Background
The Sparta Area Chamber of Commerce supports local businesses and promotes Sparta, the "Bicycling Capital of America", as a place worth visiting. Its website, bikesparta.com, is where residents, visitors and businesses find community information and upcoming events, browse the member directory, and sign up to become members.
The old site ran on WordPress, with the GrowthZone association management system (AMS) behind it handling membership. Nobody on the Chamber's team was fluent enough to run it, yet they needed to update the site several times a week. The result was an inconsistent website that worked against the Chamber's main goal: growing its membership. When the Chamber decided to move away from GrowthZone to a new AMS, it needed a website that would integrate with the new system, let people submit content such as job listings for review, and be simple enough for staff to manage themselves.
Solution
Kehren Development rebuilt bikesparta.com on Umbraco CMS, using Umbraco Forms and Umbraco Workflow.
The new site integrates with the Chamber's new AMS, so the member directory shows member data straight from the membership system and visitors can sign up to become members from the site.
Kehren Development built a clear content architecture with dedicated sections for community information and upcoming events, so every page follows the same structure and reflects the Chamber's professionalism. SEO and web performance were part of the build from the start. Once the site was live, the team trained Chamber staff until they were comfortable making their own updates several times a week.
Impact
The Chamber now runs its own website. Staff make updates several times a week without outside help, and because every page follows the same structure, the site stays consistent and looks as professional as the organization behind it.
The results show in the numbers. Organic search sessions rose by 40%, and site performance improved by 67%. Most importantly for the Chamber's goal, memberships grew by 21%
40%
more organic search sessions
21%
increase in memberships
67%
improvement in site performance
