Simplified: The City of Sioux Falls is in the early stages of a roughly 18-month process to update the entire city website. All told, it'll be a $600,000 affair.

Why it matters

  • The city website receives more traffic than any city building by far, with about 70,000 hits per month, said Justine Murtha, digital communications manager.
  • The last time the website – siouxfalls.org – was redesigned was 2016, and Murtha said five years is about the lifespan the city plans for its website.
  • In June, the city selected Granicus – a Denver-based company that provides cloud-based technology for government websites – as a partner on this project. The partnership consists of a five-year contract for a total of just over $425,000 – plus an additional $175,000 approved in September for user research, content strategy and content creation.
  • The hope is a new content management system will make it easier both for city employees to update and for users to navigate.
"We really want the website to work for our residents," Murtha said.

What's changing?

It's a little too soon to say, but Murtha said the goal is to make it easier for people to find the city-government-related information they need.

The new website is also aimed at helping the city be more intentional about reaching the people who need each type of information offered, Communications and Culture Officer Allie Hartzler told the City Council Tuesday.

"It's not necessarily about putting everything everywhere," Hartzler said, referring both to the website and city social media channels. "It's about being a little more strategic in who are we trying to reach and where can we reach them."

What happens next?

The city is looking for your input.

  • It's hosting a public open house at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 15 at the downtown library, and there will soon be an online survey available.
  • In early 2023, people will also be able to participate in website testing to give feedback on the new site before it launches.

The plan is for everything to be updated and done by late 2023, Murtha said. Find more updates here.