Website services

The Website performance service (WPS), formerly known as Website take-up service, has been developed to help local authorities understand more about the numbers and profile of their website visitors, what services they are looking to use, whether the site enables them to do what they set out to do, and how the website's performance compares with those of other, similar councils. Specifically, the service answers these questions:

• How successful is your website at dealing with customer enquiries?
• What level of 'avoidable contact' is generated when web enquiries fail?
  
• Which of your services perform best (or worst) online?
  
• How well does your site perform on mobile devices?
  

The service, which is used by more than a third of all councils, offers a pop-up survey to every fifth visitor to the website, which includes space for free text comments. Participation rates are high and the service is receiving a between 15,000 and 25,000 completed surveys a month.

Please note that this service uses cookies so you may wish to read our cookies advice.

Website performance service leaflet (1.06 MB PDF)

Subscribers receive:

• qualitative and quantitative information about visitors to their website(s) provided through a wide variety of reporting options, including access to an online results portal proving results up to the previous 24 hours
• benchmarking of visitor information against that of other participating local authorities
• a monthly spreadsheet with analysis of all the results from all participants by month and type of authority
• a summary report of the key messages, lessons learnt and case studies
• free places at information sharing workshops with other subscribers
• access to the WPS online discussion forum

The visitor survey

The exit survey that collects the data for the Website performance 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. Access to results is through an online portal and a monthly summary spreadsheet.

The survey questions include:

• How did you find out about the website?
• What was the main service area that you were interested in today?
• Did you find what you were looking for today?
• How would you rate your satisfaction with different features of the website?
• How likely are you to return to this website in the future?
• A series of questions about the respondent's race, gender, age, location etc
• An invitation to comment on their experience using a free text box

The service uses software developed by rol (owners of Govmetric, a complimentary service)

The Website performance service operates exclusively for local authority customers, but a comparable facility is available to other parts of the public sector (eg police, fire, health services, government departments and agencies etc.). Please contact insight@socitm.net for further details.

What it costs and how to join

For all existing subscribers as at March 2013

A one year subscription to the Website performance service costs £1,290 for an existing Socitm Insight subscriber (£860 for shire district subscribers) or £2,290 for other local authorities. [Registration fee of £375 applies in year one only].

For all new subscribers after April 2013

A one year subscription to the Website performance service costs £1,440 for an existing Socitm Insight subscriber (£960 for shire district subscribers) or £2,440 for other local authorities. [Registration fee of £375 applies in year one only].

You can start subscribing by filling in our Website performance service order form or if you have further questions, contact Terry Madgwick for further information (terry.madgwick@socitm.net / 01483 458620).

There are also twice yearly best practice events open to subscribers and potential subscribers. These take place each June and December.