One Year After Launch, San Angelos New Website Continues to Impress

SANTA MONICA, CA--(Marketwired - Feb 26, 2015) - One year after launching a new municipal website, www.cosatx.us, developed in partnership with the online government experts at Vision Internet, San Angelo reports that the site continues to make a great first impression for the West Texas city of 100,000 people.

"The new site has exceeded our expectations," said San Angelo's Public Information Officer Anthony Wilson. "We love the fact that Vision Internet is constantly updating features on the website to make it more functional for the public."

The dynamic new website is a stark contrast to its predecessor, which Wilson described as drab and static. San Angelo's new site is mobile ready, complete with fresh content continuously updated by 50 department and division administrators. The communications team updates images on a weekly and sometimes daily basis.

"With our previous site, every department and division was allowed to do what they wanted on their pages, so no two looked alike," said Wilson. "This resulted in a mish-mash of fonts, point sizes and colors, making the site look somewhat like a carnival. In planning the new site, we established four goals. The new site had to be: easy to navigate, aesthetically pleasing, informative and interactive."

When the revamped site launched ahead of schedule in February 2014, controls and standards were in place to ensure a unified look. A template was created for every department and division, so visitors can easily find hours of operation, contact information and links to other important information, regardless of what page they are on.

"It has become a go-to place for people to get information," Wilson explained. "We are very active in social media, with nearly 18,000 likes on our Facebook page. I'm a big believer in our social media, but everything we do there points back to the website to provide more detailed information. It's our hub. Also, most people are accessing the website through their mobile devices, which made the responsive design Vision Internet builds into its functionality very important to us." 

To get the word out on the launch, San Angelo's public information office publicized the new site through radio and television interviews, articles in the local newspaper, and produced videos distributed via social media and the local cable channel. According to Wilson, public reaction to the unveiling of the new site was immediately positive and has remained so.

Vision Internet's content management system is interactive making it easy for people to do business online. Online forms, including building and inspection, animal adoption, health permits and more, can be printing out and mailed or completed right on the site.

"That's how we all do business these days," said Wilson. "Whether you're talking about banking, paying bills or shopping, people want to conduct those activities online. So there's a responsibility among those of us in local government to provide as many services as we can online."

For information about Vision Internet's transformative government website technology, please call 888-263-8847 or visit visioninternet.com/inforequest.

About Vision Internet
Headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., Vision Internet is a national leader in government website development with more than 600 government, non-profit and education clients in U.S. and Canadian communities with populations that range from less than 1,000 residents to more than 5 million. The company creates cost-effective solutions that increase government efficiency, transparency and interactive communications with citizens. For nearly 20 years, the company has earned hundreds of prestigious awards for its unique websites. Vision Internet's visionCMS™ is a powerful, easy-to-use content management system developed with feedback from hundreds of municipal clients.