The St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce has launched a re-design of its Economic Development Partnership website, choosestjoseph.com.

Originally launched in 2011, the website is now mobile-friendly, which is of the utmost importance in today’s business climate.

“The economic development website is made specifically for those wanting more information about St. Joseph’s economy, whether it be site selectors looking to locate a business here or our existing businesses looking to expand here,” said R. Patt Lilly, President and CEO of the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce. “Our job is to make it as easy as possible for employers to get the information they need to choose St. Joseph, so redesigning the website to make it mobile-friendly was a priority this year.”

As more people use mobile phones and tablets to search, Google has recently started ranking mobile-friendly sites higher in its search rankings. When competing with other communities for jobs, coming up high on search engines is very important. This is why, in addition to redesigning the website, the Chamber also is investing more in search engine optimization.

“In the past, site selectors would rely more on regional economic development organizations to point them in the right direction of possible areas to fit their company’s needs,” Mr. Lilly said. “Now site selectors and individual businesses prefer to do their own research. To compete in this field, you have to have a modern, optimized website with the pertinent demographic, business cluster and property information.”

The site also includes a news column that features announcements, like Daily’s Premium Meats and Schutz Container Systems bringing new jobs to St. Joseph. It also has a blog about important issues in local economic development.

The site was redesigned and is being optimized by Chamber members St.Joe Web and InBound Online Marketing & Consulting.