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Clyde rolls out new website

Timely updates of COVID-19 info drives reset
Village website web
The Village of Clyde's new website.

WESTLOCK — The Village of Clyde redesigned its website recently to a platform that’s supposed to make updates much easier to manage.

Councillors got a breakdown of the new website at the Dec. 14 meeting, including the updated photos of each councillor.

“What we wanted to do was get a website that was easy from two sides: from the administration side, where they could actually go in and make meaningful changes, and from a resident perspective where they could go into the website and find the things that they’re looking for,” consultant Paul Smith said.

It includes a pop-up that encourages people to sign up for the Westlock Regional Notification System, the prequel to the Westlock & Area Crime Coalition.

Smith said COVID-19 also influenced how the website was built.

“From a COVID-19 perspective, there’s immediate news releases. I’m assuming as vaccines roll out, one thing you may need to make messaging around is where Clyde residents can get their vaccine. The old website would be a call to the tech guy, a new invoice and maybe it would get done.”

Administration can post directly and update the website as needed.

“That was our main focus: make the website fast and adaptable under COVID-19 and also make it a whole lot better resident experience,” said Smith.

“It looks really easy to use. With the older population, they are not computer savvy, but it looks pretty good,” said mayor Christa Clausing, and Coun. Danielle Dillman declared herself “very impressed.”

They plan on using Google analytics to track what people go to the website for and manage their public messaging based on those metrics.

“Let’s say we find 30 per cent of people come in to look at the waste management schedule. That means hopefully they’re getting the information that they want, but maybe more people actually need to know about that.”

It also has the capacity to increase the village’s online popularity for “out of town interests” like businesses and potential investors.

Andreea Resmerita, TownandCountryToday.com

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