Economic Development Website Design That Works as Hard as Your Community Does
We design and build websites for economic development organizations that need to perform — for site selectors, prospective businesses, and the talent your region is working to attract. The same team behind Say Yes to Dallas.
We Have Done This Before
Our team built the digital platform for Say Yes to Dallas — one of the fastest-growing regional talent attraction programs in the country. These are real results from that work.
We don't just build these sites — we study them. See how we scored nine EDO websites against a six-criteria rubric, including where even the best-funded ones come up short.
Why EDOs Need a Specialist, Not a General Web Agency
A talented generalist agency can build you a beautiful website. What they can't do is walk into the room already knowing what a site selector looks for, why talent attraction and business attraction require completely different messaging, or how a cost-of-living calculator can be the single most effective conversion tool on your entire site.
Economic development websites serve multiple demanding audiences at once — corporate executives making $50M+ location decisions, HR leaders recruiting talent across state lines, and entrepreneurs evaluating markets. Getting this right requires more than good design. It requires deep familiarity with the industry.
Built for Every Audience Your Community Needs to Reach
Your EDO website speaks to several very different people at once — and when we scored nine EDO sites for our 2026 roundup, the most common failure wasn't bad design. It was sites that handed a corporate site selector and a relocating worker the exact same homepage. Even big-budget, well-designed sites get this wrong. We design for each audience on purpose.
Corporate Location Consultants
Site selectors are professionals on a deadline. They know exactly what data they need — and a slow site or missing workforce numbers sends them to your competitor within 30 seconds.
We build for their workflow: workforce data, available properties, infrastructure, incentives — all within two clicks.
Expansion & Relocation Prospects
A company evaluating your region wants to understand your business climate before they pick up the phone — tax structure, talent pipeline, industry clusters, and recent wins.
We build business attraction pages that tell a persuasive story backed by real data, with conversion points that move prospects into your pipeline.
Future Residents & Workers
High-value workers research communities for months before making a move — comparing cost of living, schools, housing, and career opportunities. Your website needs to be part of that research.
We build quality-of-life sections and interactive tools that give talent seekers a real reason to choose your community.
Everything Your Region Needs to Win
Every project is different. Here are the tools and capabilities we bring to economic development website design.
Workforce & Talent Site
Give talent a reason to choose you. We answer housing, school, and lifestyle questions before they ever talk to a recruiter — with pages built specifically for the audiences your region is trying to attract.
Cost-of-Living Calculator
The highest-converting tool on any talent attraction site. Show prospects exactly how much further their salary goes when they choose your city — making your cost advantage tangible and shareable.
Interactive Maps
Visual exploration of neighborhoods, commercial zones, industrial parks, and community amenities. We help prospects and site selectors understand your geography before they ever visit.
Sites & Properties Directory
A searchable, filterable database of available commercial properties, industrial sites, and development parcels — built directly into your website so site selectors can find what they need without calling your office first.
SEO & AI Search Optimization
Built-in search engine optimization — URL architecture, schema markup, keyword-optimized copy, and technical configuration — so your community gets found by the people researching locations online and in AI search tools.
Lead Capture & CRM Integration
Strategic conversion points throughout the site connected to your pipeline. Business and talent inquiries flow directly to your team so nothing falls through the cracks.
The Three Features That Actually Move the Needle
We can build all of the above. But after scoring nine leading EDO websites for our 2026 roundup, I'll be honest about which features earn their keep — because that's where most of your budget should go.
A searchable sites & properties database
This is the single thing site selectors need most from a local EDO site, and it's the one most communities skip. The benchmark isn't a state agency with a six-figure budget — it's Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a city of 115,000 whose property database lets a site selector filter available buildings by crane availability, rail access, and ceiling height without ever picking up the phone. If a small-market EDC in northeastern Oklahoma can field that, the "we're too small" excuse doesn't hold. And you don't need a custom build — there are solid off-the-shelf options that integrate cleanly.
A real cost-of-living calculator
For talent attraction, nothing converts like letting someone type in their current salary and watch it stretch further in your market. When we built that calculator for Say Yes to Dallas, it drove 2X calculator views and helped the platform reach 160,000 annual visitors. It isn't a salary converter — it's a full comparison across housing, taxes, utilities, and transportation. It's also the asset that gets shared in Slack channels and cited by journalists writing about affordable metros, which is how you earn links you never had to ask for.
