The Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) is now reaping the benefits of an all-new website

January 10, 2019

Increasing Energy Independence

Energy. This has been quite a buzz word these last few decades and continues to raise questions, debates, arguments, concerns… you name it. Is there enough of it? How long will our current resources last? What are we doing to find renewable alternatives?

REAP is a University of Missouri program focused on increasing America’s energy independence… Sounds marvelously reassuring, doesn’t it? By providing guaranteed loan financing and grant funding to agricultural producers and rural small businesses, they’re enabling these entities to:

• Implement renewable energy systems and make energy efficiency improvements.
• Benefit from an increased supply of renewable energy.
• Experience improved energy efficiency and a decreased demand for energy.

While REAP is doing what they can to give producers and small businesses what they need, REAP had a few needs of their own: a way to educate the producers and small business about their mission while also creating an easy-to-use platform that enabled them to easily “reap” benefits the program offers…

Improving Online Efficiency

MayeCreate Design is a small web design and online marketing business that works tirelessly toward improving America’s online efficiency. Sound familiar? When REAP decided the solution for marketing their message was a well-designed, highly-functional website, it’s clear we would be a perfect match to make their vision a reality.

Included in REAP’s list of website wants was a Frequently Asked Questions page, a way for people to apply for grants online, a way for people to apply and pay for energy audits online, an area for showcasing the program’s case studies, and an easy-to-update platform on which REAP could manage it all.

Case Studies Section

Each time REAP is ready to add a case study to their website, they simply have to go in and add a new post, put their content in, categorize the post as a Case Study and publish. When they also select the “Featured” category under “Case Studies,” the post will also be pulled in to be featured on the homepage Case Studies section.

Expand & Collapse FAQs

With an issue like renewable energy (combined with the complexity of how university programs, grant funding and loan financing works), REAP gets a lot of commonly asked questions that don’t have simple one word answers. So for this page, we went with the whole “don’t overwhelm your visitors” theory by implementing Collapse-o-matic’s expand/collapse plugin. This feature lets viewers easily read through the questions and click to read the answers — way better than listing every loving word on the page and leaving the viewers to sift through it all to find what they actually want.

Grant and Audit Applications

Who loves long lines and red tape? *Crickets* Exactly. REAP is hip to the general despising of these two things, which is exactly why we built online grant and audit applications into their new website. Now visitors can complete a responsive form that displays questions based on previous answers, which helps to minimize confusion on the user’s end and streamlines the submission process for program members. Double cool.

Other features on the new REAP website include:

• Mobile Friendly Design – Adaptive Template
  Websites that are mobile-friendly with adaptive templates will be served more often on search engines to people using their mobile devices.

• Custom WordPress Theme
  With Custom WordPress Themes, the website design is unique and the structure is flexible, scalable, and easily manageable. Let’s just say websites with custom WordPress themes aren’t forced to reside inside the box.

• Safe Site Plan
  The new REAP website is enrolled in our Company Safe Site Plan, meaning we’ve enhanced the site in an effort to offensively protect it from hackers. We backup the site daily, maintain regular WordPress and plugin updates, and monitor site activity and link function.

• Updates & Ongoing Maintenance
  It’s imperative to keep content fresh with regular updates to keep clients and prospects interested. With their website completed, we help REAP stay on top of their game by performing requested updates and changes to the website as needed.

Are you looking for a website?

Does your website lack the desirable “apply online” functionality, or do you just need a site in general? Contact the team at MayeCreate Design. We believe websites work when good design meets solid functionality. Our web designs always aim for ease of use and clear communication. Check out our portfolio for a look at our other projects and to get your pride on…today.