Website Development

About the role

The Website Development team will provide strategic direction for website development, marketing, and educational assistance for up to three or more county-wide tourism-specific websites serving rural counties across the state. TDTD will collaborate with the selected team to create templated tourism websites for participating counties, followed by a website management educational course. Counties demonstrating competence in general website management tasks (as defined by the Website Development Team and TDTD) will receive complete cost forgiveness.

Who’s Eligible

• Up to three Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) from at-risk or distressed counties, designated as such between 2021 and 2024.

Expectations

• Develop a tourism-specific website using a templated design, consisting of the following pages:
  • Home Page
  • Lodging
  • Dining
  • Shopping
  • Events
  • Things to do (including Outdoor Recreation, Cultural Heritage, Arts & Architecture, Scenic Opportunities, fishing/hunting, agritourism)
• Use a WordPress platform for the website.
• DMO will provide all content and copy, with assistance from TDTD.
• Pages may be added to an existing chamber/county WordPress site if a unique URL directs visitors to the tourism homepage.
• Set up hosting if needed (DMO incurs recurring costs).
• Provide 12 months of technical assistance from the website completion date.

WordPress Educational Course

TDTD will collaborate with the Website Development company to create a multipart virtual educational series focused on enabling rural DMOs to perform basic day-to-day updates on their new tourism-specific websites. Course topics include:

• Basic Computer Skills
• Web Browsing
• WordPress Basics
• WordPress Themes
• WordPress Plugins
• Content Management
• Search Engine Optimization
• Security Best Practices
• Backup and Restore
• Troubleshooting Skills

Timeline

• Website must be completed, and rural DMO must have participated in all educational courses within six months.
• Development team will provide 12 months of technical assistance after the website completion date (parameters to be defined by the Website Development Team).