Award-Winning Economic Development Websites from Golden Shovel Agency

A showcase piece on your homepage captures your audience’s attention and drives more website traffic. Use this module to add emphasis to your region’s unique selling points, location, and link to key features of your website.

Unless you are a major metropolitan city, there’s a good chance that site selectors, business leaders, and workforce talent may not know where you are located. A Golden Shovel designer will develop a map for your website’s homepage that makes it easy to situate your community within the state or region.

Customized map tools are a dynamic way to feature your community’s strategic  location, available sites, and key data points. A Golden Shovel custom economic development website puts your community on the map!

A Custom Map Can Highlight: 

• Nearby “Recognizable” Cities
• Transportation Assets such as 
• Interstates, Rail, and Port Access
• Available Sites
• City Boundaries within a County
• Links to Demographic Data
• More!

A video banner on your economic development website is a powerful tool that captures attention and engages visitors instantly. Unlike static images, a video banner brings your community’s assets to life, offering a dynamic and visually compelling way to showcase what makes your region unique.

By incorporating video, you can highlight key features like  available sites, transportation connectivity, and quality of life  in an engaging, easily digestible format. Whether it's aerial  footage of your available real estate, interviews with local  business leaders, or scenes that showcase your community's  vibrant lifestyle, a video banner gives visitors an immediate  and immersive sense of your region’s strengths. 

Not only does a video banner capture attention, but it also  keeps potential investors, site selectors, and talent engaged  longer, increasing the likelihood of conversion. It's a modern,  effective way to communicate your community’s story and  make a lasting impression. 

Important businesses and organizations can be organized with the Business Directory, an online resource readily accessible to any audience. Users will continue to return to your website to quickly find businesses and organization information.

Community Profiles provide a visually-engaging way to provide site selectors and business decision-makers with key demographic information. Automatic updates keeps the data fresh.

A Golden Shovel economic development website goes beyond what typical web developers can offer by seamlessly integrating ESRI data into a dynamic, visually engaging Community Profile. This built-in tool transforms complex workforce, education, and job market data into easy-to-read infographics, allowing decision-makers to quickly grasp key insights. For those who need more details, deeper analysis is just a click away.

• Community Profile Tools Offer Clear Benefits
• Automatically updated with ESRI data
• Visually-appealing presentation
• Spreadsheets available
• City and county-level data available

Encouraging site visitors to connect with you for more information is an essential service for your website. The Contact Forms module allows you to set up recipients (by name or topic) to be emailed with your visitors’ inquiries.

Whether its a topical survey, a program application, an RSVP, or any other purpose, sometimes you need to request specific information from your site visitors. The Custom Form Creator allows you to create forms with your unique set of questions and 11 different user input options. You can receive submitted information by email, view it through your site admin, or download it to view in a spreadsheet.

The Event Calendar module makes your organization a resource for keeping businesses engaged with the community. Create awareness of the conferences and events your organization attends and supports.

Your audience expects your site to be current, and your content will be dynamic. The Golden shovel Fast Facts module ensures your information keeps pace with your user’s need for fresh content, so they keep coming back to stay informed.

The right incentive package is critical to business attraction and retention. Our Incentives Directory contains information on economic development incentives and programs available to businesses who are considering or are based in your region.

Help your local companies find the labor force they need by promoting job postings and opportunities on the Jobs module. This Google Maps-based searchable directory allows your organization to become the “go-to” jobs resource.

When you have lists of information that don’t fit into an exact category or mold, the List Maker module allows for it to be organized into simpe, engaging layouts.

The News module is a key tool for keeping visitors apprised of the latest events, press releases, and relevant news. Headlines and short descriptions from your latest posts mirror on the homepage to keep your website content looking fresh and current.

Using the People module will promote your valued partnerships and demonstrate the depth of your network. Help your users find the resources and skill sets they need to do business.

This flexible module can be used to promote your organization’s accomplishments by highlighting successful economic development projects. Success stories can be showcased on a map for your audience to visualize your organization’s regional impact.

Golden Shovel’s economic development websites provide a seamless, all-in-one solution for promoting available sites and buildings—eliminating the need to send site selectors and business decision-makers to third-party platforms. Our integrated real estate tools make it easy for economic developers to showcase properties with maps, detailed site information, and high-quality visuals, all in one place.
By keeping site and building listings directly on your website, you maintain control over the user experience, ensuring prospects can access the information they need without distractions or extra steps.

Whether they’re searching for industrial sites, office space, or shovel-ready land, our platform delivers a professional, data-rich experience designed to drive inquiries and investment.

Real Estate & Site Promotion Tools Offer Clear Benefits:

• Public-submission tools enable realtors and property owners to submit a listing
• Available properties can be added to the website’s Report Maker Tool, making it easy to send demographic and incentive data alongside property listings

Demonstrating available housing to those considering relocation is essential for drawing a quality workforce to a community. The Residential Real Estate module organizes available properties into an appealing visual database with valuable search tools to refine results.

The Resource Library gives your organization a powerful repository for all of your documentation. Your board members will never send you a request for documents again!

The Staff module highlights the greatest asset of your organization: you and your team! Connections are critical to economic development, and this module will direct local business leaders, elected officials, and entrepreneurs right to you and your staff.

You control your website. Our team is here to provide support and make unlimited updates so you don’t have to!

Golden Shovel Agency developed the Economic Gateway, a custom CMS platform designed to meet the needs of economic developers. As a Golden Shovel client you have full access to the back end of your website where it’s easy to add pages, edit content, and add images. 

But - You don’t have to make any website edits. We are here to do it for you through our unlimited support program. That means no time tracking or separate bills (website edits are included in your Gatekeeper support).

Three Ways to Update Your Website:

• GateKeeper Client Manager (request changes during regularly scheduled meetings or by sending an email, changes are typically made within 48 hours)
• Support Portal (submit a request through our Support Portal, changes are typically made within 48 hours)
• Do It Yourself! (your team has full access to the back end of your website and can make changes at any time)

Usability and performance are a top priority for GSA. Our development  team constantly updates the Economic Gateway to ensure fast  performance, resulting in fast load times. To ensure usability, GSA  websites are ADA compliant, include a translation tool, search feature, report maker tool, and lead generation capabilities. GSA provides quarterly reports on the site's performance and traffic.

At Golden Shovel, our development team is constantly innovating to provide economic developers with the latest features and tools to better promote their communities. When we launch new updates and enhancements, they’re made immediately available to all of our clients, ensuring you always have access to the most advanced technology. We stay ahead of industry trends so you don’t have to, and our regular updates ensure that your website runs smoothly with fast load times, compliance with current regulations, and robust security. Your data is always safe and backed up on our servers, giving you peace of mind that your online presence is secure, reliable, and ready for growth.