Belfast City Council Content Analysis BELFAST CITY COUNCIL WEBSITE CONTENT ANALYSIS

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1 BELFAST CITY COUNCIL WEBSITE CONTENT ANALYSIS Ashley Leach, 2/8/2019 1

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ANALYSIS OBJECTIVE To perform a content analysis of the Belfast City Council website. Provide insights and reasoning regarding if the current content on the website is in line with the business objectives founded in the management strategy by the Bernard Marr Company. CONTENT ALIGNMENT SUMMARY A content alignment summary was created based upon three business goals from the Bernard Marr management strategy report findings. The summary also reviewed the different types of content on the website and the users who are interested in it. KPI s and web metrics were also factored into how each business goal would be measured for success. WEBSITE CONTENT AUDIT A website audit was performed using the Screaming Frog SEO Spider program. The report pulled information regarding types of content, the platforms the content are using, the title tags, meta descriptions, and number of pages. FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS The website audit performed lead to positive findings of the overall website content. One particular finding was that the current Belfast City Council website content currently provides additional content such as blog articles (recipes and party planning tips) while the competitor does not offer any such content does align with the suggested management strategy. Ashley Leach, 2/8/2019 2

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION... 4 Content Alignment Summary... 5 Business Goals & Objectives Types of Users & Content Examples Belfast City Council Website Content Audit Core Content Strategy Messaging Framework Key Performance Indicator CONCLUSION SOURCES Ashley Leach, 2/8/2019 3

4 BELFAST CITY COUNCIL The city of Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland. It is also the largest city in Northern Ireland with a population of around 330,000 people. The city is located along the River Lagan which has led to it being a well-known maritime city that is full is history. Belfast is the birth place of the historic ship the RMS Titanic. One of Belfast s most well-known maritime experiences is the Titanic Museum. In its past the city of Belfast has experienced political unrest, but in recent years has seen a surge in economic growth and development. The problem that the Belfast City Council faced was the strategy & management of a city where people wanted to live, work, invest in, or visit. In order to capitalize on the recent growth, the city has experienced, the Belfast City Council realized they needed to build a complete business management strategy with help from the Bernard Marr Company. The business report Belfast: Strategy, Goals & Metrics For Managing A City from the Bernard Marr Company provided a very thorough analysis of the business goals that the Belfast City Council would like to reach and a strategy that will help exceed them. The report found that City Council has a vision for the city which includes improving the quality of life in the city by improving both service delivery and the Council s civic leadership role. In order to fix the problem (creating a strategy that helps manage a city where people want to live, work, invest in or visit) that City Council faced, they hired Bernard Marr to help them map their strategy, develop meaningful performance indicators and put in place a state-of-the-art performance management processes. The idea of using a heatmap on the website was genius. The results from the heatmap provided insights into which content was accessed the most by users. These learnings were used to build the strategy. Now that a strategy has been created and a management system has been approved, the next step is to perform a content analysis of the website. This analysis will provide insights into whether the content on the Belfast City Council website aligns with the business objectives and goals from the management strategy from the Bernard Marr Company. The goal of this report is to perform a website content audit and provide feedback and recommendations for changes to the website content based on the results found using Screaming Frog SEO Spider program, observations, and best practices. Ashley Leach, 2/8/2019 4

5 CONTENT ALIGNMENT SUMMARY To perform a proper website content analysis, I used the Screaming Frog SEO Spider program to analyze the website and provide further insights regarding site pages, images used, page title elements, types of meta descriptions used, types of content used on the site, and what type of content platform they currently use. To add another level of depth to the audit, I compared their content currently on the website to their business objectives listed in the Bernard Marr report. Based on information found in the strategy report and the content analysis, below are the business objective and goals and how the current website content relates them. Business Goals Content Objectives Overall business objective: Improve quality of life now and for future generations for the people of Belfast by making the city a better place to live in, work in, invest in, or visit. Better care of Belfast s environment. - Demonstrate how the city cares about Belfast s environment. - Provide important details regarding trash pickup & removal, fines regarding not picking up after your dog, etc. Better opportunities for success across the city. - Showcase things happening around the city, tourism information, jobs, investing in Belfast opportunities, etc. Better support for people & communities. - Provide useful information for residents, businesses, and visitors. - Drive visitors to important information regarding the city. - Allow users to pay fines, apply for a dog license, or register a birth, death, marriage Ashley Leach, 2/8/2019 5

6 The above business goals will help solve the overall problem because they are the answer to fixing underlying issues that City Council faces. Observations based on the content available in the Belfast City Council website shows that they understand what their users need. Their users are seeking information about the city of Belfast whether they are residents who need to learn when their trash will be removed, a person from a nearby city interested in finding a job in Belfast, or a tourist looking for events happening around the city before booking their trip. The current content answers questions and provides valuable information in one location which makes for an easy user experience. Overall the current content provides all users with information they are seeking about the city. The content aligns with the business objectives and goals because it has provided answers to the question s users are seeking. For example, part of the website features content regarding trash removal and pickup, this is providing residents information that will help better Belfast s environment. Another area of content speaking about tourist information, locations, places to visit, etc. which will help boost tourism and visitation to places and businesses around the city. The website has content that caters to multiple types of users: residents, businesses, and tourists. Each type of user can easily find the content that pairs best with that they are searching for. Below are some examples of current content that has been created for the three different types of users. Type of User Content Belfast Resident Ashley Leach, 2/8/2019 6

7 Type of User Content Tourist Ashley Leach, 2/8/2019 7

Type of User Content Business WEBSITE & CONTENT AUDIT To perform a proper website content audit, I used the Screaming Frog SEO Spider program to analyze the website and provide further insights

