I’ve been the webmaster for Rafting.com since 2001 when we built the site out for the very first time. Finally seven years later, our virtual web team devised a plan to redesign the site. We decided to build it using WordPress as CMS (content management system).
From white site to launch, the project took us 8 months (2 years if you consider the theory process). The new website went live on February 28, 2008. We have plans for unveiling the new Rafting.com Blog (1 installation for both the site and the blog) during the first week of April.
With the relaunch of the website we decided that is was only fitting to make Rafting.com “The Definitive Whitewater Rafting Go To Site.” To move in that direction we added nearly 160 new pages of content to the rivers and regions directory, making the site over 230 pages and growing.
So Why WordPress?
We chose WordPress because 2 years ago we started planning the development of the Rafting.com Blog and we soon realized after WP 2.1 how easy it was to use WP as a CMS. Secondly, we also chose WordPress because of all the functionality available to make rafting.com a very robust, yet simple website. Third, using a CMS allows the publishing tasks to anyone on our virtual team without having to know a lick of html. Finall, we used WP because its so dang search engine friendly.
Kudos to the Web Team
Jamie Low – http://SearchEngineMarketing.com: Search Master
Tessa Sibbet – http://www.Rafting.com: Content Manager / Editor
Sammy Russo – http://SearchFriendlyWebDesign.com: Site Admin & Theme Development
Joe David – http://www.DavidDesign.com: Maps & Graphic Design
Malina Dunk – http://Blog.AOrafting.com: Writer / Editor
Robyn Suddeth – http://Blog.AOrafting.com: Writer / Editor
Nice work people. After only a month of being relaunched we have nearly 99% indexation of all new pages and 100% re-indexation of original content on their new URLS.
