Google upgrade for Fylde council's website

3:50pm Sunday 20th July 2008

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Fylde Borough Council is using tools provided by leading search engine, Google, to improve its website and provide additional services for residents – including a new recycling programme - at no extra cost to the taxpayer.

Through the targeted advertising programme, Google AdSense, Fylde now provides its web users with relevant ads on www.fylde.gov.uk.

The advertising revenue is then reinvested into the online services offered by the council to help internet surfers get the information they want.

The first boost to the site was a new recycling collection search to inform residents when the next recycling collection is in their area.

This has encouraged recycling in the borough: in the first three months of operation over 2,000 requests came in via the recycling search alone.

Google’s search engine on the Fylde.gov.uk website has also been connecting people to other local facilities such as the NHS, schools and dentists to help people to find local services.

Fylde has been using commercial advertising on its website for around six months.

The revenue the council receives from advertising is also invested into the development of the website, a cost that would otherwise come from the public purse.

Other Google products and services are also being leveraged by Fylde Borough Council.

* Google News syndication has been implemented to notify people when new stories and press releases are added onto the Fylde Council website. This has generated an increase of 10 per cent in news readership since it was introduced.

* Google’s Site Search programme is now automatically used when searching on the website. Initial feedback of the search tool has been excellent as it enables residents to search inside documents for specific terms or phrases and to spell-check entries in the search box.

* Google Calendar has also been added to the website, enabling residents to view all public events, such as summer holiday events and Councillor surgeries, and allows sports centres, charities and community groups collaborate by entering their own event information.

* Google Analytics has been used for 12 months, providing various improvements to the Council website by allowing staff to see how the site is being used. This has enabled them to make the layout of the site more user-friendly by studying how residents navigate around the site and what they want to view. For example, the top ten searched items were analysed and made much simpler to locate.

* Google Maps has been added to show all of Fylde’s local facilities and attractions for tourists visiting the area as well as a separate map locating car parks and libraries.

Councillor Paul Rigby, Cabinet Member for Finance and Efficiency, said: "Since we started using Google services we have managed to add extra functionality to our website by listening to what our users need and to fund these developments through the site itself.

"This is another great example of the council offering residents a better service, without any additional cost to the taxpayer."

Stuart Small, industry leader, Google UK, said: "Delivering public services in innovative and cost effective ways is now a key priority for central and local government.

"Fylde is a great example of a local authority that’s willing to experiment with the free and innovative tools and technologies which are on offer to all website owners.

"Their residents and websites users are reaping the rewards of having useful and relevant ads on the site, and the council is subsequently investing in the website infrastructure to improve the user experience all round.”