By Steve Ranger, 10 April 2006 11:50
NEWS
Interest in local council websites is rocketing, even before a government campaign to improve take-up launches later this year.
Visitors to council websites increased by 40 per cent last year, according to a survey by local government IT managers group Socitm.
According to the report, 11.4 million visitors used local government websites in February 2006 - representing around 15 per cent of the population and more than 20 per cent of people on the internet in the UK.
Local residents account for 42 per cent of visitors to council sites and job vacancies remain the most popular reason for visiting council websites (at 14 per cent of enquiries).
But other subjects increased their share of visitor interest such as library information, planning applications and checking out sport and leisure facilities.
The survey also found that four out of five visitors found the information they are looking for and are generally "very well satisfied" with the experience.
Nearly half the visitors came to council sites via a search engine such as Google - only 12 per cent came via council promotion or referral by council staff.
Socitm Insight programme manager Martin Greenwood said it is now more important than ever for councils to get to grips with who is using their sites and for what purposes.
He said a soon-to-be-launched government ad campaign will boost interest further.
"The government's advertising campaign which breaks in May will have a significant impact given that usage of council websites is already on a sharp upward curve. What will be important is for councils to maintain the levels of satisfaction we are seeing," he said in a statement.
Comments
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1. James Thompson, CAPS Solutions
I was encouraged by the recent survey announcing that visitors to council websites increased by 40 per cent last year, which implies that councils are saving time and resources by making information more accessible to citizens.
It is interesting that nearly half the visitors came to council sites via search engines and only 12 per cent came via council promotion or referral by council staff. I embrace the proactive move by citizens to look for information themselves online and the Government advertising campaign due to begin in May can only serve to entice more people to visit council websites.
However, the onus should not lie on the citizen taking the initiative or accidentally stumbling across such a valuable resource. Local councils should be pre-empting this marketing opportunity in order to support a system which clearly cuts costs for them and improves efficiency. However, after 5 years of investment in eGovernment it is concerning that most people are still not aware of their own local authority websites. Neither are they aware of Local Directgov, the Governments web portal that directs citizens to local council services and websites, as their first point of reference.
Self-service channels are by far the most cost-effective platform for delivering accessible local authority services. Councils are beginning to catch up with the private sector by offering the customer choice and providing transactional services online and citizen’s awareness of these applications is rising. However, as the transition towards improved self-service progresses, increased public visibility is needed in order for further cost and efficiency savings to be realised.