The brief
An Adelaide-based RTO was preparing to deliver nationally recognised CHC qualifications in aged care, disability support, community services, and first aid. The owner came to us with a single brief that contained almost everything a small education business actually needs:
“We need a website, an email system, an LMS, and we need it to look like a real college, not a startup.”
In practice that meant: a web presence, a brand, working email infrastructure on the company's own domain, a Learning Management System ready for the first cohort, the SEO foundation to be discoverable in Google, and the strategic guidance to choose the right tools for a regulated education sector.
We delivered all of it as a single integrated engagement.
Custom React + TypeScript website (10 pages)
A bespoke marketing site built on a modern, maintainable stack. Not a templated WordPress build. Not a Wix drag-and-drop.
- Pages:Home, Courses, Vision & Mission, Careers, FAQ, Contact, Student & Trainer Portal (Login), Apply Now, Privacy Policy, 404
- Architecture: React 19 + TypeScript, React Router v7 in data mode, Vite build, Tailwind CSS v3, Lucide React icon system
- Performance: ~109 KB gzipped JS bundle, sub-1 second Largest Contentful Paint, mobile-first responsive
- Accessibility: Semantic HTML, ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, focus-visible rings
- Design system: Reusable Logo, HeroIllustration, Field, InfoCard and Section components. Every visual element is composable and rebrand-able in minutes
Brand identity integration
Five distinct colour palettes were explored before settling on a Eucalypt system: forest green primary with a warm tan accent. Why that palette won for an Australian RTO in caring professions: subtly Australian without resorting to fauna clichés, healthcare-adjacent without being clinical, and a clear differentiator from the wall of blue every other RTO uses.
The full system was integrated end-to-end:
- Logo system: mark, horizontal lockup, stacked lockup, reverse variants, monochrome, favicons (16/32/64), 256 px app icon. All shipped as crisp SVG.
- Reusable Logo component with three runtime variants (color / reverse / mono) so the same primitive renders correctly on light surfaces, dark hero gradients, and single-colour print
- Custom hero illustration in pure SVG, on-brand. Replaces the empty space photographers usually fill, with zero copyright risk and infinite scaling.
- Inter typography loaded from a CDN with proper variable-font fallback
- Tailwind theme extension with named brand tokens (forest, tan, paper, ink) so future iterations stay on-brand by default
Domain, hosting, and CI/CD pipeline
- Custom domain purchased and managed at GoDaddy
- DNS configuration: apex A record + www CNAME pointing at Vercel; 307 redirect from apex to www (canonical resolution); HTTPS enforced; HSTS preload eligible
- Hosting: Vercel production deployment served from the Sydney edge region, sub-100 ms time-to-first-byte for Australian users
- Source control: GitHub repository with full commit history and PR-friendly structure
- CI/CD: push to main, Vercel auto-deploys to production in ~9 seconds. PRs spawn unique preview URLs automatically.
- Asset caching: immutable Cache-Control on hashed JS/CSS bundles
- SPA routing: client-side routing with proper rewrite rules so deep links work and 404s render correctly
Microsoft 365 Education tenant, full setup
Most web agencies stop at “here's your contact form.” We set up the entire email and identity infrastructure on the College's own domain.
- Tenant provisioning on Microsoft 365 Education A1, free for accredited education institutions
- Domain verification: TXT record at the registrar, ownership confirmation in M365 admin
- Mail records: MX to Outlook, SPF to spf.protection.outlook.com, autodiscover CNAME, DKIM-ready, DMARC at p=quarantine
- Account architecture: owner mailbox, IT admin mailbox, six role-based aliases (info@, admissions@, careers@, international@, lms@, accounts@) all routing to the owner
- Security posture: dedicated Global Admin account separated from daily-use accounts, MFA-ready, License Admin role separation
- Mail flow tested end-to-end: receive verified, send verified, anti-spam verified
Canvas LMS architecture and onboarding
We didn't just sign the College up for an LMS. We evaluated three options against the specific constraints of an Australian RTO (regulatory, financial, scale) before recommending one.
