If you haven’t visited your city’s Web site recently, you’re probably not missing much.

But that’s about to change.

Just about every city in the county is in the midst of a Web site redesign, with several of them expected to debut as early as next month.

Shawn Griffin, regional director of AmericanEagle.com in Westlake, a Web site design company, said it’s about time, too.

“The idea of getting something up just to have presence is over,” Griffin said.

“Cities are realizing that they need to have value for their citizens. That’s the biggest difference in the past few years (of Web site design.) Users are more savvy these days, and if a site is not updated immediately, it will leave a bad impression.”

North Ridgeville, Avon and Avon Lake all realize that and hope to have their new and improved sites up by June 1.

Sheffield hopes to have its site up and running by early summer, and Oberlin should have its redesign finished by the end of summer.

Sheffield Lake is also aiming for a redesign sometime this year.

Elyria and LaGrange also are looking at redesigns, but there is no time frame.

The only city with no plans for major change is Lorain, which arguably has the best Web site of any city in the county.

Lorain Auditor Ron Mantini, who runs the site, said the city gets mostly positive feedback about how easy the site is to navigate.

As evidence of that, usage of the site has gone up tremendously over the years.

In 2004, the city’s Web site had just 14,400 page views. In 2005, that climbed to 30,325, and it has continued climbing with 79,000 views in 2006 and 164,000 in 2007.

So far this year, Mantini is tracking 5,400 page views per day. At that rate, the Lorain site could have close to 2 million views in 2008.

That is because the Lorain site not only has a lot of information — such as profiles and contact information for Council members — it also has useful interactive elements for its residents — such as tax forms, a list of job openings, a complaint center and even the capability to accept bill payment.

North Ridgeville hired AmericanEagle.com to redesign its antiquated, difficult-to-navigate site in an effort to provide as much information as possible to residents.

From Council contact information and meeting agendas to city history and income tax forms, the revamped Web site will have it all.

Not registered to vote? Download the form on the city’s Web site.

Want to know how your ward Councilman voted on a particular issue? The answer will be a click away.

Just want to know what’s happening around the city? The Web site will list that as well.

At a cost of about $10,000, the redesign was part of the city’s ongoing effort to keep residents informed, Mayor David Gillock said.

The current site was designed and maintained by an employee who is no longer with the city, and it is hard to maintain and difficult to post information to, he said.

“That’s so 1997, that’s ages ago,” Griffin said. “Anyone that’s serious out there about having a professional site is not going to have their neighbor’s son doing the site these days. I think that’s what a lot of these city governments are starting to realize — they need to catch up. People are not going to be impressed with presence anymore.”

North Ridgeville Computer Service Supervisor Rita Taylor agreed, adding that information on the current site wasn’t regularly updated because it was difficult to access. The new site will be more simplified, she said.

Avon’s Web site has been up for several years now and went from no information to adequate information, said Clerk of Council and Recycling Coordinator Ellen Root, who also works on the city Web site.

“Now we want to go from adequate information to really accessible information — registering for parks and recreation programs, receiving and posting information from nonprofits to the community bulletin board, communicating with different city officials,” she said. “Anything that residents could pick up a telephone and do, we want them to be able to do on our Web site.”

And that’s one reason Web sites are so crucial these days, Griffin said. The design needs to be nice, clean and intuitive.

He should know.

AmericanEagle.com has been creating Web sites for 12 years now for organizations including the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton and the Cincinnati Bengals. The company has built more than 4,500 sites.

Avon Lake is looking to expand on its old site and put in pages for all of the departments, adding an economic development page and putting up a lot more information for its residents.

The cost of a good Web site varies.

“What we do and what good companies do is customize the site so the client is getting what they want and not getting a canned product,” Griffin said. “A good site these days runs $8,000 to $12,000 but can go all the way up to six figures.”

Sheffield Mayor John D. Hunter said his city’s current Web site just wasn’t user friendly, which is why the redesign was necessary.

The city hired a local host company and is in the midst of transferring all of the information over to get more information to the village’s residents.

Oberlin City Manager Eric Norenburg said the city is about to completely overhaul its Web site. He expects it to take 12 weeks.

Sheffield Lake is going to revamp its site because it doesn’t have enough information, Mayor John Piskura said.

Piskura created the city’s first site after taking office in 2004, and it was redesigned about a year and a half ago, but it still isn’t what he wants.

“We do our best to make it current, but I want a community calendar on there and I want to be able to do business on there — pay water bills, for example,” he said. “Right now, it’s nice. It’s got some information on there — Council minutes, contact information, city history — but with the Internet and Web becoming a bigger and bigger thing, it’s just something that needs updated.”

Elyria is in the process of creating positions within the Information Technology Department, including someone dedicated to developing and updating the city’s Web site on a daily basis.

If Council approves the measure, someone could be hired as soon as next month.

“We’ve not been able to act as quickly as I’d like, but we’re close to doing so,” Elyria Mayor Bill Grace said. “There is a lot of data available right now, and we’ve made noticeable improvements over the years, but we feel we need to improve upon it.”

Amherst just last year put up its Web site, which is owned and maintained by the city, said tax secretary Laura Kemp, one of two people who maintain it.

 “We really needed to get information out there. People are electronically guided today. They call and say ‘I need this form,’ and I can say it’s right on our Web site,” she said.

Meanwhile, Wellington just redesigned its site this year with a $30,000 grant.

Grafton officials said they have no plans to redesign the city site, and Vermilion officials did not return calls seeking comment.

Contact Christina Jolliffe at 329-7156 or cjolliffe@chroniclet.com.

 

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