At Monday's City Council meeting, we reviewed the first year of the West Des Moines website, which was launched March 31, 2008. For those of you who missed the meeting, here are the highlights from that report.
From approximately March 31, 2008 to March 18, 2009) over 272,000 “sessions” were recorded on the West Des Moines website. That resulted in an average of 772 sessions per day. A 'Session' is defined as a series of clicks on the site by an individual visitor during a specific period of time. During that same time, over one million page views were recorded on the West Des Moines website. That resulted in an average of 2,892 page views per day.
In all, 135,218 unique visitors came to the West Des Moines website in that timeframe. A Unique Visitor may have more than one session during the date range, but is only counted once.
According to the 2008 Citizen Survey, citizen satisfaction with the website increased 7% from 2006 to 2008. 40% of residents were “very satisfied;” 45% of residents were “satisfied;” and
14% of residents were neutral.
37% of residents reported having used the website to get information in the last year.
Some new features we've added this year include:
Online Development CentereUpdatesRestaurant listing/
hotel listingEmail to a Friend - available on any page
Add to Outlook - available on calendar items
Report a Crime OnlineFile a Traffic Complaint OnlineOnline directory of parksAwards and Recognitions pagePublications and Reports pageOnline RFP and Bid listingsOnline holiday sponsor form Online Human Services volunteer applicationSmall Business/Entrepreneurship assistanceComprehensive new resident guideCity Council Meeting video onlineOnline magazine/document viewing (page turning program)Our next steps will involve more e-commerce options for residents on the website.
Our most frequently viewed pages on the website in that timeframe were:
1) Employment
2) Parks and Recreation
3) Adult Sports Info
4) City Calendar
5) Valley View Aquatic Center
6) Contact Us
7) GIS and Maps
8) Raccoon River Park
9) Parks Facilities and Matrix
10) Directory of Parks
