Goldenwest Receives National Award for Website

Goldenwest Credit Union was recently honored with the Credit Union Executives Society (CUES) Golden Mirror Award for Website Design. The national award program recognizes credit unions for excellence in marketing. Goldenwest earned second place in the website category.

In an effort to give members a more dynamic and comprehensible online experience, Goldenwest moved its website design and management from a third-party vendor to an in-house team in 2011. The creation of the award-winning website was a collaborative effort of the credit union’s technology and marketing departments.

“One of our strategic initiatives is to look for better ways to serve our members with technology,” said Kerry H. Wahlen, Goldenwest president and CEO. “Our website is one of our most significant resources we provide our members. We are constantly looking for new ways to improve that site so that our members will have the tools they need to effectively manage their finances and make educated decisions.”

One of the objectives in the new site design was to improve search engine optimization directing web users to Goldenwest. In the first 12 months the site was launched, visits from search engines increased from 12.91 percent to 28.52 percent when compared to the previous year. Traffic from Google and Bing increased 12.02 percent and 10.81 percent respectively.

Other notable statistics resulting from the new site in the first 12 months after launch:

• Page views increased 5.74 percent
• Page views per visit increased 9.03 percent
• Average visit duration increased 27.10 percent
• Bounce rate decreased 8.27 percent
• New visitors increased 4.04 percent

The new website offers many additional features and tools for the credit union’s 86,000 members. All features were programmed in-house, making them unique to Goldenwest:

• Site-wide search feature
• Nationwide shared branch and ATM locator
• New loan applications
• Mortgage rate integration
• President’s blog and Twitter feed
• Improved newsroom
• New repo vehicle and properties features: Submit a bid online, ask a question, and send vehicle info to a friend
• RSS feeds for newsroom, repo properties, repo vehicles, employment opportunities, and president’s blog
• Ability to make online donations to Matrimoney accounts; couples can self-register online
• Social media links
• Rates ticker on home page
• Branch details with pictures and maps
• Redesigned membership application
• New 5K features such as registration, real-time race results, and the ability to search for individual results
• Stock values

In addition to providing a more robust and comprehensive site, Goldenwest has experienced significant cost savings by bringing the website design and management in-house.