How to improve graduate student recruitment at a small, good, but non-elite department? I am a mathematics professor in a small, good but non-elite department in the US. Several of my colleagues and I would like to work to improve our recruitment of strong prospective Ph.D. students.

We do not really know how to go about this most effectively. Obviously it is difficult, but -- what are some good ways to do this, in addition to 


maintaining a useful and informative departmental webpage,
serving our present Ph.D. students as well as we can, making sure they are happy, and (hopefully!) helping them to land good jobs,
maintaining our own research programs, and 
continuing to network and maintain professional connections with colleagues at other universities?


Edit: I see this question is related, although in my case recruiting is handled on a departmental rather than individual basis.
All of the ideas that you've written down so far seem quite useful and reasonable, but I think that there is something important missing.  In particular, all of these are aimed at recruiting "generic" students rather than individual students.

Ph.D. recruitment is different than undergraduate recruitment because people choose their undergraduate institutions for so many random reasons, while they tend to be much more focused and "status-conscious" when looking for a doctoral program.  As such, rank matters a lot more for students... when they have no personal relationship.

As such, if you want top students to come to your department, you don't want them to be thinking, "I wonder if Nice University's grad program would be good for me," you want them thinking, "I really hope that I can do my graduate work with Professor Neato!"

There are at least two really good sources that I can think of for recruiting such students:


Your undergraduates: Because of the high variance in how people make their undergraduate choices, at least some really top students are likely to end up at pretty much any decent school.  If you can get those students involved in research as undergraduates, then they will know you and your research personally, and may well be inclined to continue with a cool program that they are already invested in rather than taking a blind leap into a big and possibly unfriendly place far away.  
Close colleagues at other schools: Reaching beyond your own pool of students, your colleagues elsewhere are likely to have bright students that they may be looking for a good place for.  If they've got a top student who's just interested in generic stuff, then packing them off to an elite institution and hoping they'll find their way may be the right thing.  But if they think the person might be a good fit for your work on Frabjous Tulip Fractals, then they can refer them directly to you, and again a student may be much more interested in working with a specific professor who they can get to know and meet, particularly where that can improve their chances of admission.


I know of folks who are pursuing both these strategies with significant success.  Other approaches may work as well, such as international exchange programs.  The common theme, however, is to compete on the basis of your individual personal relationships, rather than as a generic institution.