What the Six-Week Holidays Mean for Your Council Website

The six-week summer holidays don’t just change what residents are doing – they change how residents use your website. Here’s what shifts and what it means for your site.

What changes over summer

• More mobile browsing – residents search on the go rather than at a desktop, often out with the family.
• Different times of day – without the school run, visits spread more evenly across mornings, afternoons, and evenings.
• Different questions – bin collection changes, holiday activity schemes, and opening hours become the pages people actually need.
• More local search – families looking for “things to do” or “holiday clubs near me” should find your listings first.

Why this matters for your website

Over summer, your website often becomes a resident’s first point of contact instead of a phone call to the office – especially with reduced office hours. If it isn’t set up for the way people are browsing right now, you’ll likely see more calls and emails rather than fewer.

Don’t forget accessibility

With office hours often reduced over summer, more residents may be relying on the website rather than calling in. It’s a good time to check that accessibility tools – text resize, screen reader compatibility, colour contrast – are all working as they should.

Make urgent information easy to find

Road closures, flooding alerts, and bin collection changes around bank holidays are exactly the kind of thing residents look for in a hurry. Make sure these are easy to spot from the homepage, not just buried in a news archive.

Understanding how residents’ browsing habits shift over summer – and adjusting your website to match – can mean the difference between a resident finding what they need in seconds or giving up and calling the office. It also sets your site up well for the next spike in September, when school-return traffic picks up again.