This service has been developed to help local authorities understand much more about the profile of their website visitors and their needs, and how well their website is performing in terms of visitor numbers and satisfaction. Participating councils get information about the total number of unique visitors to their sites, why people are visiting, how they got there, what the experience was like, and whether they are likely to visit again. Launched in 2004, the Website takeup service gathers information through an exit survey offered to every fifth visitor to participating councils’ websites.
In September 2008, 29,506 visitors completed the survey – an average of 324 responses during the month for each of the 91 councils currently participating in the service.
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
From January 2009, subscribers will also be able to generate data automatically for the website element of their authority's NI 14 return (required from April 2009).
The visitor survey
The exit survey that collects the data for the Website take-up service is added to participating authorities’ websites and is launched (by a piece of code invisible to the user) as every fifth visitor leaves the site. The software prevents repeat invitations (through use of cookies), whether or not the respondent has said “yes” or “no”, until such time as the survey is updated (usually every 12 months), when earlier invitations are ignored .
The survey asks sixteen questions and takes between three and four minutes to complete. Supporting software collects the answers and analyses results in a variety of ways, allowing subscribers to look at findings from their own website and compare them with findings from the rest of the subscriber group. The questionnaire is normally updated once a year.
This list of questions comes from the latest version of the survey implemented in January 2008. (Note: Several of the options allow free text alternatives)
Intro Would you like us to help you?
Q1 - How did you find out about the website? (13 options)
Q2 - In the last 6 months, approximately how many times have you visited this website? (6 options)
Q3 - What was your main purpose for coming to the website today? (18 options),
Q4 - If you had not come to the website for this purpose, what would be your preferred way of contacting the council? (7 options)
Q5 - Did you find what you were looking for today?
Q6 - Please tell us what you could not find.
Q7 - How would you rate your satisfaction with the following features of this website (on a scale of 1 to 5)? (5 aspects cited)
Q8 - How likely are you to return to this website in the future? (on a scale of 1 to 5)
Q9 - Overall, how satisfied are you with your visit today? (on a scale of 1 to 5)
Information about visitor – entirely optional
Q10 - Please select your age range from dropdown list? (8 options)
Q1 - Are you male or female or prefer not to say?
Q12 - Please enter your postcode if you are a UK resident
Q13 - Which of the following applies to you? (10 options)
Q14 - Which one of the following groups do you consider you belong to? (16 options)
Q15 - If your use of the internet is impeded by any of the following, please indicate how (6 options)
Q16 - Please add any more comments about our website below, but note that we cannot reply directly to comments you make here
The service uses software developed by rol (owners of Govmetric, a complimentary service that is part of the Customer Access Improvement Service).
Curently, the service operates exclusively for local authority customers. However, we are interested in exploring offering comparable facility, asking similar questions to other parts of the public sector (eg police, fire, ndpbs, government departments etc.). Please contact insight@socitm.gov.uk.
What it costs and how to join
A one year subscription to the Website take-up service costs £1,080 for an existing Socitm Insight subscriber (£715 for shire district subscribers) or £2,100 for other local authorities. [Registration fees of £320, £280 and £400 apply in year one only].
You can start subscribing by filling in our service order form or if you have further questions, contact Terry Madgwick for further information (terry.madgwick@socitm.gov.uk / 01483 855288).
There are also twice yearly best practice events open to subscribers and potential subscribers. You can find details in the events section of this website. The next event is on 5 December in Leicester.