ADA Compliance for Websites: Stay Accessible & Out of Court

2 blind people walking with white canes to represent ADA Compliance for websites

A man wearing dark glasses walks into an optometrist’s office and says to the doctor, “Doc, I’m blind.” The doctor looks at him and says, “I see that,” to which the blind man responds, “Gee, you don’t have to rub it in!” This little joke innocently introduces you to a topic that’s no laughing matter. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ensures individuals with disabilities have access to public services and public places. In addition to the obvious ADA features like ramps, elevators, and closed captioning, ADA regulations also cover websites. Our clients, as the owners of their websites, are ultimately responsible for making sure their website is accessible under the ADA guidelines, and therefore not vulnerable to legal action.

ADA Compliance: The Ethical and Business Benefits

Our team at Packerland Websites believes that following ADA guidelines doesn’t just help website owners avoid costly, cumbersome court cases. ADA compliance also is the right thing to do, ethically and business-wise. Complying with ADA guidelines gives people with disabilities the same opportunities as everyone else to engage with your website. Isn’t that what you want for your business or nonprofit?

Real-Life Consequences: Messy Legal Trouble

The following story really drives home this point. Recently, an Upper Michigan e-commerce company contacted us for advice. A New York attorney took advantage of an opportunity to sue the company for having an ADA-noncompliant website. Basically, the attorney argued that the website’s owner refused to work with people with sight impairments. However, the e-commerce company would have been willing to work with individuals who are sight-impaired and correct the noncompliance issues on the website, but they were unaware of these issues until the lawsuit was filed. By then, it was too late, and the UP company was required to pay a legal settlement and legal fees.

Quick Check: Is Your Website Required to be ADA Compliant?

Because of this ADA-noncompliance legal action, Packerland Websites is stepping up its messaging about ADA-compliant websites. So, you’re probably wondering, “Does my website need to be ADA compliant?” Most likely, the answer is Yes. Websites that are required to be ADA compliant:

Government websites and any organization receiving government money
Websites connected to businesses of public accommodation (hotels, stores, movie theaters, etc.)
Websites that sell goods or services
Websites intended for us by the general public

Taking Action: Bringing Your Website Up to ADA Standards

Your website probably falls into at least one of these categories. Surprisingly, less than 3 percent of today’s websites are ADA compliant. However, this statistic isn’t a strong defense in the event of an ADA lawsuit. Thus, we strongly encourage website owners, including our clients, to bring their websites up to ADA compliance levels. One primary goal of website design is to ensure that individuals with sight impairments and other disabilities have access to the material on a website in a way they can understand. Read about the four tools we recommend to check website accessibility and ADA compliance, then contact us to request ADA services.

Packerland Websites: Offering ADA Services

The Packerland Websites team can evaluate your website using our ADA-accessibility Report Card and recommend any remediation.

ADA Compliance: A Matter of Equality and Rights

The Americans with Disabilities Act isn’t a laughing matter. The ADA is serious protection, granting people with disabilities the same opportunities and rights as everyone else.

Website Navigation: A Maze or a Seamless Experience?

By Alexa Haferkorn, Web Design Specialist at Packerland Websites
Have you ever opened a website and felt like you were walking into a maze? You may have an idea of what you need to find, but getting there is a challenge. Between buttons, hamburger menus, drop-down lists, and image links, the many ways to navigate a website can be overwhelming when not implemented correctly. Not only is this frustrating for the visitor, but as a business owner, you never want your potential customers to get lost on their way to the checkout!

A mom pushing a shopping cart with her daughter to represent how website navigation is like a supermarket.

Organize Web Pages like a Supermarket

Whether or not your website is an online store, organizing your web pages can be a lot like setting up a supermarket. You want visitors to be able to walk in, follow clear signs, and narrow down the area where they’ll find the right product. At Packerland Websites, we aim to make finding information on your site as easy as grabbing a jar of peanut butter from your local Piggly Wiggly.

Create an Intuitive User Journey

As web developers, we have many tools at our disposal to build this customer journey. You may have heard of the terms “UI” or “UX” which stand for “user interface” and “user experience” respectively. These terms refer to the way users interact with a product (in this case, the product is your website) and how they feel, think, and act based on the way the product is designed. A good UI uses text, colors, and other visual cues to clearly direct users to different areas of the site. This creates a high-quality UX in which users feel confident navigating the site and satisfied with how quickly they can find what they’re looking for.

