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Horse and Equine Websites - Stallion and Horse Farm Websites
First a couple of facts about Kentucky
- The horse industry in Kentucky is worth over $2.5 Billion US involving almost 200k people (owners, employees, volunteers) and 52k full-time jobs.
- There are 300k horses in Kentucky.
- 50% are used for racing (racing, breeding, etc.)
- 50% are used for recreational showing or other uses such as trail riding.
- Lexington will host the 2010 World Equestrian Games, the first time the event has been held in North America. 500k visitors are expected from 60 countries. Better get out the good china.
While horse farm websites are often nicely done, Stallion sites are usually horrible. And stallions are big money in Kentucky.
Why are Stallion Sites Often So Horrible and Out Of Date?
Stallions usually always have a website that is used during the standing (breeding) and sales process. This is a good idea. The trouble is, they are almost always horribly done - often just a "photocopy" of a brochure. Furthermore, they are difficult to update and therefore do not reflect the latest information about the stallion - in an industry that thrives on rapidly updated information.
Search Optimization for Equine and Horse Farm Websites
The search rank (SEO/SEM) aspects of these sites are usually so bad that they cannot rank even for the horses' name (which, by law, must be unique.) Now that's bad.
I am currently recommending that all equine clients use Wordpress for their stallion sites.
Why Stallion websites should be done using Wordpress
- Stallions often get awards or have offspring that win races, or otherwise get press. These updates need to be made quickly.
- Stallion photos are consistent for a long time - Wordpress "themes" can be stable.
- Wordpress makes websites consistent... without trying.
- Wordpress is easy to train on - stallion owners are not always technologically adept.
- Stallions are part of pedigrees - a perfect use of a blogroll or blogging network
- Wordpress makes quick updates simple, without the need for a 3rd party.
- If you want to use your larger farm domain name, Wordpress MU can give you centralized management of all Stallion sites.
- The RSS feed or feedburner email updates setup is perfect for busy horseman/women.
- We can install SEO plug-ins that help automatically improve search rank (some training will still be needed.)