Daycare website design that fills seats
When a parent searches for care at 11pm, your center either appears with reviews, real photos, and a tour button — or it doesn't appear at all. Harlae builds the websites, Google presence, and follow-up systems that turn parent searches into booked tours for programs across Prince George's County, Maryland, and the DMV.
The 5-second parent test
A parent landing on your website decides in seconds whether to keep reading or hit back. They're answering three questions — and most childcare websites fail all three.
Is there space for my child?
If your site doesn't say whether you have openings — by age group, with a clear 'Now Enrolling' section — parents assume you're full and move on. Current openings belong on the homepage, not in a PDF.
Can I trust this place?
Parents scan for your MSDE license, your Maryland EXCELS rating, real photos of your rooms and staff, and recent reviews. If those trust signals are buried or missing, no amount of nice design saves the visit.
How do I book a tour?
The single action your website exists for. One obvious button, a form a tired parent can finish on a phone in under a minute, and a fast reply. If booking a tour takes a phone call during nap time, you're losing families to the center that made it easy.
The stakes are real: in a 2024 NAEYC survey, 56% of child care providers reported being under-enrolled relative to capacity — while Maryland families pay an average of $25,321 a year for child care (Child Care Aware of America, via First Five Years Fund). Parents making that kind of decision research carefully. Your website is where that research starts.
Three ways to start
Clear scope, clear pricing, no hidden fees. Site care and hosting are billed separately at cost.
$750
flat rate — about a week
Your Google Business Profile overhauled, a review-request system set up, listings and citations cleaned up, and a one-page enrollment audit of your current site. The right starting point if you already have a website — or run a home-based program.
from $3,500
typically $3,500–$5,000 · 50% deposit, milestones available
Custom design and copy built around the parent journey, a tour-booking flow, local SEO foundation, review integration, and AI-search basics — schema and FAQ structure so your center shows up in Google and in AI answers.
from $600/mo
month to month
Local SEO, Google Business Profile posts and updates, review management, one content piece per month, and a one-page monthly report you can read in two minutes.
Not sure which fits? See how these compare on our web design and local SEO service pages.
WhatsApp-native tour booking
Many of the DMV's best programs are immigrant-owned, and their families live on WhatsApp — not email. We build inquiry forms that deliver straight to the director's WhatsApp, with an automatic confirmation sent to the parent. No missed emails, no phone tag, no lost tours.
Parent taps "Book a tour" on your site → picks a time → the inquiry lands in your WhatsApp with their name, child's age, and preferred start date → the parent gets an instant confirmation.
Works in the language your families are comfortable in. The studio itself works in English, Amharic, Turkish, and Harari.
How it works
Enrollment audit
We start with a real conversation about your program — capacity, age groups, where enrollment stands. Then we review your Google presence and your current site against the 5-second parent test. Free, and in person if you're nearby.
Strategy & design
We design around the parent journey — openings, trust signals, tour booking. You see a live preview you can click through on your phone before anything goes public, not a flat mockup.
Build & launch
We build the site, wire up tour booking and analytics, optimize every page for local search, and go live on your domain — registered in your name. Nothing launches until you approve it.
Grow enrollment
Enrollment interest peaks in January–March and again in late summer. The Growth Retainer keeps your Google profile active, your reviews coming, and your openings current — so you're visible when enrollment season hits.
Common questions
Custom enrollment websites start at $3,500, with most projects landing between $3,500 and $5,000 depending on scope. If you're not ready for a full build, the Visibility Tune-Up is a $750 flat-rate starting point. Payment plans are available — a 50% deposit with milestone payments — and there are no hidden fees.
Most websites are delivered within 1 week from the moment we receive your content and deposit. Larger projects with custom features like tour-booking flows may take 2 to 3 weeks. We agree on a timeline upfront so there are no surprises.
Yes — you own everything. The design, the code, the content, and the domain. Your domain is registered in your name and paid by you directly. If you decide to work with someone else or manage it yourself, everything transfers to you. We never hold your website hostage.
Google Business Profile improvements often show up in weeks — more profile views, more calls, more direction requests. Search rankings compound more slowly, typically over 3 to 6 months. We don't guarantee rankings, and anyone who guarantees you the #1 spot is lying. What we do guarantee is honest monthly reporting so you can see what's working.
Yes. We build sites for Maryland programs with MSDE licensing, Maryland EXCELS quality ratings, and Child Care Scholarship (CCS) acceptance in mind — because those are trust signals parents look for. Your license number, EXCELS rating, and program details get presented clearly instead of buried.
Yes — tour booking is the core conversion every enrollment website is built around. Parents pick a time and you get the inquiry instantly. We can also deliver inquiries straight to your WhatsApp with an automatic confirmation sent to the parent.
Both. Centers, preschools, and home-based family child care programs all face the same problem: parents can't find them or can't book a tour. For home-based programs, the $750 Visibility Tune-Up is usually the right starting point before investing in a full website.
Yes. That's exactly what the Visibility Tune-Up is for: a Google Business Profile overhaul, review-request setup, listing cleanup, and a one-page enrollment audit of your current site. Many centers don't need a rebuild — they need the site they have to actually show up and convert.
Never publish identifiable photos of children without written parental consent. We help you set up a simple consent process, and where consent isn't available we design with photos of your space, your staff, and activity shots that don't identify children. Trust is the product — that includes protecting the families you serve.
Yes. We build multilingual sites, and for communities that live on WhatsApp we offer WhatsApp-native inquiry — a parent taps one button and the conversation starts in the language they're comfortable in. The studio works in English, Amharic, Turkish, and Harari.
Usually it's the Google Business Profile: unclaimed or incomplete, wrong categories, inconsistent name and address across directories, or too few recent reviews. The Visibility Tune-Up fixes exactly these — profile overhaul, listing cleanup, and a review-request system so parents searching "daycare near me" actually find you.
Yes. Enrollment website builds start with a 50% deposit, and milestone payments are available so the cost spreads across the project. We never ask for full payment upfront.
Get a free enrollment audit
We'll review your website and Google presence the way a parent sees them, and send you a one-page summary of what to fix — whether or not you hire us. If you run a center in Maryland, we'll happily do it in person.