How to make a website for an ocean rowing expedition
So, you’ve signed up to row 3000 miles across the Atlantic ocean in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic challenge, this is awesome, congratulations! Some of our team members have rowed across the Atlantic ocean also and loved the experience.
It should come as no surprise that your website should serve as a central hub for information, updates, and engagement with your audience, as social media is often a hard marketing vector to master.
We wanted to help by sharing the process we go through when building a website for an ocean rowing expedition:
1. Choose and register a Domain Name: Select a domain name that reflects your expedition's identity and is easy to remember. Consider including keywords related to ocean rowing or your expedition's name. Checkout Go Daddy and see what prices you can get from changing a single word or component.
2. Select your website platform: Choose a website platform or content management system (CMS) that suits your needs. Popular options include WordPress, Wix, and Joomla, however, our favourite is Squarespace for its SSL, wealth of options for adding custom CSS and HTML code injections, and overall beauty and user experience.
3. Customise the Design: Choose a website template or theme that aligns with your expedition's branding and goals. Customise the design by adding your logo, colour scheme, high quality images, and good, relevant content. Ensure the design is visually appealing, user-friendly, and responsive for mobile devices as this is something teams often forget about!
4. Create Essential Pages: Include essential pages on your website to provide important information to visitors. These may include an about page, expedition details, team members, sponsors, updates/blog, media gallery, a contact page, and a donation/support page if applicable.
5. Provide Expedition Information: Share detailed information about your ocean rowing expedition, including its purpose, route, timeline, equipment, challenges, and milestones. Be sure to engage visitors with captivating storytelling, images, and videos – remember, they’re interested in your challenge and want to know more about you, and why you’re doing it!
6. Regularly Update the Blog/News Section: Maintain an active blog or news section on your website to share expedition updates, stories, and relevant news to keep visitors interested and encourage them to follow your journey, but also to increase your search engine rankings. These analytics also give you useful data to share with potential sponsors to show them the benefits of backing your expedition.
7. Include Social Media Integration: Integrate social media buttons and links to your expedition's social media profiles. Encourage visitors to follow and engage with your expedition on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
8. Implement Donation/Support Options: If you're seeking donations or support for your expedition, include clear calls-to-action and provide options for visitors to contribute. Incorporate secure payment methods and clearly explain how the funds will be used.
9. Optimise for SEO: Improve your website's visibility in search engine results by implementing search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques. Research relevant keywords, optimise page titles and descriptions, use descriptive URLs, and create quality content that attracts organic traffic.
10. Test and Optimise: Regularly test your website's functionality, load times, and responsiveness across different devices and browsers. Optimise for performance and user experience, making necessary adjustments based on user feedback and analytics.
11. Promote Your Website: Actively promote your website through various channels, such as social media, email newsletters, online communities, and partnerships with relevant organizations. Leverage your network and engage with your audience to drive traffic to your website.
12. Track Analytics and Refine: Use website analytics tools like Google Search Console to track visitor behaviour, traffic sources, and engagement metrics. Analyse the data to identify areas for improvement, refine your content strategy, and make data-driven decisions.
Remember, your website should reflect the spirit and goals of your ocean rowing expedition and attract sponsors, so it’s really important! We suggest putting someone in the team to be in charge of it to make sure it’s properly managed.
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