• Overall results for February 2007 show two thirds of visitors will return when seeking similar information and services in future – no change on same period in 2006 
• visitor satisfaction has fallen – 12% fewer visitors are finding all the information they want and 16% fewer say they can find specific information easily from council websites compared with 12 months ago
• Councils achieving ‘level A’ accessibility also achieve highest levels of visitor satisfaction  

The latest results report from the Socitm Insight Website Take up Service, published at the end of March, sets out for the first time a series of key performance indicators for website usage, covering take-up by local residents, visitor satisfaction and the likelihood of repeat visits.

The Socitm Insight Website Take-Up Service provides information to participating councils about the total number of unique visitors to their websites, and provides a wealth of other information about the reasons visitors are going to the site, how they got there, what the experience was like, and whether they are likely to visit again. The subscriber sample covers all types of UK council including shire counties, districts, London boroughs, metropolitan districts and Welsh and Scottish unitaries.

The Take up Service collects information through a short exit survey added to participating authorities’ websites. The latest results come from a sample of 24,770 visitors that completed the survey on 70 participating websites in February.

Reporting the new take up indicators Socitm Insight argues that the most meaningful indicator of take-up for a council website is the percentage of local residents using the website each month. The local community is the primary audience for local authority websites, and according to WTS figures on average nearly two in every three visitors to any council website is a local resident. Combining information from the WTS about the number of residents who visit, with local population statistics, allows this calculation to be made for every participating website.  Socitm suggests that a suitable target for website usage by local residents is 25% for single tier authorities, 10% in shire counties, and15% in shire districts 

Figures for the net overall satisfaction of visitors are calculated from responses to the question ‘overall, how satisfied are you with your visit today?’ in which visitors are ask to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5. The net satisfaction indicator is calculated by subtracting those dissatisfied (rated 1 or 2) from those satisfied (rated 4 or 5). Those not committing (rated 3) are ignored. February’s WTS figures give an average net satisfaction rating of 42.2%, and Socitm suggests that the target councils should aim for on this indicator is 50%.

The third indicator, net likelihood of return, is calculated from answers to the question ‘how likely are you to return to this website in the future?’, where numbers answering very or fairly unlikely are subtracted from those answering very of fairly likely, and ‘not sures’ being ignored.  In this case, Socitm recommends councils adopt a target of 70% net likelihood of return.

March’s report identifies a number of councils that are performing well based on these indicators including:

• Bracknell Forest
• East Ayrshire
• Lancashire CC
• Oxfordshire CC
• North Ayrshire
• Tameside MBC
• Warwickshire CC
   

The latest WTS figures provide a further interesting finding on the connection between usability, accessibility, and visitor satisfaction. Of all 70 councils participating in the WTS, the 13 that achieved Level A of WCAG 1.0 internet guidelines for accessibility in Better connected 2007, perform better than the rest in terms of visitor satisfaction.  This finding is in line with one of the key tenets of inclusive design - that things designed to be accessible to the disabled are also more usable for everyone.

The Website Take-Up Service results for February 2007 also show that:

• 19.0m visitors came to local government websites in February. This figure is an extrapolation from the visitor sample
• February 2007’s figures suggests that the number of unique visitors to participating council websites has increased by 22% since February 2006
• 67% of visitors come to council websites to find information, 12% to use a service and 6% are just browsing.
• of those searching for information, the most frequent reasons are job vacancies (12%), schools (7%), sport/leisure facilities (6%) and planning applications (6%)
• of those using services, 32% are renewing or reserving a library book, 7% are paying council tax, 5% are making another payment and 4% are obtaining a council form

Commenting on the fall in visitor satisfaction with council websites, Martin Greenwood, Programme Manager for Socitm Insight said: ‘Its too early to say whether this is a blip or a trend.  The extent of the decline in those finding all the information they need is significant, but is much less so when those finding part of what they wanted are added.  It may simply be that people have rising expectations of council websites, rather than any deterioration in service. It is something we will continue to watch closely and discuss in our feedback sessions with the councils that participate in this service.’

Building usage of council websites: summary of findings from the Socitm Insight website take-up service Issue 5 is a 16pp briefing. It is available free of charge to subscribers to Socitm Insight and the Socitm Insight Website Take-up Service, and costs £30 to others. It can be ordered from www.socitm.gov.uk

Further information

Martin Greenwood, Programme Manager, Socitm Insight
Tel: 01926 498703 or 07967 383755  e-mail: martin.greenwood@socitm.gov.uk

Vicky Sargent or Peter Coates, Socitm Press Office
Tel: 0845 094 5641  email: vicky.sargent@socitm.gov.uk or peter.coates@socitm.gov.uk                 

Notes for Editors

The Socitm Insight website take-up service is run in association with Nielsen/NetRatings, a web analytics company with extensive experience of site measurement and qualitative and quantitative research for public sector organisations.

Subscribers receive:

• qualitative and quantitative information about visitors to their website(s)
• benchmarking of visitor information against that of other participating local authorities
• analysis of all the results from all participants by month and type of authority
• summary report of the key messages, lessons learnt and case studies
• free places at information sharing workshops with other subscribers.