The North Dakota Department of Commerce Tourism and Marketing Division announced that the recently enhanced website for North Dakota Tourism was recognized for the redesign as an “Outstanding Website” by the Web Marketing Association WebAward.
Since 1997, the Web Marketing Association's annual WebAward Competition has been setting the standard of excellence for website development. Entries from around the world were adjudicated in 86 industry categories during this year's competition and judged on design, copywriting, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation, and use of technology.
NDtourism.com was chosen for the award by an independent panel of judges that ranked each website on seven criteria, earning a score between 0 and 70 points. The score for the North Dakota Tourism website in this competition was 65 overall, which was well above the industry average of 53.
“The North Dakota Tourism website is one of the most comprehensive marketing tools for showcasing our vibrant communities, destination partners and all the unique things to see and do across our state,” Commerce Tourism and Marketing Director Sara Otte Coleman said. “Our digital team has created a robust website with enhanced searchability to design fun-filled itineraries and inspire longer stays in the state.”
Commerce Tourism and Marketing announced the enhanced website in December of 2021. Updates to the site included visual and navigational improvements, improved partner access portal, and continued focus to ensure the site continues to rank on page one within the Google Search engine from organic keywords.
The enhancements resulted in a traffic increase of 25.6% with a record 2.15 million visits. Website visits are a top signal of intent-to-travel. There were 281,712 referrals (site visitors who linked off for more details) to partner websites.
To find out more about the Web Marketing Association and the Outstanding Website Award go to https://ndgov.link/NDWebAward.