Webinar Recap: Does Your Municipal Website Get Sh*t Done?"
Yesterday, we ran a webinar with a deliberately blunt title. After working with 250+ municipalities, we keep seeing the same pattern: everyone's focused on AI and new CRM systems while their website can't help someone figure out when garbage day is.
Brandon Currie just joined us from the City of Waterloo, where he spent a decade in municipal web and digital. He brought this phrase from a former colleague: "We just need to make the website get sh*t done."
Sounds obvious. But most municipal websites don't do it.
The Problem: Your Website Looks Fine
To someone casually browsing, most municipal websites look acceptable. Modern design, decent navigation, mobile-responsive.
But then someone tries to actually use it (renew a parking permit, report a pothole, understand their water bill) and they hit a wall. Information is buried six clicks deep. Language is written for staff. Forms don't work on mobile. So they call.
That friction compounds. Customer service gets overwhelmed. Departments build workaround microsites. Communications manages 2,000 pages with half a person. Everyone's frustrated, but nobody can articulate what's broken because nothing is technically broken.
Brandon calls this "the murky middle." It's where communications, IT, and service delivery all influence the site, but nobody owns outcomes.
Why Good Teams Stay Stuck
Three structural issues:
Nobody owns the whole thing. Communications manages content. IT manages the platform. Service departments know what residents need. But when everyone influences the site and nobody owns outcomes, nothing moves. A content fix waits for the quarterly governance meeting.
You're measuring the wrong things. Page views don't tell you if anyone accomplished anything. What you actually need: Did calls go down? Did residents complete the task? Most municipalities can't answer that.
The website is organized for staff, not residents. Navigation mirrors your org chart. Services are alphabetical instead of by volume. Headings use internal jargon. Meanwhile, CRM data shows residents use completely different words and struggle at different entry points.
What Actually Works
York Region's roads page was generating tons of calls. Not because it looked bad, but because common maintenance requests weren't surfaced prominently, and navigation was alphabetical instead of task-based.
They reviewed CRM data, talked to customer service, and reorganized around actual resident behavior.
Within a month, calls and emails dropped measurably.
No platform replacement. No six-figure project. Just data-informed content design and cross-team collaboration.
Everyone's talking about the next big platform while ignoring that fixing one page can make a material difference.
5 Ways to Start Today
At the end of the webinar, we shared five practical starting points. You don't need perfect governance or a new CMS. Here's where to begin:
1. Pick your highest-volume, highest-friction service Usually parking, taxes, garbage, or permits. Your business units and customer service already know which ones generate the most calls and frustration.
2. Start with someone who wants to help Not every department is change-ready. Find a service owner who's willing to try something new. Prove the concept there first, then expand.
3. Use resident signals to guide your rewrite Check your search logs. What are people actually searching for? If you have AI-enabled site search (like Kawartha Lakes, Kitchener, or Waterloo), you'll get even richer data because residents ask more specific questions. Google Search Console works too.
4. Rewrite around completing the task Use plain language. Put the most common actions at the top. Make the call-to-action obvious. Where are people falling off? Fix that specific friction point.
5. Measure one outcome Pick something simple. Did calls go down? Did form submissions go up? Did engagement rate on the page increase? You don't need complicated analytics. Just one clear signal that tells you if it worked.
When you can show leadership you reduced parking calls by 30% with a content fix, suddenly you have credibility for bigger changes. Small wins build momentum.
The Foundation Still Matters
Your website isn't going away. It's still the first place residents look. It's still feeding Google and AI overviews. It's still the landing page before your permit portal or recreation system.
If your website creates friction, everything downstream suffers.
Digital transformation doesn't start with buying new technology. It starts with making what you already have actually work.
Tools to Help You Get Unstuck
CMS Platform Inventory: Help us map what platforms Canadian municipalities are using (3 minutes)
Website Health Check: 14 questions, 5 minutes, confidential results that tell you where to focus:
Service Assessments: We do deep-dive content and journey assessments on high-impact services. Reach out if you want to talk specifics.
One Last Thing
If you're thinking "yes, but my situation is different because [politics/budget/legacy tech/insert excuse]," we've heard it. We've lived it.
That's why we focus on small, achievable wins instead of transformation manifestos.
Start with one page. Make it better. Measure the result. Repeat.
That's how you get sh*t done.