Maryland
150+
Higher education clients.
65+
In-house team members.
$15M
Managed annual ad spend.