Design the Optimal Website Traffic Flow

Before we dive into designing the look of the website experience, we need to make sure we have a solid structure to build on. After all, a skillfully designed “Dairy” sign won’t do much good in your supermarket if you keep cheese in the cracker aisle and butter with the baking ingredients. This is where our website traffic design comes in. We look at ALL of the information on your site, analyze how visitors are meant to use this information, and design the quickest and easiest paths for your customer to get from the home page to their final destination. This requires not only organizational skills, but also empathy and understanding for the typical website user.

Direct Users with Call-to-Action

Many websites have one primary goal, or Call-to-Action (CTA), along with several secondary goals or information. The CTA is our starting point for how we direct traffic through the site. It might be something like “Shop,” “Donate,” or “Call Us”. We want the path to this action to be as quick and easy as possible for the user so they don’t get confused or frustrated and leave before the action is completed. A good CTA is on the front page in clear, bold text or with an eye-catching visual to make it the most important item on the page.

Map out Goals with Website Navigation Menu

Mapping out the secondary (and even tertiary!) goals of your website is where things can get a little hairy, because we have multiple goals that need to be equally available to users. To achieve this, almost every website has a navigation menu at the top of the page with a list of page links to visit. Many of our sites start with 4-7 page links in the main website navigation menu. If there are more than 7 pages on the website, we start grouping the links under larger topics. For instance, if your website has a page for Window Installation and another page for Door Installation, it would make sense to group these two pages under one item called Installation Services in the main menu. Sure, this adds another step for the user who will need to click on Installation Services before seeing the Door Installation page they want to view. But by narrowing down their options in the main menu and using clear labels to direct their next click, we’ve actually made it simpler for them to find the page they need.

Present Clear Website Navigation Options

As your website company, we serve you best by designing a product that your customers will enjoy using. Attractive visuals and unique features are great, but often overlooked is the importance of designing the flow of traffic through a website. As UI Engineer Jared Spool once said, “Good design, when done well, should be invisible.” Our goal is to make navigating your website so intuitive that the user will barely think about it, allowing them to focus on what really matters: your business!

Live to Inspire: Bill Koehne is Business Person of the Year Finalist

By Joan Koehne
My husband, Bill Koehne’s favorite ball cap has “Live to Inspire” printed on the front. The cap originally belonged to our daughter, Janet, but Bill adopted it for himself. Bill, the owner of Packerland Websites, lives to inspire people in many ways. So, that’s why I’m happy that he is one of the Top 3 finalists in the Business Person of the Year contest. The Greater Green Bay Chamber of Commerce sponsors the annual contest, and the 2023 winner will be announced on June 6 in Green Bay. The judging criteria for Business Person of the Year includes four elements. I know I’m biased, but I think Bill shines in all four.

Positively Impacting the Green Bay Business Environment

With the mentality, “Your success is my success,” Bill enjoys mentoring leaders of businesses and nonprofits. He provides clients with concrete strategies to increase their exposure and grow their business. Packerland Websites belongs to seven business organizations, including the Green Bay Innovation Group and Brown County Home Builders Association. Bill places a high value on networking and supporting other small business owners like himself.

Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Developing a company from scratch comes with many obstacles. When Bill opened Packerland Websites 12 years ago, (Read the Packerland Websites’ 10th Anniversary blog.) the U.S. was experiencing an economic recession. Bill had just closed his family’s 23-year-old home construction business. Meanwhile, his wife was diagnosed with cancer. From these catastrophic circumstances, he built a thriving company with five employees and offices in Green Bay, Abrams, and Marinette. He didn’t have a model to follow or a mentor to work with. However, he had business smarts, a solid work ethic, and me to support him. He created his own innovative business model and today, the company manages over 500 websites.

Packerland Websites team at the Awards Luncheon

Leadership in Business via Website Development

Businesses and nonprofits know that they need an effective internet presence, but many lack the marketing insight and tools to achieve their goals, like ranking higher on Google or gaining more customers. Packerland Websites develops effective websites and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies that lead to results. Today’s websites are much more than just a brochure on the internet. Instead, they are effective marketing tools powered by SEO, HTTPS security, chat bots, e-commerce stores, mobile responsiveness, and other marketing tools.

