A partnership website - also known as a microsite – is a self-contained website which is separate from the main council website, for example Go Surrey, a website which was set up before London 2012 to promote Surrey as a place to stay and train, and which is a partnership project with various public, private and voluntary sector organisations led by Surrey.
Microsites can be particularly effective for highlighting a particular campaign/service or targeting a specific audience, but used incorrectly they can cause confusion, compete with the public website, and sometimes result in high costs and disappointing search engine rankings.
The Digital Delivery Team can help you decide on the most appropriate platform for your partnership project or service. We will review your requirements and recommend the solution which best meets your needs in terms of functionality, design, cost, maintenance, accessibility and of course search engine optimisation.
Surrey’s public website receives over 500,000 visits per month, it has high quality, regularly updated content, and is linked to by many other organisations. All .gov.uk domains are restricted sites and have to meet certain Government criteria, which means our content is trusted by search engines. Therefore we are able to achieve consistently high rankings with Google and other search engines for our web pages.
A microsite developed within the Surrey domain will automatically benefit from our high search engine ranking. However when developed independently of the Surrey domain, it can be harder to achieve such impressive results. If you need assistance with optimising your web content, contact the Digital Delivery Team.
The Digital Delivery Team can help you choose the right platform to meet your needs.
Surrey County Council's public website: we can create a new section for your partnership project or service within the award-winning Surrey website. You will receive ongoing support and advice from the Digital Delivery Team to create and structure your pages, and will be able to update the pages yourself. We recently created a new section for the HOPE service, a partnership project with the NHS which provides support for young people with complex needs, within the Surrey domain.
Surrey Community.info: is a user-friendly, versatile platform which provides free websites for community, voluntary and not-for-profit organisations in Surrey. We can provide you with training and advice on using this platform, which is supported by our experienced in-house Digital Delivery Team. We recently created Go Surrey, and Drive Smart Surrey on the SurreyCommunity.info platform.
A third party supplier: this is the most costly and time-consuming solution, however in some cases it can be the most suitable option. Our Family Information Directory which provides information for families in Surrey is hosted by an external supplier who specialises in directory-based websites. Remember that if you create a website outside of the Surrey domain there are certain criteria you need to meet to comply with Government requirements and Surrey’s web standards. Please contact the Digital Delivery Team for details.
An independent website or microsite may only be created separately from the Surrey County Council (SCC) public website if a request has been authorised by the Digital Delivery Manager and Head of Customer Services.
Surrey is involved in a number of partnership websites, see our domain name list for details of all partnership sites as well as aliases for our corporate website.
For information and advice on developing a partnership website, choosing the right platform for the job, or improving your content for search engines, contact the Digital Delivery Team.
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