Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce

Rogers and Lowell

www.rogersareachamber.com

We were a little leery of this site at first glance. The home page is a little helter skelter, and at least one of our reviewers dubbed it “overwhelming and jumbled.” But when we started clicking around www.rogersareachamber.com, we were impressed with the wealth of information contained in its vast number of pages.

This is a fantastic business resource for locals or people who are moving to the area.

DesignWorks in Rogers developed the site in May of 2000 and directed it through an upgrade in September. The upgrade included incorporating the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce’s new logo after the consolidation of the two cities’ chambers.

Since last May, the site has received more than 970,000 page views at a rate of 15,000 to 20,000 per week. That includes 38,000 unique visitors, 13,000 repeats and 7,000 surfers who stop by every month.

This kind of quality data, which DesignWorks had immediately available, is invaluable and shows that the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce’s Internet team is on top of its game.

The membership directory, which is broken down by industry, is an especially valuable tool for prospecting in Rogers and Lowell. We also appreciated the maplocator.com link that’s supposed to give surfers directions to area businesses.

However, what kept the site from getting a higher rating was we could not get the locator to work. We tried variations of “J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.” and searched for “Arvest” under the category of “banks.”

Both times we got a message that read, “Sorry, no records were found that matched your search criteria.” Perhaps this was a temporary glitch, but it was a noticeable one.

One technician said navigation of the site can be a little confusing because of its differently sized and placed buttons, or hotlinks. He felt like from an aesthetic point of view, too much information is crammed into the site’s pages. He said, “Spread it out more, and at the same time create more opportunities for ad revenue.”

Another technical guru was impressed that the site incorporates so many interactive elements. Its small business information is outsourced through chamberbiz.com, and ads for Harris McHaney Shearin Realtors and Aladdin Realtors click through easily.

We also liked the element of coopition with a link to nwachambers.com. All of the area’s chambers compete to recruit businesses, but working together to promote existing business is a service to the community.