GOVTalks Spring 2020

On April 28, 2020, we held our 13th GOVTalks conference, sponsored by DSGa’s web analytics partner, Siteimprove. For this, our first-ever virtual event, DSGa teamed up with the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget (OPB) as well as Siteimprove. Together, we introduced the Siteimprove dashboard, a tool that enables agencies to monitor, measure, and improve the performance of their websites and deliver a better experience for users. 

Keynote: How to Define the Success of Your Digital Properties

Nikhil Deshpande
Chief Digital Officer, State of Georgia

For the event’s keynote, Chief Digital Officer Nikhil Deshpande gave attendees a detailed look at digital metrics strategies and the critical role they play in helping agencies measure, analyze, and report on the effectiveness of their digital properties. He also discussed the ways that GovHub, the state’s official content management system (CMS), and its performance measurement tool, Siteimprove, give agencies everything they need to monitor, evaluate, and improve their website’s performance.

Read the full recap of Nikhil Deshpande’s Keynote. 

Special Message

Kelly Farr
Director, Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget

Kelly Farr, Director of OPB, joined us to share a special message with attendees. He emphasized the critical and evolving role that technology plays in helping the State of Georgia serve its public. As we continue to move forward in caring for our constituents' needs, we have to ensure that our digital properties effectively complement, and where possible even replace, the offline services and resources we offer. By teaming up with DSGa, Kelly explained, agencies can ensure their websites inspire trust in constituents by being consistent in appearance, easy to use, and accessible to all Georgians.

Siteimprove: Better Measurement, Better Websites

Travis Vermeulen
Principle Customer Service Manager, Siteimprove

Our next presenter, Travis Vermeulen, Principle Customer Service Manager for Siteimprove, gave attendees a close-up look at Siteimprove, how it works, and the way it and its web analytics tools can help them continuously improve their websites.

Read the full recap of Travis Vermeulen’s Presentation.

Quality Assurance: A Content Strategy that Prioritizes People

Will Alford, Director of Content, DSGa
Rachel Hart, Solutions Analyst, DSGa

DSGa’s Will Alford, Director of Content, and Rachel Hart, Solutions Analyst, took attendees deep into the Quality Assurance module of Siteimprove. We learned that Siteimprove’s Quality Assurance module encompasses User Experience (UX), Content Quality, Security, and Content Freshness.

Read the full recap of Will Alford and Rachel Hart’s Presentation.

Accessibility Made Simple: Using Siteimprove to Drive Your Accessible Content Strategy

Jasmyne Epps
Testing and Support Lead, DSGa

DSGa’s Testing and Support Lead, Jasmyne Epps, joined us to talk about Siteimprove’s Accessibility module. She explained how attendees can use Siteimprove to better understand web accessibility and to empower their organizations to develop content with accessibility standards and guidelines baked in.

Read the full recap of Jasmyne Epps’s Presentation

GovHub and the New SEO

Amanda de Zayas, Content Strategist, DSGa
Ericca Farrington, Outreach Coordinator, DSGa

For the final session of the day, DSGa’s Amanda de Zayas, Content Strategist, and Ericca Farrington, Outreach Coordinator, teamed up to talk about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). We learned what SEO is, how search engines work, and what makes up a search ranking. They also explained how agencies can use Siteimprove’s SEO tools to help constituents find their websites quickly and easily via search engines, like Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

Read the full recap of Amanda de Zayas and Ericca Farrington’s Presentation.

Resources:

We encourage you to begin reviewing your site using the  GOVTalks Playbook . This PDF includes key takeaways from the presentations and is a handy guide as you embark on the journey of improving the content of your site.