- Comparative analysis delivered: Canvas Free for Teachers vs Canvas paid Institutional vs Australian RTO-specific platforms (aXcelerate, Wisenet, Moodle / Open LMS)
- Recommendation framework based on student count, qualification length, and ASQA record-retention requirements
- Master accountset up under the institutional lms@ alias (not a personal email), so courses and assessment evidence outlive any individual trainer's tenure
- Multi-trainer onboarding playbook documented for adding additional trainer accounts as the College scales
SEO foundation, comprehensive
Most “SEO” deliverables for small business sites stop at “we added meta tags.” We shipped a proper SEO foundation built around how Google actually ranks Australian education sites in 2026.
Structured data (schema.org JSON-LD):
- Site-wide EducationalOrganization schema, crawled before JS executes
- LocalBusiness with geo-coordinates for Google Maps and local pack inclusion
- WebSite schema for sitelinks search box eligibility
- Per-page Course schema for all five qualifications (CHC33021, CHC52021, HLTAID011, etc.)
- FAQPage schema (14 Q&As marked up for FAQ rich results)
- BreadcrumbList on every interior page
Crawlability and indexability:
- html lang="en-AU" (not generic en) for Australian targeting
- hreflang en-au and x-default declarations
- robots meta with max-image-preview:large for rich image previews
- Canonical URLs across all pages
- XML sitemap with lastmod, changefreq, priority, and hreflang alternates, ready for Search Console submission
On-page optimisation:
- Per-page title and meta descriptions targeting realistic search phrases (“aged care training Adelaide”, “CHC33021 Adelaide”, “first aid course Adelaide”)
- Open Graph + Twitter cards with image dimensions and alt text for clean social previews
- usePageMeta and useStructuredData reusable React hooks so SEO patterns stay consistent as new pages are added
ASQA truth-in-advertising and Privacy Act review
Australian RTOs operate under ASQA Standard 4.1, Truth in Advertising. We audited and rewrote site content to remove aspirational claims that the new College couldn't yet substantiate.
- Removedplaceholder stats (“2,000+ students”, “10+ years of excellence”, “50+ industry partners”) that would have failed an ASQA audit
- Replaced with factually defensible figures (5 nationally recognised courses, 3 specialist areas, 12 intakes per year, AQF-aligned)
- Standardised Australian English spelling throughout (recognised, organisation, etc.)
- SurfacedRTO / CRICOS / ABN registration status honestly in the footer and hero, with visible “in progress” markers instead of misleading silence
- Drafted a comprehensive Privacy Policy compliant with the Australian Privacy Principles, including overseas data transfer disclosures (M365 EU/NA, Canvas US) per APP 8
Working contact and application forms
- Contact form wired to deliver to info@ via an AJAX endpoint with success / error states inline
- Application form delivers to admissions@ (cc info@) with an auto-generated subject line including applicant name and course
- Honeypot fields on both forms for basic bot filtering
- Graceful degradation: if delivery fails, the user sees a clear error and a direct mailto fallback
- All form data validated client-side before submit; server-side delivery confirmed with a one-time activation pattern
Strategic advisory
This is the part most agencies skip. Across the engagement we delivered written guidance on:
- LMS platform selection for an RTO of this scale and qualification mix
- Microsoft 365 license tier decisions (A1 vs A3 by role, when to upgrade specific staff)
- Account security architecture (separating Global Admin from daily-use accounts, MFA recommendations)
- Email naming conventions that scale (role-based aliases vs personal mailboxes)
- Australian Privacy Act / APP compliance for student data handling
- Pricing and packaging advice for the College's own course offerings
- International student intake framework (CRICOS, IELTS, OSHC requirements), including honest disclosure of what was not yet in place
Tech stack
Why this matters for prospective clients
A typical small Australian business looking for “a website” actually needs eight things at once, and discovers that fact after they've already paid one specialist for one of them. We built the College's complete foundation in a single engagement because we work across all eight layers:
The engagement value isn't any one of these in isolation. It's that we own the whole stack so the client doesn't have to coordinate four vendors who blame each other when something breaks.
Services this engagement showcases
- Custom React + TypeScript websites with auto-deploy pipelines
- Complete digital foundation packages for small Australian businesses (web + brand + email + hosting + CI/CD + SEO)
- Microsoft 365 tenant provisioning and DNS setup, especially for Education and Not-For-Profit eligibility
- LMS strategy and setup for RTOs and training providers
- Brand identity integration (logo systems, palette systems, typography systems wired into a live site)
- SEO foundations for service businesses: schema.org, structured data, AU local SEO
- Privacy Act / APP compliance documentation for service businesses collecting personal data
- ASQA-aware content review for RTOs