Lead capture that actually captures something
This is the universal failure in our field. Eight of the nine sites we scored landed at 3 out of 5 or below on lead capture. The most-trafficked site in the entire review pulled 9,593 organic visits a month — and offered nothing but a newsletter link and a phone number to convert any of them. Organizations spend tens of thousands driving traffic, then let it leave anonymous. The fix isn't a redesign: an inline form, one gated download per audience, and a clear next step. We build those conversion points in from day one.
Speed Is a Ranking Factor and a Conversion Factor
Here's a finding from the roundup that should worry every EDO: not one of the nine sites we tested passed Google's mobile speed test. The average mobile PageSpeed score across the set was 50 — right at the boundary Google calls "poor." Site selectors work on a deadline, and a page that takes too long to load on a phone loses them before the workforce data ever renders. Google also factors mobile speed directly into rankings, so a slow site is harder to find and harder to convert at the same time.
That's a big reason we build on Astro. It ships static HTML with no JavaScript by default, so pages load fast on the mobile connections your audiences actually use. The fastest site in our entire review was the one Astro build in the set — it wasn't close. We treat performance as a requirement, not a nice-to-have. This page included.
Astro or WordPress? How We Approach Economic Development Web Design
There's no single right platform for economic development web design — there's a right platform for your situation. In our 2026 review, the strongest sites ran on a mix: DSM Partnership and EDPNC on WordPress, InvestAtlanta on a custom CMS, and West Slope Local on Astro. Platform matters far less than the strategy and tools behind it.
We build on both. WordPress fits when your team needs to publish and edit constantly without a developer, or when you depend on a specific plugin ecosystem — a property database, an events calendar, a membership system. Astro fits when speed, security, and longevity matter most: it produces a fast static site with very little to hack, break, or update. On the strategy call we'll tell you which one fits your team, your budget, and the tools you actually need — not which one we feel like building this quarter.
From Strategy Call to Launch
Most EDO website projects take 10–14 weeks. Here's exactly what that looks like.
Strategy Call
We analyze your region, audiences, and goals. No high-pressure pitch — just an honest assessment of what your digital presence needs to do and how to get there.
Custom Proposal
We provide a complete map of what we'll build, the total investment, and the outcomes you can expect. No vague estimates — a clear scope before any work begins.
Build & Launch
Our team designs, develops, and launches your platform. We stay involved post-launch to monitor performance and make data-informed improvements in the first 30 days.
What Does an EDO Website Cost?
Most agencies won't answer this. We will. Every project is scoped individually, but here's an honest framework for what to expect.
Focused Site
5–8 pages · 10–12 week timeline
Best for: smaller EDOs, chambers, and orgs building or refreshing their digital presence.
Mid-Scope Platform
10–20 pages · 12–14 week timeline
Best for: regional EDOs and investment promotion agencies with multiple audiences and data needs.
Full-Featured Platform
20+ pages · 14–18 week timeline
Best for: state agencies, large regional EDOs, and investment promotion agencies serving multiple stakeholders.
Not sure which tier fits? Book a 15-minute strategy call and we'll give you an honest recommendation based on your goals and budget.
Book a Free Strategy Call →Built for How Site Selectors Actually Research Today
The way location decisions get made has fundamentally changed. In 2026, a meaningful portion of site selection and talent research starts not with a Google search, but with a question asked to an AI tool — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews, or similar platforms.
These AI systems pull answers from well-structured, authoritative websites. If your EDO's digital presence isn't optimized for AI-driven search — with structured data, FAQ content, schema markup, and clear entity signals — your community may be invisible to researchers who never reach the underlying search results.
Every website we build is optimized for both traditional search and AI-driven discovery. That means structured data on every page, FAQ content that answers the exact questions researchers ask, and technical configuration that allows AI crawlers to index your site. Communities that get this right now will have a compounding advantage over those that address it later.
What Our Clients Say
Real results from the organizations that trusted us with their digital presence.
"We signed Max on to handle regular maintenance and development needs for our mid-size nonprofit organization, and he's gone above and beyond since. Our website's backend was essentially duct-taped together, and he's continually looked for opportunities to clean it up and optimize it. Plus, he recommended and took on a plan for SEO, which has yielded stellar results. He is incredibly responsive, kind, and great to work with. I highly recommend."
"The WordPress project he helped me with had been 'given up on' by another developer and it provided me so much help that he brought it home for me ❤️ Can't recommend him enough!"
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything EDOs and community organizations typically ask before starting a website project.
Your Community Deserves to Be Chosen.
Let's build the platform that makes it happen. Schedule a free 15-minute conversation about your region's digital presence and what it would take to make it perform.
Book Your Free Strategy Call →