Community Development and Engagement

Bill believes in giving back to the community, so Packerland Websites gives nonprofits the VIP treatment. Packerland Websites donated over $60,000 in website services in 2022 and over a quarter of a million dollars over the past five years. The nonprofit closest to his heart is Abrams Spotlight Productions Inc., the local community theater organization. Recently, Bill was the set builder for Lustful Youth, assistant director for White Christmas and Harry the Horse in Guys and Dolls. He helped organize the Green Bay Walleyes for Tomorrow fundraiser for 20 years and serves as committee chairman for Green Bay Innovation Group and Windjammers Sailing Club. At St. Pius Catholic Church, he is a music minister, Eucharistic minister, and lector. He also volunteers at Anchor of Hope TEC (Together Encountering Christ) retreats. He’s a busy guy who’s committed to his faith, family, and community.

Greater Green Bay Chamber Award Finalist

All of us know people who inspire us. I’m married to a man who inspires me. Since 2017, Bill and I have worked together at Packerland Websites. My company, Writer to the Rescue, is the content marketing division. Bill inspired me enough that I nominated him for the Business Person of the Year Award, and I hope he wins. He’s a smart, generous, high-tech people-person who made a lasting impact on the Greater Green Bay area. I can’t wait to hear his name called as the winner of the Greater Green Bay Chamber Business Person of the Year Award.

Google Analytics 4 Starts July 1: What’s Important for Packerland’s Clients

laptop showing Google page. Packerland Websites prepared for Google Analytics 4 upgrade

Every business wants to optimize its online presence. Analyzing the users’ experience is a sure way to determine what works for digital marketing. If you want your website to rank better, “shaking hands” with Google is one of the best ways to do so. Even if you’re not a number-cruncher or like looking at graphs, it’s good to maintain a good relationship with Google.

How Google Analytics 4 Affects You

The next generation of Google analytics is arriving. Google Analytics 4, also known as GA4, was introduced in 2020 as a replacement to Universal Analytics. By July 1, 2023, everyone must upgrade to Google Analytics 4. According to Google, “GA4 is designed for the future of measurement.” Organizations will no longer view data through Universal Analytics. Instead, the data will flow into GA4. Digital marketers will still be able to track website usage and success, just in a new format. However, GA4 is more than just a newer version of Universal Analytics. While both versions collect data about the customer journey on websites and apps, GA4 collects and presents analytics a bit differently.

How Universal Analytics and GA4 Differ

One of the biggest differences is GA4’s event-based data model, instead of a session-based model. What does that mean? In a session-based model, analytics are sent through a web browser as cookies. The cookies track actions during a “session,” like page views and clicks. GA4 monitors “events,” so it logs these different types of data points without differentiating between them. This works better for tracking via different mobile devices.

Another difference is customer lifecycle tracking. Reports show the various customer stages of acquiring, engaging, monetizing, and retaining. Additionally, organizations can create custom reports using little or no coding. In the Explorations section, users can interact with data for advanced analytics.

GA4 also leverages artificial intelligence more than Universal Analytics did. Google Analytics 4 determines predictive analytics, so organizations can better plan their campaigns and activities to engage users. And aligning with today’s focus on data privacy, GA4 improved the privacy controls in reporting.

How Packerland Websites is Responding to GA4

As Google introduces Google Analytics 4, Packerland Websites is taking action. Every new website we build is equipped with GA4 instead of Universal Analytics. Additionally, the Packerland Websites team will add GA4 to its current websites over time. The Packerland Websites’ team wants all clients to have access to the most current measurement techniques to analyze their digital marketing strategies.You can view your website analytics via analytics.google.com. Contact us for more information about GA4 and other marketing tools and techniques like blogging, newsletters, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Fast, Easy, Secure Websites Now More Affordable for BCHBA Members

Bill Koehne accepts a 30-year Brown County Homebuilders membership award. He represented Ark Homes for 20 years and Packerland Websites for 10.

Homebuilders know they need an effective company website, but they’re too busy building homes to shop around for website developers or SEO companies. They lack the time and experience to develop a website that gets results – a website that is eye-catching, secure, fast, mobile responsive, and user-friendly. Packerland Websites understands the demands of home construction because Packerland Websites’ owner Bill Koehne is a former homebuilder.

Partner with a Green Bay Website Developer

The Packerland Websites team developed the Brown County Home Builders Association’s website, and they can develop yours, too. Partner with a Green Bay website developer for websites that are effective marketing tools working for you 24/7/365. Packerland Websites offers Brown County Homebuilders Association members discounts on websites and Search Engine Optimization to convert leads into sales, so home construction companies prosper.

