Fix guides
Practical guides to the problems the leaderboard finds most often on council websites, one guide per problem. Each says what the problem is, why it happens, how to check for it and how to fix it.
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Your best school places page sits fourth. Parents pick from the top three
When the page that answers a resident's question sits fourth or fifth on Google, they click something weaker above it and often end up phoning. This guide shows how to check your main tasks in 15 minutes and lift the right page into the top three.
Is Google sending residents to a bare form, not your service page?
Residents searching for garden waste, a pothole report or their bin day can land straight on a form with no explanation, and some give up and phone instead. This guide shows how to spot it in ten minutes and point Google back to the page that helps.
Merging councils puts your top Google result up for grabs
Right now, residents who search Google for council tax or bin days land on their own council's website first. A merger, new domain or supplier change can quietly undo that. This guide shows how to check yours in 15 minutes and protect it.
Your service page is current. Google shows residents a PDF
On a phone, a PDF means pinching, zooming and no button to apply. When one sits above your service page on Google, residents give up or phone. Check your top services in 15 minutes and put the right page back first.
Your test site can beat your live site on Google. Residents can't tell
A copy of a council site, built for testing, can sit at number one on Google for council tax or parking permits. It is rare, but residents can end up filling in forms that go nowhere. This guide shows how to spot it in minutes and shut it off for good.
Content
Your page has one topic. Why does it tell screen readers it has two?
Screen reader users often jump straight to a page's main heading to learn where they are. If that heading is missing, or doubled up by a menu or a tool, they are left guessing. The fix usually sits in one template, so a single change can put many pages right.
When Google writes your page summary, residents pick the wrong link
Leave a page's description blank and Google fills the space under your link with any text it finds, from cookie notices to opening hours. This guide shows how to spot the gaps in 15 minutes and write a line or two that helps residents choose your page.
A resident reads your planning page twice, then picks up the phone
Almost every council service page is plain enough for a 12-year-old to follow. The few that are not are often planning, housing and care pages, and they cost you calls. Test a page in minutes and rewrite it without a developer.
The 65 characters that decide whether residents click your page
Your page title is the blue link residents read on Google before they choose where to click. Too long and Google cuts it off. You can find yours in 15 minutes, and the fix is an editor's job, not a developer's.
User needs
Fewer bin day calls start with one thing the best service pages do
Most council tax pages let residents pay in a few taps. Bin day, school places and adult social care pages often explain the service but stop short of the answer, and that gap ends in a phone call. This guide shows you how to spot those pages and fix them, no developer needed.