Economic Development professionals are well aware of the importance of their online presence. A community or region’s website is often the first place that site selectors, prospective businesses and new residents go for information. It can be the deciding factor to pursue a location further or move on to the next one. As a result, making an impression with the content of your website is critical.
A new study looks at economic development website content from the perspective of site selectors. Chabin Concepts, Austin Consulting, and First Energy conducted the study in 2007/2008 with participants who were site selectors or those who had worked on business location projects. Although based on users and economic development websites from the U.S., the results are of interest to Canadian Economic Developers as well. Some highlights:
Top 4 frustrations on ED websites:
- Out of date (25%)
- Lack of contact info (16%)
- Incomplete information (16%)
- Navigational issues (16%)
Top Content
- Top-ranked content tends to correlate with site selection factors.
- 60% or more were also interested in business activity, regional advantages, business resources, and cost comparisons.
- Housing and K-12 education were important to at least 50% of the audience.
- 78% were somewhat or very likely to visit a GIS map linking property to demographic data.
- 85% were somewhat or very likely to visit a “Site Selectors” page.
- 80% were somewhat or very likely to use an incentives calculator.
You can see the executive summary of the study here.
Found via