8 Type of User Content Business WEBSITE & CONTENT AUDIT To perform a proper website content audit, I used the Screaming Frog SEO Spider program to analyze the website and provide further insights regarding site pages, images used, page title elements, types of meta descriptions used, types of content used on the site, and what type of content platform they currently use. Below are the results from the website content audit for BELFAST CITY COUNCIL AUDIT FINDINGS Number of pages: o 36,351 total pages Site Architecture: o The Belfast City Council website is quite easy to navigate from a user prospective. When users enter the site, they are greeted by ta homepage with a rotating carousel of images with written content which are clickable, so the user can go to the full content. The homepage has a navigation bar at the top, but users can also go visit the different categories of the website through larger clickable buttons when they school down the page. Website visitors are able to easily find the content they seek based on the different menu options: Council, News. Jobs, Ashley Leach, 2/8/2019 8

9 Events, Leisure, Tourism & Venues, Bins and Recycling, Community, Planning and Environment, Business, and A-Z. Belfast City Council s website offers an easy to use experience for its website visitors. Meta descriptions & title tags: o Upon reviewing the SEO spider results, a discovery was made that while they do use title tags and meta descriptions for their website content, they do tend to duplicate the naming. About 1/3 of the total title tags and meta descriptions are duplicates. Content types: o The Belfast City Council website features a lot of different content types. Upon review of the SEO Spider results, a discovery was found that the site content is made up of images, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, PDF, and other. The majority of the content is HTML. Content platform: o The Belfast City Council website has many different content platforms for the content on the site. Below is a list of some of the content platforms being used. Facebook Twitter Google LinkedIn Flicker Instagram CORE STRATEGY STATEMENT To ensure that the Belfast City Council website is providing the right content to the right users while also achieving their business goals, a core strategy statement is needed. Meghan Casey, who wrote The Content Strategy Toolkit states, The core strategy statement is the central component of your content compass. It answers the fundamental questions for providing the right content, to the right people, at the right time, for the right reasons. Below is the core Ashley Leach, 2/8/2019 9

10 content statement that works towards the business goals that Belfast City Council is looking to achieve. To improve quality of life for people of Belfast by making it a place people want to live, work, invest in, and visit, we will provide useful - need to know user-facing content that website visitors can interact with and find easily when searching for specific information on the site. MESSAGING FRAMEWORK Now that a core strategy statement has been written, a messaging framework needs to be created. This can be crafted either from the business prospective or the user prospective. To provide a more well-rounded content strategy for Belfast City Council, the messaging framework was created in the user prospective. First Impression Value Statement Proof What first impression does Belfast City Council want their audiences to have when they interact with their content? What does Belfast City Council want their audience to know or believe about the value they provide? What will demonstrate that what Belfast City Council wants them to know or believe is true? Wow, they have a lot of content. I should find what I need easily. I know I can easily find the information about when my trash pickup is because their website is easy to use. I don t need to scroll through a ton of pages to find the information I need. (continued below) Ashley Leach, 2/8/

11 First Impression Value Statement Proof They understand that certain people are seeking specific information and created specific categories that match their needs. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS To ensure the content is meeting the business goals set forth, Key Performance Indicators (KPI s) and web metrics are ways to gage if they are being met. To show which KPI s are important to the project, reviewing the business goals is the first step. Below is a table to reflect the business goals, content goals, KPI s and web metrics for each. Business Goals Content Objectives KPI s Web Metrics Overall business objective: Improve quality of life now and for future generations for the people of Belfast by making the city a better place to live in, work in, invest in, or visit. Better care of Belfast s environment. - Demonstrate how the city cares about Belfast s environment. - Provide important details regarding trash pickup & removal, fines for not picking - How many users are clicking on the environment content? - Number of clicks on environment content landing page. - Which environment content is visited the most? Ashley Leach, 2/8/

12 Business Goals Content Objectives KPI s Web Metrics up after your dog. Better opportunities for success across the city. - Showcase things happening around the city, tourism information, jobs, investing in Belfast opportunities, etc. - Track clicks on tourist content. - Social media followers and engagers - Track number of people who engage with tourist content. - Determine what percentage of that content is engaged with. - Number of social media followers (increase/decrease) and how people are engaging with posts. Better support for people & communities. - Provide useful information for residents, businesses, and visitors. - Drive visitors to important information regarding the city. - Allow users to pay fines, apply for a dog license, or register a birth, death, marriage. - Number of people paying fines online. - Number of website visitors - Number of people visiting community centers. - How many website visitors paid a fine through the website. - Compare against how many paid the fine in person. Ashley Leach, 2/8/

13 CONCLUSION The Belfast City Council has a content rich website that is well-written and easily accessible for website users. It should be considered best in class regarding the content and design. With the new content strategy, it will only increase the websites value and ability to reach the business objectives and goals they have set forth. Users are able to navigate the website easily and find content that is seen as helpful, inviting, and makes them experts in their community. The content strategy breaks out the content into ways that allows specific types of users to find exactly what they are looking for. Every city is interested in lowering costs which is why giving users the ability to pay fines online is a good place to start. This can help cut costs on hiring an office full of people to assist people who need to pay the fines. A tourist might be considering visiting Northern Ireland, the tourist web page offers content of all the different things that Belfast has to offer. This content could be the reason why someone books their trip to Belfast instead of another city. The results from the website audit reveals that the site has over 20,000 pages full of content website users are looking for. Based on the findings of the business report by Bernard Marr and the content analysis, I believe that the current content of the website does in fact align with the business goals and objectives that Belfast City Council is trying to achieve. SOURCES: Screaming Frog SEO Spider program Casey, Meghan. The Content Strategy Toolkit: Methods, Guidelines, and Templates for Getting Content Right. New Riders, Ashley Leach, 2/8/

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