About us > Annual Reports > Community Impact Report 2005-2006
Growth by Leaps and Bounds: FSA Toronto's Website
How do we get the right message to the right people, as our strategic directions commit us to do? Over the past two years FSA Toronto's website has become an invaluable resource for clients and a powerful tool for our agency to demonstrate our work and values on a global scale.
In 2005:
Total page requests: 544,113
Monthly average: 45,342
Average daily page requests: 1,490
Total website visitors: 89,018
Average number of page requests per visitor: 6
Since its redesign in early 2005, the site has experienced considerable growth. During the 2005-06 fiscal year, the overall website page requests increased on average by 36.6% over the previous year, reaching a total of 544,113 pages. (Page requests generated by FSA Toronto staff accounted for 7% or just over 38,000 pages.) At the same time, the number of website visitors also increased by 22.2% to 89,018. Increases in the number of visitors, number of pages visited and overall website size all point to the greater depth of our Internet presence and its value to visitors and our agency.
The site's redesign was driven in large part by our desire to have our website reflect our values related to accessibility for people with disabilities. We incorporated a series of features—such as embedded photograph descriptions, a “Jump to Content” button and other navigation tools—to make the website accessible to people who use assistive technologies for browsing the Internet. In addition, a “Hide page temporarily” button provides added safety for women who are visiting our Violence Against Women pages and don't want their abuser to know.
Managers of various community programs have noted that the web is enabling clients and potential clients to make informed service choices in a non-threatening environment. The Counselling Services main page, for example, was requested over 5,000 times (a 30% increase over the previous year's 3,952 requests) while the Community Parenting Education program (COPE) pages was requested 2,801 times (an 85% increase of the previous year).
It has also helped programs build closer relationships with organizations doing similar work across Canada and has been a cost-effective way to disseminate service information and FSA Toronto research materials that would otherwise have to be printed and posted at significant expense. Two free manuals offered by David Kelley Services, Challenging Depression and HIV and Making Connections, have been downloaded from our website more than 3,000 and 6,000 times respectively.
One shortcoming of the website is that it is available in English only. Recently, service access information was added in three additional languages in which FSA provides services— Farsi, Somali and Tamil—however efforts to translate more of the site are constrained because of resource limitations.
With the wealth of information and user-friendly design, the frequently updated content and coordinated promotion of the site, FSA Toronto's ranking on search engines is very high, which in turn increases visitor traffic. As we continue to expand the site, we will look for additional opportunities to measure the impact of the website on our client experience.
