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Don’t build it and hope they come. You’ve invested in building up service delivery capabilities on your website; now invest in getting people to use your services. Establish your reputation as the first port of call for citizens looking for local information and services.
Submit your URL to be included in Google’s search engine index. Visit Google Webmaster Central for website diagnosis tools. cost = free
With Google AdWords, you can connect with your citizens at the exact moment when they are searching for services your council provides. What’s more, you decide in what areas your ad will be shown (for example, only in your city or region) and pay only when someone clicks on your ad. cost = it’s up to you
Use Insights for Search for free to find out what people are searching for, where and when. For instance, by knowing that the current slowdown has led to greater search queries on terms such as 'free family days out', you can use that data to tailor your communications regarding activities in local parks. cost = free
Google’s free media planning tool, AdPlanner, allows you to plan your media buy around websites your community is likely to visit, based on their demographics and interests. If you want to promote your council’s initiative for engaging the community in health scrutiny, use AdPlanner to find sites visited by people who are looking for information on health. cost = free
Contact Google today for help on getting your campaign started.
If your council is new to AdWords, get a FREE AdWords voucher up to £300 by working with Google.
Define the search queries, based on researching the search terms used, to find similar services. It is essential that relevant content and services are live on the site.
Develop and implement an integrated approach, which involves a mix of optimisation techniques and paid activities, to ensure that users can easily find the services they are seeking.
Define and agree your objectives and how these will be evaluated, these can include positioning on the page relevant to specific search queries, target volume of traffic from search engines.
Identify required resources to deliver and evaluate the delivery of the objectives.
Remember, search engine marketing helps ensure that organisations can achieve prominent positioning in search results. Directgov has used this effectively with the outbreak of swine flu, natural disasters, adverse weather conditions etc. Search engine marketing is useful to ensure high visibility, especially whenever there is low visibility in natural search, and can be used to test different ad descriptions and destination pages.
Reduce the clutter on your home page. Go for simplicity, with a highly effective search engine rather than lots of options. Too many council web pages look like the local market – lots of colour, distraction, words and stuff, rather than offering a route to what the citizen wants.
Improve your e-bulletins by focusing on shorter, sharper content that enables people to access services rather than promoting particular initiatives. By clicking on a link from a bulletin the reader should be able to do something, register for an event, join a public consultation or pay a bill.
Build your e communications on public demand, not professional assessment by service chiefs. This means that you should promote the ability of people to transact online - from planning applications to parking tickets and council tax payment rather than focusing on simply providing information.
Build an evidence base for your work. Great e-comms and pioneering use of digital media will be pointless unless you understand the communication channels your community uses, trusts and would like to use. Making this assessment underpins any strategy.
Hillingdon Borough Council reveals how it promoted a local seasonal attraction by advertising with AdWords.
Read the case study (PDF)
Craig Nattress from Ryedale District Council discusses how AdWords was used to cost-effectively stimulate tourism to the Yorkshire Moors and Coast.
Read the case study (PDF)