Top 5 Reasons Municipal Websites Miss the Mark
Let’s be honest.
Most municipal websites don’t fail because they look bad. They fail because they don’t help people get things done.
After working with 250+ municipalities, we keep seeing the same patterns. Different cities. Different platforms. Same issues.
Here are the top five.
1. It’s Built Around Your Org Chart
Residents shouldn’t need to understand your department structure to renew a parking permit.
But most sites are built exactly that way.
Services are buried under internal categories. Recreation is split across multiple divisions. Building permits live under “Business.” Navigation reflects staff language, not what residents type into Google.
When people can’t find what they need, they don’t keep digging.
They call.
The shift: Audit your top 20 resident tasks. Are they findable? Completable? Named the way residents would name them?
Start there.
2. No One Owns Outcomes
Communications manages content. IT manages the platform. Departments publish directly.
Which means no one owns the resident experience.
Without clear governance, content piles up. Standards drift. Decisions default to the loudest request.
A new CMS won’t fix that.
The shift: Define roles. Set editorial standards. Establish enforcement before technology.
3. Service Pages Don’t Deliver the Service
Most pages explain a program instead of guiding action.
Residents need steps, cost, timing, eligibility, and a clear next action. Not background paragraphs.
Scroll data tells the story: people leave before reaching what matters.
The shift: Build every high-traffic page around this formula:
● What do I need?
● What does it cost?
● How long does it take?
● What do I do next?
Put action first. Context second.
Then measure task completion, not page views.
4. It’s Treated Like a Bulletin Board
Many municipalities still treat their website as a communications channel.
News gets priority. Service content competes for space. Success is measured in visits, not outcomes.
But a municipal website isn’t just a storytelling platform.
It’s a 24/7 service counter.
The shift: Measure what matters.
• Task completion rates
• Search abandonment
• Call deflection
If calls aren’t going down, the website isn’t working.
5. Technology Is Used as a Shortcut
Here’s the uncomfortable truth.
It’s easier to fund a new CMS than to reform governance.
So municipalities migrate platforms… and the same problems reappear.
Because the issue was never the template.
It was ownership and content structure.
The shift: Do governance and content strategy first. Let platform decisions follow, not lead.
The Common Thread
All five issues stem from one root cause: internal structures shape the website more than resident needs do.
The municipalities making real progress have:
• Clear ownership
• A service-first vision
• Performance metrics tied to outcomes
And here’s the good news. You don’t need a full redesign to start.
● Rewrite one high-traffic page around tasks instead of departments.
● Clarify ownership.
● Measure one real outcome.
Small wins build momentum.