We decided it was time to showboat new technology that is available on the web and mobile these days. So with that decision made we set about the revamping of the website for Courtown Harbour in the Sunny Southeast of Ireland in Co. Wexford.
The domain has been used for various purposes over the years as we have allowed various groups and organisation to use it, but its primary purpose is always to help and promote this seaside resort that I have spent over 40 years enjoying since I stepped on the beach in 1972 !!
Fashions have changed, Hairstyles have changed but families going to Courtown for their annual holidays is still a major part of Irish culture in this part of the world. Whether it’s a mobile home in one of the many caravan parks or a private house in one of the many lane ways and by roads, Courtown is not closer to Dublin than ever before with the upgrading of the N11 to the M11.
Choose an activity?
So too has technology changed and people use of the amenity, the Internet. We are now a much more in tune with researching our holiday destinations and using the website to search out activities before we even grab out keys. So we have created a new site to help these browsing online to find out more about the area. And for those who want have grabbed their keys and want to research we have created an iPhone and Android version too. Its this adapting to peoples need that Courtown itself have done too over the years. It now caters for Self Catering holiday makers wanting a full “home away from home” style of holiday.
Its also not just about indoor amusements (that are great for a rainy day too) but has eco-friendly and healthy outdoor family activities such as the Gravity Extreme Adventure located in the Forest Park Leisure Centre. It’s all outdoors and great for a family afternoon out.The new site is built using a content management system with the ability for multiple user to access and update the site. This will be rolling out over the coming months and years as we hope that volunteers will step forward to off their help in keeping this 200 page website fresh with news and events for what I believe will be a great resource for visitors and residents now choose to live in the Courtown area all year round.
Choose a Language?
With many visitors also coming from abroad and also living in Co. Wexford we decided to add in the Language functionality that allows them to choose the language they would prefer to use the site in. This is an automated service offered by Google and we have asked a few people to test it and apparently its very accurate so we are happy to use it. The way the site was created and the way we made the menu system in text rather than images means that the translate tool will do a complete conversion of the site and every menu and page will appear in the chosen language.We are happy with the results and hope that it gets the message about our lovely little village across to everyone!
Lets be social !!
Someone asked me once, “Who writes the Internet?” We all do, I’m writing this, this is on-line, this is the Internet! That said we also know that having a website is great, but really people habits have changed and therefore we know that there is no point have a website without a method getting that to the masses. Social Media website like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube are all sites that share information and so we set about making sure that we integrated social media into the site.
Social Media for Courtown Harbour This way, visitors to the site have the ability to let their friends know about the site and in fact individual pages if they wish. Statistics tell us that people are often on the likes of Facebook when they are browsing the web, so with this in mind the sites ability to allow visitors to instantly “Like” a page or an attraction means that it tells all their friends about it instantly. With the average Facebook users having a couple of hundred friends we estimate that the social feature will bring the site to hundreds of thousands now. This really demonstrate the power of the web over traditional means of advertising and marketing.
People like to look !
With broadband speeds increasing each day and the use of cameras now in an everyday use, we decided to add a Gallery Section to the site to show off the wonders of a little village throughout the year. We then went a step further and made up
a few videos to show off the local amenities and attractions in the area. We are not “Film Makers”. We are just people who appreciate our village and what it offers us and our families so the videos are just to give people a flavour of the area. We know that over time more and more visitors to the area will make their own movies of the area and upload them to YouTube etc so then we can just link and share those ones with out visitors.Our gallery is made of a few images we have taken over the years and ones the people have sent in to use. We would love to have photos sent in of people’s experiences in the area and we will of course give them their acknowledgement for them too .
Maps of Courtown
Google came to our little village and drove around using their black batman style carto photograph the village and use this in their famous Google Maps tool.
We have started to integrate this into the site and over the next few months will continue to embed this into every aspect of the site. Knowing that there are great local attractions is great but to have an exact map to locate each one is even better. The current map is just one of over 11 that we have created and will are rolling these out over the coming weeks. They take time to create and we continue to update them each week. As times goes by the site will change as the stats will tell us what users are looking for and request, so the maps and other aspects will grow dynamically demonstrating how this medium works best. It changes, it adapts to people needs.
The same way Courtown Harbour has.
Enjoy.
