Rancho Cortez Web Design & Development

The Problem

Mary at Rancho Cortez contacted me to make updates to their original website. Originally, it was a hand-coded static HTML website with over 50+ pages of content. The original site lacked any content management system and all updates had to be hand-coded by a developer for even the tiniest text update. Soon I recommended a fresh and more modern site design that would be developed with the popular WordPress site administration and content management system. The owners agreed the old site needed to be redesigned and asked me to come up with something new and more accessible to owners and staff to make regular updates and changes.

The Solution

I designed and developed a brand new custom WordPress theme that allows for easy site administration and updates, stylized with a western look and feel, that compliments the dude ranch experience. The three main pages have a silent background video preview in the hero area that features beautiful flyovers of the Texas hill country ranch and visually communicates many of the activities and experiences the dude ranch provides related to each page. Additionally, two of the main activities pages have fully playable popup videos users can click to view, within the hero areas via play buttons if the user desires to see and hear more about the ranch in full video and audio. Everything from horseback rides, to campfire smores, tractor driven hayrides and various cabin rentals, are all available at the ranch. The new site design assists in communicating many of the dude ranch experiences that await new and returning visitors from near and far. The ranch operates on annual activity calendars for horseback riding lessons, roping lessons, nature hikes and fitness classes that all require regular updating on the site. All of the content on the site is fully editable and gives the owners the freedom and flexibility to update all of their activity and event information whenever they want.