Content Quality
& Governance
Keep municipal website content accurate, accessible, understandable, and actively maintained.
Why it Matters
Residents need to be able to trust the information they find. Clear ownership, scheduled reviews, accessibility guidance, and routine content checks help municipalities catch problems earlier and keep the website useful as information changes.
For key information such as fees, schedules and emergency contacts, is someone responsible for keeping it up to date?
When it's working well
Each page with key information has a named person responsible for it and a review date. Staff receive a reminder when a review is due. Outdated information and broken links are found before residents notice them.
A quick win
List your 20 most-visited pages and give each one a responsible person and a review date. Keep the list where every department can see it. Run a broken-link check once a month.
Foundations
Content Ownership & Maintenance
FOUNDATION
Keep website content current by making ownership, review, and maintenance part of the publishing process.
Assigning clear ownership and review schedules helps staff know who is responsible for each page, while automated checks can surface broken links and content that may need attention.
Good content governance should:
Also consider
- Document Lifecycle & Governance: keep official documents current, traceable, and properly maintained over time.
- Accessibility & Readability: make municipal content easier to perceive, understand, and use for people with different accessibility needs.
- Answers from your own content (optional AI tool): AI answers are only as accurate as the content they draw on.
How well does your website work for residents?
Take the free check-up. In about 20 minutes you'll walk through everyday situations, like reporting a pothole or finding a council agenda, and get a plain-language check-up report of what's working and what to tackle first.