Custom-Built Websites:
Fast to load
Attractive & Navigable
Secure from online threats
Mobile friendly for smartphone users
Easy to update – with training at no extra cost

Receive a Website Discount as a BCHBA Member

Too busy to shop around for a website company? The decision is easy! Packerland Websites, 2140 Velp Avenue, Green Bay, is the “Website of Choice” for the Brown County Homebuilders Association. The Packerland Websites team handles every aspect of the website design process. Our college-trained developers and writers know how to create websites to achieve your goals, like ranking higher in Google searches and getting your phone to ring. Plus, the price is right! BCHBA members quality for a 15% discount on a new or rebuilt website.

Integrate 7 Key Features on a Home Construction Website

Just like every home you build is different, so is every website Packerland Websites builds. However, every homebuilder website includes six key features.

Photo gallery to showcase a homebuilder’s work and breadth of services
The home construction company’s motto, logo and About Us text that distinguishes the company from the competition
One-touch dialing, so visitors can conveniently place a call from their smartphones
Mobile-friendly design to reach the homebuilder’s target audience on the screen that potential customers choose
Simple-to-update Homes for Sale and New Homes pages to easily get the latest home construction message out to a target audience
Testimonials which allow others to describe their building experience and sing your praises
Clear Call to Action, funneling visitors to the Contact Us page or high-interest page

Get Noticed on the Internet with Search Engine Optimization

In addition to website design, development, and hosting, Packerland Websites helps construction companies get noticed on the internet with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services. By implementing SEO on and off a website, Packerland Websites helps homebuilders gain more traction in a crowded and competitive ranking system. Effective SEO strategies improve a homebuilder’s placement on Google and other search result pages, thereby improving the company’s visibility on the internet.

Contact Us for New or Rebuilt Websites

If you’re new to the home construction business, a website will add credibility to your company. Websites professionally represent a brand day and night. If you already have a home construction website, when is it time to rebuild? If your website is slow, unreliable, difficult-to update, old or mediocre, it’s time for a rebuild. View our portfolio of home construction websites, and contact us to get started.

Design Specialist Joins Packerland Websites

Alexa Haferkorn

Alexa Haferkorn has joined the Packerland Websites team as a WordPress web developer and design specialist. A Little Chute native, Haferkorn earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Communications at Northern Michigan University in 2016.

She previously worked as a Website and Brand Designer at 906 Technologies and a Graphic Designer and Marketing Assistant at Beth Millner Jewelry. Additionally, Haferkorn worked at Packerland Websites as a WordPress web developer and design specialist in 2018-2019.

Bill Koehne, owner of Packerland Websites, said Haferkorn understands what businesses and nonprofits need to maintain a dynamic online presence.
“With her background in graphic design and website development, Alexa brings a combination of talents to Packerland Websites,” he said. “Aside from her technical and artistic skills, she has a knack for communicating with customers to help them create websites that meet their business goals.”

“I’m a creative web designer inspired by bold voices and great passions,” Haferkorn said. “I want to take my client’s business goals and create an environment for them to come to life and connect with the world. I love learning how people think about media and react to visual experiences, which helps me design compelling websites for specific audiences.”

In addition to her work at Packerland Websites, Haferkorn enjoys spending time in the outdoors, especially hiking, biking, and skiing. She also enjoys all things artsy and crafty, so she spends time creating artwork and visiting local art fairs and shows.

To grow your business or organization with a new or rebuilt website or SEO strategies, contact Alexa Haferkorn at Packerland Websites.

Branding at its Best Webinar is March 23

Bill Koehne with Packerland Websites Chevy Voilt

You already have a logo, website, and Facebook page. But are you leveraging branding to its fullest potential to increase sales and attract employees? What aspects of branding are you missing? For branding advice you can use, attend the Branding at Its Best webinar, presented by Bill Koehne, owner of Packerland Websites. As a marketing expert, Bill provides insights and perspective, along with wit and wisdom. Everyone will walk away with at least one aha moment that will make them look at their organization in a completely different way.

Green Bay Innovation Group Webinar

The free webinar is sponsored by Green Bay Innovation Group, a business-to-business consortium of Northeast Wisconsin companies in the 5P industries: paper, pulp, plastic, printing, and packaging. Packerland Websites will host the webinar on its website. The business training event is free and open to the public.

Branding at Its Best Webinar Details

When: 2pm CT Thursday, March 23

To register:

Visit the Green Bay Innovation Group (GBIG) website Events page.

