The Apopka Chief has had the same website for a number of years. It was a WordPress site that was built for a paywall and PDFs, not so much for individual stories freely available to everyone in the community.  

All that changed this week, when we re-launched the WordPress site with a whole new look and feel. It has a featured gallery at the top, followed by categories of news (local living, business, sports), plus a navigation bar at the top.  

The site is still a work in progress, but we wanted to provide three things right away:  

Open access. All Apopka Chief content is now free, so we wanted to make it as easy as possible to navigate through stories and find what you want. All new stories are also easily sharable—and we hope you will share them.  

Speed. The speed of a website plays a critical role in determining how many people find it. A fraction of a second longer page load time can be the difference between appearing in page 1 search results or buried on page 5 or 10. This faster site will better serve rural readers who may not have high-speed internet and make sure no one waits unnecessarily for pages to load. 

Navigation. We are committed to not only providing the best local news coverage in the area but also making it as easy as possible to discover and navigate. We want this to be a user-friendly site. We still have a long way to go, but our goal is to make it a breeze to use and find what you’re seeking. 

Speaking of finding things, when was the last time you were looking for something to do on the weekend, and you didn’t know where to get a comprehensive look at your options? Look no more. 

The Chief has partnered with a company called CitySpark to provide a comprehensive events page that automatically scrapes area website to populate a page with the latest in entertainment information. You can find it by clicking on “Apopka Events Calendar” from the “Community” drop-down menu on the navigation bar, or you can go directly to theapopkachief.com/apopka-events-calendar. 

Not only is the events calendar free to use, if your organization has an event you want to promote, you can add it free of charge. And for a small fee, you can boost your listing for increased visibility.  

Again, the website is still a work in progress, but we hope you will check it out and tell us what you think. These improvements are just the latest ways we are seeking to serve Apopka better and position the Chief for its next 100 years.