1.2. Contents of the participation website
The web is the main communication window of the project, since it is the final destination of the users and where they will carry out actions of direct decision making.
The communication team should contribute to the creation of a coherent and common vocabulary that defines participation. Also to translate the administrative language into understandable phrases and to explain how to participate from a didactic and simple point of view. The web language has its particularities, is far from a press release and has to be understandable, attractive and clear to the user.
CONSUL DEMOCRACY includes a standard content that summarizes the participatory tools of the platform: debates, proposals, participatory budgets, voting and processes. It is up to each institution to choose which tools to use and how to name them.
On the other hand, in web pages there are contents that are not visible to people but to search engines, which is known as metadata. There are writing guidelines that serve to position themselves in search engines and, therefore, be easy to find by users. Therefore, it is recommended to have the collaboration of a SEO specialist. In this section, however, some basic recommendations are offered for the start-up.
Some steps to follow to create the contents of the platform are:
Name: decide on the tools of direct democracy that will be used and their denomination. The names must be easily identifiable, that is, terms that any user can find.
Introduction to the processes : as a recommendation to guide users and improve search optimization of the page (improve SEO) we recommend including an introductory description of about 280 words about what is and what each participatory tool is for on foot of page (not in the upper part so as not to lose the users who visit each section).
Metadata of the page: each page and section of our website must include in the code the title (title), a description (metadescription) and some keywords (keywords). A tool that can help us find the words that most users look for, and therefore, that can position themselves better is Google Trends. It allows you to narrow the search by country, time interval, category and by type of search. The title is the first thing searchers read and appears in the browser tab, so it has to be brief and very descriptive, about 60-70 characters. Example: Participatory budgeting 2018 - Las Palmas de Gran Canaria The description must be a brief introduction of a maximum of 156 characters of what that page is and, if possible, include a call to action. Example: Submit your projects to the 2018 participatory budgeting of Las Palmas City Council. Decide on how to spend the municipal budget. The keywords, although not essential, to be included must be descriptive of the content of the page. A tool that can help us find the words that most users look for, and therefore, that can position themselves better is Google Trends. It allows you to narrow the search by country, time interval, category and by type of search. The title is the first thing searchers read and appears in the browser tab, so it has to be brief and very descriptive, about 60-70 characters. Example: Participatory budgeting 2018 - Las Palmas de Gran Canaria The description must be a brief introduction of a maximum of 156 characters of what that page is and, if possible, include a call to action. Example: Submit your projects to the 2018 participatory budgeting of Las Palmas City Council. Decide on how to spend the municipal budget. The keywords, although not essential, to be included must be descriptive of the content of the page. Example: City of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, participatory budgeting, municipal budget, Las Palmas, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Practical advice: at the time of writing the contents of the participation website, keep in mind who you are addressing. So you can create more understandable texts in terms of language and structure and adapt to those less familiar with direct democracy. Besides, you can also create useful content for users within each section, to help understand each process. That is, a kind of brief guide that explains how to create a project for participatory budgeting, for example. Technical problems page: create a page to solve the most recurrent technical doubts of users.
User help page: create a help page with frequently asked questions of each of the sections of the web explaining in detail what it is and how the process works.
Technical problems page: create a page to solve the most recurrent technical doubts of users.
Besides, you can also create useful content for users within each section, to help understand each process. That is, a kind of brief guide that explains how to create a project for participatory budgeting, for example.
Practical advice: at the time of writing the contents of the participation website, keep in mind who you are addressing. So you can create more understandable texts in terms of language and structure and adapt to those less familiar with direct democracy.
Last updated