RiverCenter for the Performing Arts is Columbus, Georgia’s home for world-class performances: Broadway touring shows, orchestral concerts, comedy, dance, and everything in between. The venue was delivering unforgettable nights on stage, but the website told a different story: outdated design, buried event listings, and a digital experience that didn’t match the quality of what was happening inside the theatre. With the 2026 season approaching, RiverCenter needed more than a facelift. They needed a website built to work as hard as their box office does.
The Challenge
RiverCenter’s team knew their digital front door was holding them back. The venue was thriving, but online, visitors ran into friction at nearly every turn.
Modern Design that Reflects The Design of RiverCenter for the Performing Arts
Outdated User Experience
The existing site felt dated next to the modern, vibrant brand RiverCenter had built inside the theatre. Navigation was cluttered, the design didn’t reflect the excitement of a live performing arts venue, and the overall experience did little to turn a casual browser into a ticket buyer.
No Mobile-First Design
Most visitors check show times and buy tickets from their phones. A website that wasn’t built mobile-first was working against its own audience. Pages loaded awkwardly on smaller screens, and simple tasks, like finding a show or getting directions, took more taps than they should have.
Events Buried and Hard to Find
RiverCenter’s calendar is packed, but the old site had no structure built for search engines or for visitors scanning for a specific show. Event pages weren’t optimized for SEO, ticketing links to their external platform, Showare, were inconsistent, and there was no clear, repeatable way to showcase multiple upcoming shows at once.
Accessibility and Compliance Gaps
As a public venue, RiverCenter has a responsibility to be accessible to every member of the community. The existing site fell short of WCAG 2.1 AA standards, missing alt text, insufficient color contrast, and navigation that wasn’t fully usable by keyboard or screen reader.
TracSoft’s Solution
RiverCenter needed a partner who could turn a 13-week timeline and a hard deadline ahead of their April 2026 season launch into a website their whole team could be proud of and manage themselves once it launched. TracSoft built the project around four pillars: modern design, structured content, full accessibility, and staff independence.
Custom, Mobile-First WordPress Build
TracSoft built a custom WordPress theme from the ground up, designed mobile-first so every page, from the homepage to individual show listings, renders cleanly whether a visitor is on a phone in the lobby or a desktop at home planning their season tickets.
Structured, SEO-Optimized Event Pages
Every show now lives on its own dedicated, SEO-optimized page with a custom event post type built specifically for RiverCenter: title, date, time, imagery, description, and a clear link to the correct Showare ticketing page. Schema markup and metadata were built into the structure from day one, and the homepage was designed to dynamically feature multiple upcoming shows, not just the standard three.
Full WCAG 2.1 AA Accessibility
TracSoft built and tested the site against WCAG 2.1 AA standards: alt text on every image, semantic HTML throughout, keyboard-navigable menus, and color contrast that passes accessibility testing tools. This wasn’t an afterthought. It was built into the site from the start.
Staff Training That Sticks
A beautiful website only pays off if the team behind it can run it. TracSoft delivered a live virtual training session for RiverCenter’s staff, along with PDF and video documentation for ongoing reference, plus 30 days of post-launch support to catch anything that came up after go-live. Today, RiverCenter’s team manages their own events, content, and updates. No waiting on a developer.
What RiverCenter Says
“The team is highly knowledgable and go above and beyond to assist in any way possible. They have been an invaluable partner and we look forward to working with them for years to come. Highly recommend!” — Lauren Jenkins, Marketing Manager, RiverCenter for the Performing Arts
The Impact
RiverCenter launched on time, ahead of their April 2026 season, and the results in the two months that followed speak for themselves.
- 323% increase in website traffic: sessions grew from 15,560 to 65,880 in the May to June period, year over year
- 400% increase in mobile users: mobile visitors jumped from 8,724 to 43,631, with mobile now accounting for 79% of all site traffic
- 74 event pages now ranking in Google search, with event and ticketing queries averaging position 2.3, the top of page one
- 11,542 clicks from show, event, and ticketing pages, accounting for 22.6% of all search traffic to the site
- Organic search engagement nearly tripled, with average engagement time growing from 28 minutes to 70 minutes per session
- Full WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility compliance, making the site usable for every member of the community
Conclusion & Next Steps
RiverCenter’s website redesign proves that a modern, accessible, mobile-first site isn’t a luxury for performing arts venues. It’s the difference between visitors finding your next show or scrolling past it. In just over two months post-launch, RiverCenter has seen traffic, mobile engagement, and search visibility grow at a pace that matches the energy of what’s happening on their stage.
Ready to Work with Tracsoft?
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