Farm Websites Made Simple: Skip the Stress, Look Like a Pro

A free custom designed Farm website is included with all active Barn2Door Subscription Tiers. Worth repeating, right? Some Farmers who sign up for Barn2Door have an existing website, and want us to build them a new one. Other Farmers who join are excited for their first website and creating their initial brand presence online. Barn2Door is the de facto expert when it comes to building Farm websites — we’ve helped thousands of Farmers launch websites in every product category! 

Why does Barn2Door include a website at no-charge? We know it is important for a Farmer selling directly under their brand, to have a polished website online as a starting point for Buyers to connect, learn about your Farm and to build a trustworthy Farm brand. We don’t want the cost of a custom-built website (typically $3k - $10k depending on the level of complexity) to be a blocker for Farmers’ success in promoting their brand, attracting buyers and driving sales.

A website is essentially ‘window dressing’ to your Farm store, where Buyers can immediately start shopping. We often say it is ‘marketing for the purpose of sales.’ The Barn2Door Design Team works closely with each Farmer to build a custom designed website that reflects the unique value and story.

If a Farmer has an existing website, we ensure they don’t lose traction or details associated with their site. Barn2Door will help you maintain all those valuable assets and the brand credibility you’ve built (e.g. domain name, search engine optimization, custom email). Additionally, it is an opportunity to revisit other essentials that are best practices across web design, mobile responsiveness, customer engagement, accessibility and sales optimization. 

Communication is key when building a website that reflects your Farm brand and design preferences. Farmers meet with Barn2Door team members for an initial intake call, to provide input, and then participate in a design review to share feedback, and give the final ‘blessing’ before the final website goes live. Below, we’ve also addressed some common questions that come up along the way:

What’s the difference between a domain name and my website?

Your domain name and your website are both connected, but are two different things. Visually, your ‘domain name’ (eg. www.yourfarmname.com) is the digital address for your farm business - aka the uniform resource locator (URL) to find your farm. Your website is the content comprised of several landing pages, that transfers information to your computer screen. 

The website is built with software code that assembles and organizes a number of individual files (pages) - aka the content management system (CMS). These files are stored in the “cloud” (with a web hosting service). When people view your website, they temporarily access a copy of that file on the Internet via a web browser (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Safari) that reads and displays the webpage(s).

Do I own my domain name?

Every website online has a domain name, which is purchased and maintained by the Farmer. A Farmer must keep paying for their domain name service to preserve their rights to own and use it. When a Farmer has an existing website, then Barn2Door builds them a new website, our team will help disconnect the domain from any prior website, and re-direct the domain to their new website (once it is ready to publish!). Think of it like having a phone number that you can transfer to a new phone/device. (e.g. in the same way you can keep your phone number, while moving from AT&T to Verizon (or vice versa)).

If you do not own a domain, then you will need to purchase one before Barn2Door can publish your website  (e.g. see a domain registrar such as GoDaddy or Namecheap). You can keep your domain with any of the Top 10 domain registrars and we will connect it to your Barn2Door website.

At any point in the future, if you elect to cancel your Barn2Door Account, you will still own your domain name, but it will be disconnected from any website hosted by Barn2Door. Much like cancelling your mobile phone service with ATT, you will need a new phone with Verizon (despite being able to take your phone number with you).

Do I own my website?

Similar to accessing music or content online (e.g. Spotify or Netflix account), as long as you maintain an active Barn2Door Account, then your website, hosting, e-commerce store, point-of-sale (POS), and all other services will be available to you. However, if you elect to cancel your Barn2Door Account, then all those preceding services, including your website, will no longer be available to you. Barn2Door will deactivate hosting for your Farm website as the effective last day of service. 

In the alternative, Farmers do have the option to purchase their website after 1-year of service with Barn2Door, in which case we can transfer website hosting and the Farmer can take full ownership thereafter. In this case our Designers will rebuild the ‘same’ website on Wordpress, attach it to a new website hosting provider (of the Farmer’s choosing) and help you transfer and connect your domain to ensure a smooth transition.
This one-time custom website build and transfer is considered "work-for-hire" and upon completion and acceptance by the Farmer, shall be owned and maintained by the Seller, including hosting, security and domain management upon transfer to the Seller. A custom website can be purchased for a one-time fee of $1,995.

Will I lose my custom email?

If you already own a custom email associated with your domain, you can continue to own it and use it. A custom email is connected to your domain (e.g. farmer@yourfarmname.com is connected to yourfarmname.com), not your website. As such, your email will stay unchanged through the transition to your new site. Like your domain, you will continue paying separately for your email service.

Will I lose my search engine optimization?

Search engines like Google improve their search results by ranking websites. These rankings are caused by many factors, including traffic to your site, and outside links to your site. Search engine optimization (SEO) can take a long time to build, and they frequently change or update their algorithms which changes the ‘rules of the game’. Thankfully any SEO traction you have achieved can be transferred to your new site. Barn2Door Designers set up your site so links from your old site still work (and will redirect to new pages). This way, your search engine optimization stays the same.