Economic development official hopes new website brings people to Tipton

TIPTON - The city of Tipton has a new presence on the web.

Tipton city officials, the Tipton Chamber of Commerce and Tipton Economic Development Corp. launched the new website Sept. 10, www.tiptoniowa.org.

Prior to the launch of the new site, there were two websites: one for the city and one for the chamber of commerce, said Abby Kisling, economic development director for the city of Tipton.

"When we went to the drawing board for a new website, we just thought it would be a good idea if people when they Googled Tipton could come to one website and get chamber, economic development, city information so we went with one big website for everyone," Kisling said.

The site is divided into five sections: city of Tipton, Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development, Visit Us and Community. There is a business directory with all 250 businesses in Tipton as well as a chamber directory.

"We hope to drive more traffic to our website, which will then in turn bring more people to Tipton, whether it be visiting, or they want to live there or want to do business there, we're just hoping it will give a great first impression of Tipton when people go to the site," Kisling said.

In addition, analytical tracking is new to the site. The addition of analytical tracking will allow the city to see exactly who is looking at the website and what they are looking for, she said, which the city can then use to build upon further.

Kisling hopes the new site will give people the necessary information to plan a trip to the community by putting the information in one place.

The city received a $5,000 grant from the

Iowa City Area Economic Development Group to go toward the cost of the project. The remaining $10,000 cost of the project was divided between the city, chamber of commerce and the economic development corporation, she said.