Where: To access the webinar on March 23:

Visit Packerlandwebsites.com
Scroll to the footer
Click on Conference Room 1

Branding & the Millennial Generation

In this webinar, marketing expert Bill Koehne will share information that every business leader should know about branding. Plus, Bill will share specific and practical ways to strengthen your brand. You will learn:

What is branding and why is a key to success in business?
How to build an authentic brand that tells the world the right story
How to get your brand found on the internet for your desired search terms
How to differentiate your organization from others in order to recruit, manage, and retain employees

Register Today for Business Branding Webinar

What is your organization’s brand presence now and how can you improve it to achieve your business goals? Register today for this business branding webinar presented by Packerland Websites’ owner Bill Koehne and Green Bay Innovation Group.

Meet the Webinar Presenter

Bill Koehne is a high-tech people-person with a brain wired for numbers, marketing, and optimism. He built his first website in 1999, putting him on the cutting edge of technology. Bill earned a business administration degree at UW-Green Bay. He managed a multi-million-dollar home construction company for 20 years before opening Packerland Websites in 2011. Packerland Websites creates WordPress websites and SEO strategies to achieve clients’ goals, like ranking higher on Google or gaining more customers. To see samples of Packerland Websites’ work, view this portfolio of commercial, municipal, and nonprofit websites.

RSS Feed: 100% Opt-In Marketing Gem to Grow Network

Imagine you own a specialty foods store. Wouldn’t your clients love a new recipe in their inbox every month? Or maybe you’re a business coach offering a weekly secret to growing your business
tip. What about a loyalty program offering a discount coupon of the week? Perfect for any industry.

Channel to Build Brand Awareness

Getting your message out to your audience keeps your business top-of-mind when someone needs your products and services. Certainly, social media gets the message out to your audience, but you can’t control who sees the post unless you pay to boost the post. Gosh, the advertising costs of boosting a post add up quickly. How great would it be to share your latest recipe, tip, blog post, or news update with your target audience as soon as it’s published, being assured it reaches them?

100% Opt-In, Nothing Unsolicited

Give followers quick access to your most recent marketing content with Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. An RSS feed packages your posts and displays them in a central place. Instead of relying on your audience to visit your website to read the latest content or happen upon it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, send the content to them directly. As soon as readers subscribe to your RSS feed, they’ll receive your latest news and special offers. Instead of having to visit a bunch of their favorite websites to read updates and new posts, readers can track all of them at once from their RSS feed reader on their favorite device.

Benefits of RSS Feed in a Marketing Mix

RSS feeds deliver content without running into issues with blacklists or filters. Because readers opt in as subscribers, marketing content doesn’t compete against hundreds of other emails. Readers subscribe with a click of a button and are notified every time new content is published. A popular method for syndicating is to publish a scannable headline and article snippet, with a link to the full article. The audience reads the content in a feed reader.

Helps Search Engine Rankings When RSS is Indexed

In addition to engaging a human audience, an RSS feed speaks the language of search engine robots that index the web. The robots read a website’s code, add it to a database, and retrieve it to answer a query by someone searching the internet for a related topic. Furthermore, an RSS feed helps increase traffic to your website. The more traffic, the better! More traffic means more potential customers. More traffic also means search engines like Google see a website with more authority and show it higher on search engine results pages. Lastly, an RSS feed builds quality backlinks to a website, which also improves search engine rankings.

RSS Feeds Built into Every Website

Packerland Websites builds RSS feeds right into a website’s design. Clients provide the marketing content, and Packerland Websites provides the avenue to send the information to their audience. The RSS feeds are customizable, allowing clients to filter the feeds into specific topics. Websites with an RSS feed will display an RSS icon. The icon, often orange in color, shows two curved lines radiating from a small circle. Website visitors click the RSS icon to subscribe. Packerland Websites just added an RSS feed, so subscribe to the Packerland Websites’ RSS feed to be in the know. Just use this link https://packerlandwebsites.com/feed/ in your feed reader.

RSS Feed Advantages for Publishers

Adding an RSS feed to your marketing mix offers a number of benefits:

Grow relationships with subscribers
Get your message out easily
Simplify your writing – headline and short description only
Be assured a message reaches subscribers, instead of filters
Add valuable link-backs to your website
Share relevant, timely news

Ready to take your organization’s marketing communications to the next level? Contact us today for more information about an RSS feed for your WordPress website.

$10 Security Upgrade: Protect Your Website from Cyberattack

Do you know the signs of a hacked website?

A padlock at a computer keyboard to highlight security from cyberattack

Your online password isn’t working, so you can’t login
You receive emails about login attempts, password resets, and two-factor authentication codes that you didn’t request
You notice plugin-ins, add-ons, or links that don’t belong on your webpages
Your website “crashed,” and you can’t view it – and neither can your customers

After effects of a Cyberattack

Small businesses are vulnerable to cybercrime. When a website goes down because of a
cyberattack, visitors can no longer interact with your business online. Your reputation suffers,
and your audience may look elsewhere for the goods and services they need. Especially for
websites that have daily visitors, any amount of downtime is unacceptable.

