Christchurch Council website Improves Search

Christchurch City Council’s website Improves User’s Experience with SLI Systems’ ‘Learning Search’

Visitors to the Christchurch City Council website: www.ccc.govt.nz, might not realise how much work and planning has gone into ensuring that they can find the information they are looking for quickly.

The City Council was one of the first to adopt Christchurch based SLI Systems’ ‘Learning Search’ site search solution in 2002 in order to ensure that their site’s search capability delivered the results people were looking for more quickly. With Learning Search, visitors can get the information they are seeking on the first page 95 percent of the time.

Fraser Graham, Christchurch City Council’s Web Content Manager says, “While Learning Search provides more relevant search results faster, it also helps us understand how people use the site, allowing us to continually refine and update the site and its content.”

On average around 2,000 people search www.ccc.govt.nz each day and use SLI’s site search service to find the information they seek. Rates, Property Valuations, Maps, Jobs and Bus Timetables are the most popular searches.

The number of searches on the site has grown fourfold since 2002, from around 12,000 per month in 2002 to over 50,000 by late last year, while the average number of clicks has steadily declined. This demonstrates that while far more people are using the site to get the information they need, the site is delivering that information more quickly and efficiently.

Learning Search works by continually learning from past site search activity, it tracks visitors’ aggregate search queries and click-throughs and uses that data to deliver results based on popularity. It also provides site visitors with search suggestions that relate to the term typed in by the user - based on what other people have looked for when searching previously with that term, and provides an auto-complete function among other features.

Shaun Ryan, SLI Systems Chief Executive, says, “Christchurch City Council’s website is information heavy. It has a lot of data on almost every facet of the city. As a result, it requires a sophisticated search solution to help people get the information they want quickly. It also needs to cope with people who know what they are looking for but who may not know the exact term or phrase to search for.”

As an example if you search for buses, Learning Search provides the following search suggestions: bus routes, bus timetable, metro bus, bus info, bus time table, bus service, metro timetable, red bus, bus and metro.

While the Christchurch City Council is responsible for providing and maintaining passenger transport infrastructure such as bus exchanges, stops and shelters, it is not directly responsible for bus services which is the responsibility of Environment Canterbury. However, such was the demand for bus timetables that the website now contains links though to MetroInfo, www.metroinfo.org.nz. Bus timetables are also available from all City Council Service Centres and Civic Offices.

Christchurch City Council’s website also uses ‘Site Champion’, SLI Systems’ search engine optimisation service. Site Champion makes it easier for people to find the website by ensuring that the site uses the language of people who visit the site.

Fraser Graham says, “SLI’s ’Learning Search’ and ‘Site Champion’ services have helped make our site more accessible and the information it contains more readily available to users. While we were one of the first sites in New Zealand to adopt Learning Search six years ago, it has become even more important today as people become increasingly reliant upon the internet for information they need and expect to be able to get that information quickly and easily.

ENDS

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