Municipality of Beverwijk: valuable insight and control over the online landscape
The municipality of Beverwijk chose to work with Shift2 to map out their sub-websites. The municipality already had a need to redesign their online landscape. Shift2's sub-site service therefore came at just the right time.
Ed Pronk, Public Services Advisor, KCC and Digiteam, is involved in digitizing the services provided by the municipality of Beverwijk. "We want to prevent the proliferation of (sub)websites. The communications department does not have a complete overview of all websites, which presents various challenges. These include management, structured information, accessibility, and AI. But also visual aspects. We are currently working on a new corporate identity that we want to implement on all (sub)websites. We can only do this if we have more control over the management ourselves."
A surprising number of (sub)websites
Matthijs Mandjes, webmaster at the municipality of Beverwijk, was largely involved in the content of this project. "Shift2 sent us a document containing important metadata that we could use to measure our various websites. This was a great start to categorizing our websites." Matthijs quickly realized that mapping the sub(websites) was quite a challenge. "When mapping our websites, we discovered that there were many more websites online than we had expected. These were websites with the name Beverwijk and our logo, but we weren't sure whether they belonged to us or to an external organization."
Of the 15 websites that mentioned the name Beverwijk, 10 were ultimately managed by the municipality itself. Ed: "We took a critical look at the raison d'être of these websites and immediately identified where they needed to be subdivided. For example, we decided to transfer the websites related to sustainability and the cemetery to Shift2 in the near future."
Accessibility under scrutiny
With the list provided, Shift2 was able to start its investigation. We assessed the Beverwijk municipality websites based on a number of important criteria. The report revealed, among other things, that a number of sub-websites did not score well in terms of accessibility. Matthijs: "Although it was unpleasant to hear that accessibility was lacking, this insight did give us the information we needed to take action." Ed: "We can now emphasize to colleagues that not all of our websites comply with the web guidelines that we have to meet as a municipality. That is extremely valuable. From here, we can take steps to improve this."
Mapping your online landscape with Shift2 saves time for municipalities that want to map their websites.
Time savings for municipalities
The Municipality of Beverwijk wanted to thoroughly map out its (sub)websites, but lacked the time and capacity to do so itself. Thanks to the collaboration with Shift2, this project got off the ground after all. Ed explains: "Thanks to the expert support of Shift2 and their structured approach, we now have a clear overview of our online landscape. This clarity enables us to manage our website more effectively and provides insights into possible areas for improvement. Shift2's subsite service is a real time-saver for municipalities that, like us, want to organize their digital landscape but lack the necessary internal resources."
Ready to get started with your online landscape?
At Shift2, we understand the complexity of managing websites within local governments. We are happy to help you map out and optimize your online landscape. Read below to find out how we do this:
- First, we make sure we have a clear picture of your organization's current online landscape. We analyze existing websites and identify opportunities for improvement.
- We provide an overview of your online landscape and insight into important KPIs within performance;
- By deploying our consultants, we provide extra hands. We take care of the process for you, saving you time.
- Based on the analysis, we highlight specific areas for quality improvement. These include web management, legislation and regulations, accessibility, etc. We provide practical solutions to take your online landscape to the next level.
Want to discuss your online landscape?