Tourism Website Redesign
Elkhart Lake
Elkhart Lake is a lakeside resort village in central Wisconsin. The Elkhart Lake website gives residents, visitors and event planners a central hub to learn and explore all the area has to offer. Ascedia led the strategy, creative and development for a website redesign and digital marketing & advertising.



Challenge
In addition to a new visual platform, Elkhart Lake had four primary goals for their website redesign: Increase traffic to the Official Visitors Guide, Increase traffic and activity on the Weddings page, Maintain newsletter subscription rate, Improve Events page user experience.
Visuals
Findings showed that users missed the Visitor Guide because it blended in with other design elements. In addition, users were frustrated by the Weddings page because of its lack of inspiration and relevant photography.
Navigation
One of the main pain points that surfaced in research was website structure and navigation. User tests showed that navigational terms had opportunity for improvement. Visitors responded better to shorter, more casual names.
Platform
Key pages lacked engaging content and the website platform wasn’t flexible for new layouts or form submission features. This forced Elkhart Lake to build landing pages on third-party sites to drive traffic.
Events
Events pages were not representative of the variety of events happening at one time in the Elkhart Lake area. Users often called the office for event information they couldn’t find on the website.
Visuals
Findings showed that users missed the Visitor Guide because it blended in with other design elements. In addition, users were frustrated by the Weddings page because of its lack of inspiration and relevant photography.
Navigation
One of the main pain points that surfaced in research was website structure and navigation. User tests showed that navigational terms had opportunity for improvement. Visitors responded better to shorter, more casual names.
Platform
Key pages lacked engaging content and the website platform wasn’t flexible for new layouts or form submission features. This forced Elkhart Lake to build landing pages on third-party sites to drive traffic.
Events
Events pages were not representative of the variety of events happening at one time in the Elkhart Lake area. Users often called the office for event information they couldn’t find on the website.
Solution
Wedding Enhancements
A new content strategy was implemented for the Weddings section; broken down visually into categories, such as Ceremonies, Venues and Florists, each including a “Learn More” button for more engaging content.
WordPress CMS
Re-platforming in WordPress in Pantheon's development and hosting environment brought major improvements in website security, stability, and speed.
Navigation Refinements
Navigation changed to casual names like Stay and Play, while other navigation like Trip Ideas, remained the same due to their strong performance in organic search. Prominent links now feature the Visitors Guide, Newsletter Signups, and call-to-action boxes on every key web page.
Experience Design
A new responsive website design and template structure empowered the marketing team to manage content while maintaining a highly visual website experience. Events now benefit from a re-thought approach with filtering and stronger display logic.
Wedding Enhancements
A new content strategy was implemented for the Weddings section; broken down visually into categories, such as Ceremonies, Venues and Florists, each including a “Learn More” button for more engaging content.
WordPress CMS
Re-platforming in WordPress in Pantheon's development and hosting environment brought major improvements in website security, stability, and speed.
Navigation Refinements
Navigation changed to casual names like Stay and Play, while other navigation like Trip Ideas, remained the same due to their strong performance in organic search. Prominent links now feature the Visitors Guide, Newsletter Signups, and call-to-action boxes on every key web page.
Experience Design
A new responsive website design and template structure empowered the marketing team to manage content while maintaining a highly visual website experience. Events now benefit from a re-thought approach with filtering and stronger display logic.
Results
Results indicate an improved user experience that engages visitors to explore deeper into the site. Elkhart Lake’s team now has a flexible platform to refine content strategy and drive positive results.
In a year-over-year comparison, Elkhart Lake's new website earned quite a boost in results:
22.7% increase in traffic
Wedding traffic up 76%
Visitor Guide views up 38%
Form submissions up 141%
Organization:
Elkhart Lake Tourism
Industry:
Travel & Tourism
Services Rendered:
Experience Design
Digital Marketing
Digital Strategy
Development
Content Management
Content Strategy