Five sites into one: rebuilding Newark and Sherwood's visitor economy website

Five sites, one problem

Newark and Sherwood District Council was trying to promote the district's visitor economy through five separate websites. Four tourism sites were built on WordPress, and a fifth, What's On Newark and Sherwood, was running on Terminal4. None of them were talking to each other.

"We simply didn't have the resource to manage this," says Amy Hewis, Senior Marketing Officer for the Visitor Economy team. "We were aware the WordPress sites needed a huge amount of work, so we had to focus our efforts elsewhere."

The result was a set of sites that had quietly fallen behind. Content had gone stale. The design felt dated. Businesses were having to set up separate logins just to keep their own listings up to date, and none of it was properly optimised for mobile.

What forced the issue wasn't any single complaint. It was accessibility. "We knew the sites needed a complete overhaul, but understanding they no longer adhered to accessibility legislation propelled us into action more quickly," Amy explains.

There was an initial worry about what might be lost in a rebuild, particularly the existing business listings. That worry didn't last. "We quickly realised that a lot of the previous listings were out of date and didn't include important information such as accessibility info or details on facilities. There was some concern about ranking, but we felt confident we could build that up in time with the right strategy."

Building one site instead of patching five

Rather than migrate each of the five sites as it stood, the project treated the rebuild as a genuine fresh start. Content from the four WordPress sites and the Terminal4 What's On system was migrated into a single new build on LocalGov Drupal, giving the council one platform, one login for the team, and one address to point people to.

The new site is organised around town hubs for Newark, Sherwood Forest, Southwell and the district's other key locations, each with its own filtered directory of things to do, places to stay, and events. Businesses submit and manage their own listings directly, and events flow through a streamlined approval process for Amy and her colleague Dan.

"As this was a complete rehaul, we saw it as a fresh start to create something we knew we truly needed," Amy says. "Doing this enabled us to ensure the site aligned with our current strategy and priorities. It took a long time, but the process was enjoyable, and with support from Rohallion as well as local businesses and organisations uploading their own listings, we were able to create a visitor site that we're proud of."

The slowest part of the project was discovery, working through exactly what the site needed to do and for whom, before any design work began. "It was an important aspect to ensure everything had been factored in," Amy notes. Once the Figma designs were signed off, the pace changed. "Not necessarily a surprise, but once we got started and the designs were signed off, the build was very quick."

The town hub structure, one of the more complex pieces of the build, landed well from day one. "Everyone has been happy with it, no constructive feedback on that so far." And getting the wider team comfortable managing content day to day turned out to be straightforward. "Very easy once we had training. Drupal is simple to use, and any issues are rectified by Rohallion quickly."

Seeing it go live

"I feel so proud to see the new site live," Amy says. "It meets all of our objectives. It's accessible, looks good, is simple to use and navigate, and is easy for businesses to upload their listings. Having one link to direct people to makes so much sense. It feels cohesive and effective."

The operational change has been just as significant as the visitor-facing one. "The whole process of approving events and listings is so much quicker than before. We were able to incorporate our feedback from how the previous websites worked into the new site, so we feel we've managed to rectify a lot of the teething issues we had."

Early results

Since launch, the numbers back up what the team is seeing anecdotally. The site has recorded over 35,000 clicks, with 60% of users showing medium to high intent. The events pages have been the most visited part of the site, and the "Where to stay" category has been the most popular directory section, generating the highest volume of outbound clicks through to partner websites.

Interestingly, the town hub pages haven't seen heavy traffic on their own, a sign that most visitors are searching district-wide rather than town by town, which is useful intelligence for how the council shapes its marketing going forward.

Feedback from tourism partners has been positive across the board. "All the feedback has been positive so far. Tourism partners have said how great the site is, and people seem happy with their listings," Amy says. The council is planning to gather more formal feedback in the coming months.

"We're now able to promote the site through our marketing activities, so we're seeing a huge surge in traffic and activity across the site," Amy adds. "We're seeing a healthy number of outbound clicks to partner sites, which means people are using the website as we want them to: to find out more and book an overnight stay, tickets to an event, or plan a visit to other businesses across the district."

What's next

With the foundation in place, the focus now shifts to building on it. The council is planning local highlight carousels, more blog content, and additional service pages, alongside growing the number of business listings and events on the site.

Amy's advice to any council facing a similar situation, several outdated sites pulling in different directions, is simple: "Have a strategy in place so you know what you want to achieve and how you'll do it. Streamline as much as possible, and always think customer-first: how would you use a site if you were a potential visitor?"