Cybersecurity Measures

At Packerland Websites, we understand the importance of secure, fully functional websites that
represent your brand 24/7/365. That’s why we have so many cybersecurity measures in place
to protect against hackers and maintain visitors’ confidence in your organization. Packerland
Websites’ full security suite locks and defends the doors and windows to websites.

Upgraded & Premium Security

For even greater peace of mind, we highly recommend the Upgraded Security and Premium
Security options. We believe that cybersecurity is worth the upfront cost to prevent malicious
attacks that disrupt business and potentially put sensitive information at risk. Upgraded
Security and Premium Security are optional monthly enhancements added to your website.
These are separate from standard hosting. Upgraded Security and Premium Security add an
alarm, extra protection, and system recovery if a website is hacked. Details are at:
https://packerlandwebsites.com/our-services/website-design/a-la-carte-and-security/

Special Deals for Clients

We offer clients special pricing at $10/month for Upgraded Security and $15/month for
Premium Security. Normally, the plans are $14.99/month and $19.99 /month respectively, and
renewals are $29.99/month for Premium, plus the labor to install. By keeping the cost at $10
or $15 a month and not charging for labor, we help our clients improve their cybersecurity
without a high price tag.

Uptime & Peace of Mind

A website is the heart of your business. Your website showcases your brand and your amazing
products and services. Thus, your website deserves to be protected with all of the tools
available to keep business operations humming. Contact us today, 920-826-5901, to activate

Upgraded Security or Premium Security. Extra cybersecurity leads to reliable uptime for your
website and peace of mind for you.

10 Essentials for Building a Great Municipal Website

Businesses aren’t the only entities that want a top-notch internet presence. Municipalities do, also. One important aspect of a municipality’s digital presence is its website. That’s where a city, village, or town can promote its brand in words and images.

Role of a Municipal Website

A municipal website performs multiple government-related roles:

Provide names and contact information of municipal leaders and department officials
Publish municipal meeting agendas and minutes as an additional way to comply with public notice laws
Inform residents of elections and polling information
List information about services like trash and leaf pick-up
Post municipal ordinances regarding snow removal, parking, pets, etc.
Post job openings, descriptions and application forms

A municipal website also performs multiple community-building roles:

Show prospective residents a slice of life
Highlight places of interest like parks and beaches
Attract business and industry with economic development information like available property and funding resources
Showcase events like a citywide rummage sale or concert series

Leveraging Social Media

To expand the reach of a municipal website, many municipalities publish a Facebook feed on their website. Others link their websites to their social media accounts: Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Maintaining ADA Compliance

The overarching role of a website is to share information with visitors in a way that’s easy to find and understand for everyone, including people who are blind or use assistive technology. Thus, municipal websites are required to comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Just like ramps for wheelchairs, websites need to prevent barriers to accessibility for those with disabilities. Individuals who are blind or use assistive technology need to be able comprehend the information on a municipal website. Fortunately, accessible design does not necessarily mean the price of a website skyrockets. ADA elements like color contrast and behind-the-scenes coding can be built into websites to maintain compliance.

Updating a Website with the Latest News

An easy-to-update website is a must for municipalities because of all the meeting agendas, public notices, minutes, and other information they post on a regular basis. A content management system like WordPress makes posting quick and intuitive. If a municipal official is familiar with Microsoft Word, it is likely to be easy to transition to WordPress. For website clients who need an introduction or refresher, the Packerland Websites team offers complimentary training, plus video and written tutorials.

Presenting a Municipality at Its Best

Lastly, a municipal website needs to be built by a professional who pulls together design, navigation, hosting, and security. To see these elements in action, view our portfolio of municipal websites.

3 Key Elements of Every Municipal Website

Fast-loading with reliable up-time, reducing frustration and wait time for website editors and visitors
Easy-to-navigate, funneling visitors quickly and easily to the webpages they want to view
Attractive-looking design, building a brand image that represents the municipality in its best light

Contact Packerland Websites

Every municipality needs a website, but government officials often lack the time, skills, and technology to create their own website. Packerland Websites partners with municipal leaders to design and manage websites that make you proud of where you live, work, and govern. If the website of your city, village or town is ready for a tune-up or complete rebuild, contact Packerland Websites.