Dunn County Community Resources and Tourism considering a county tourism website
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — Imagine having a website where you could go to find out about all of the events in Dunn County from Boyceville, Colfax and Elk Mound to Eau Galle, Menomonie, Knapp, Downing, Downsville, Wheeler and Ridgeland.
The Dunn County Community Resources and Tourism Committee is considering a tourism website that would highlight activities and events taking place all over Dunn County as well as a business directory that would include all of the businesses in Dunn County.
The 2021 budget includes $10,000 for developing a tourism website, said James Anderson, county board supervisor from Menomonie and chair of the community resources and tourism committee, at the July 12 meeting.
Rural tourism in Dunn County is important to the county’s overall economic development, Anderson said.
Jim Zons, county board supervisor from Colfax and a member of the community resources and tourism committee, was assigned the task of finding options for developing the county tourism website.
Zons has a background in website development and operates his own company, EZ New Media.
The options were developed with assistance from other people, including Dunn County’s information technology department, Zons noted.
The goal of Dunn County’s website would be draw more visitors to Dunn County and to promote the county to potential businesses and people interested in moving to Dunn County, according to a staff report from Dan Dunbar, Dunn County’s Chief Information Officer.
People who are knowledgeable about economic development say that when individuals are looking for a place to live, or companies are looking for a place to locate, “quality of life” is an important consideration and includes good schools, public libraries, and recreational opportunities such as bike trails and places to go fishing, hiking and camping as well as events like music festivals, fairs and farmers’ markets.
Options
The first option for the tourism website would be contracting with a company called Your Web Choice to have a stand-alone website for the county, Zons said.
The cost would be $3,500 for the website and then $300 monthly to maintain the website and to add and update content, he said.
The second option would be to use the database from Explore Menomonie, the Greater Menomonie Area Chamber of Commerce’s website, and develop an “Explore Dunn County” website, Zons said.
According to the staff report, the cost for the second option would be $8,000, $180 annually, and four hours of staff time per month.
The third option would be to develop a one webpage site that would cost about $1,000 with minimal staff time devoted to the webpage throughout the course of the year, according to the staff report.
Option 2
The county’s information technology department prefers the second option of a shared database with the Menomonie Chamber, but Zons said his concern would be that the database would be controlled by the Chamber and that county employees would have to make manual updates to the website.
The option of an “Explore Dunn County” would cost less and would use less staff time, Dunbar noted.
Zons said he did not see the point in creating a separate website if it were only going to use data from an existing website.
In addition, Google does not like search results that duplicate another website, which will hurt the search engine optimization for the Dunn County website, he said.
“Search engine optimization” means the website is built in such a way that if someone does a Google search for “bike trails in Dunn County,” for example, the Dunn County tourism website would be at or near the top of the list.
Zons said that he preferred the first option but that if the committee wanted the second option of a shared database, he would vote with the remaining committee members.
Duplicated information that comes up on a search result, because of Google’s algorithms, will dilute the search results, and if the website is independent, it functions better with the Internet search engines, he said.
Anderson noted that he has served on the community resources and tourism committee for many years, and while the committee name includes tourism, the committee has not done very much to develop and promote tourism in Dunn County.
“I would like to see more done for rural tourism in Dunn County,” he said.
Budget
David Bartlett, county board supervisor from Boyceville and chair of the Dunn County Board, said he is always concerned about budgets and the tax levy.
If the county spends $8,000 to develop the website and then $180 per year plus four hours of staff time per month, that is cheaper over the course of several years than $3,500 to develop the website and $300 per month to maintain and update the website, he said.
If the option that costs less is used, and the county’s budget problems grow worse than they are now, it is more likely the website will remain in existence and could still be around 10 years from now, Bartlett said.
County officials could reduce the amount spent per month on website maintenance with Option 1 later on or could change to Dunn County personnel doing the website updates, Zons said.
Discount
Your Web Choice is offering to develop the website at a discount, Dunbar said.
Since the $3,500 fee is a discount already, would the county be able to change how the website is maintained later on? Bartlett asked.
The website developer is gambling that what he builds for Dunn County is going to be of so much value to the county that county officials will not want to change the service. He also is hoping that some of the businesses listed in the business directory will want websites so that he will gain extra business that way, Zons said.
Tom Quinn, county board supervisor from Downing and a member of the Community Resources and Tourism committee, said he believed the idea of developing a county tourism website could benefit from committee members having more time to think about the proposals and to gather additional information.
Anderson agreed and said he would place the county tourism website as an action item on the agenda for the August meeting.