9 Lakes of East Tennessee Sees 91% Faster Hosting Performance and 12% Lift in Active Users

9 Lakes of East Tennessee Vacations, a tourism-focused nonprofit dedicated to promoting East Tennessee’s attractions, approached Plan Left with an outdated digital presence.

Their website was nearly a decade old and had become a liability rather than an asset, creating an unappealing first impression that didn’t capture the region’s natural beauty.

Perhaps most critically, the organization had no access to analytics, leaving them completely in the dark about visitor behavior, content performance, or which events and attractions generated the most interest.

With events promotion being a cornerstone of their mission, the old website’s ineffective presentation was limiting attendance and engagement with regional activities, ultimately hampering tourism growth across East Tennessee.

Following Plan Left’s comprehensive digital transformation, 9 Lakes of East Tennessee Vacations now showcases the beauty of East Tennessee through a clean, modern website that effectively highlights the region’s attractions and events.

The revitalized digital presence creates an inspiring first impression that entices visitors to explore what the region has to offer.

The events section — crucial to their mission — now features an intuitive, engaging design that makes discovering regional activities simple and appealing.

Most importantly, the organization now has complete visibility into their digital performance through robust analytics, enabling data-driven decisions about content strategy and resource allocation.

Plan Left completely rebuilt 9 Lakes’ digital presence, replacing their outdated website with a modern, visually appealing platform specifically optimized to showcase regional events and attractions while implementing comprehensive analytics for the first time in the organization’s history.

The technical issues with 9 Lakes’ digital presence made it difficult for visitors to find value in the site when planning trips.

The site architecture lacked logical organization, making navigation confusing and preventing users from easily finding attractions or events.

The outdated platform was built on old technology that didn’t support modern functionality or security standards.

Their events calendar used obsolete display methods that failed to showcase activities effectively or provide expected filtering capabilities.

Most critically, the complete absence of analytics reports meant they couldn’t track which content resonated with visitors, how users navigated through the site, or which events generated interest.

To fix these issues, Plan Left completely rebuilt their website from the ground up, creating a clean, modern design that effectively showcases East Tennessee’s natural beauty and attractions.

Special attention was given to the events section, with an intuitive layout and enhanced functionality that makes discovering regional activities simple and engaging. We established a comprehensive analytics infrastructure including Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google Tag Manager, giving the organization visibility into their digital performance for the first time.

The new website was built with users in mind, ensuring easy navigation and mobile responsiveness. We also implemented SEO best practices to improve website visibility. Throughout the process, we provided training to ensure the Nine Lakes team could maintain the new website and leverage their analytics data effectively.