Gather StudioScored across 6 Plainspoken Blueprint lenses. Each lens rated 0–10. The site is leaving significant opportunity on the table.
Plainspoken Blueprint Audit
Click any lens to expand findings.
Highest-Leverage Change
The best thing on this site is already there: 'What do you need to do today?' Move it to the top of the page, make it the hero, add a search bar, and remove the news carousel from the primary action position. That one change converts a broadcast site into a service portal.
Opening Line for the Video Audit
“Birmingham's city website has a tagline: 'Putting People First.' Let me show you what I see in the first 10 seconds — because the homepage doesn't put people first. It puts a news item about removing a payment option first. The fix is already on the page. They just buried it.”
What We Found
The H1 headline is 'City of Birmingham, Alabama.' That is the name of the website, not a message. The meta description leads with 'Putting People First' — a tagline that says nothing specific about what the city does or what a resident can accomplish here. No citizen sees 'Putting People First' and knows what to do next.
The site has no problem-acknowledgment language. Citizens come to city websites because something in their life requires city action — a permit, a ticket, a license, a report. The site doesn't name a single frustration. The first content below the 'hero' is a news item about tax payment changes, written in bureaucratic press-release tone.
The 'What do you need to do today?' section with Report Problems, Tax & License, Permits, City Departments, Traffic & Parking Tickets, and Employment & Bidding is the strongest part of the site. These are real tasks, named in resident language. The nav also has a Live / Work / Play structure that's a reasonable organizing logic.
Primary visible CTA is 'Learn More' on a news item about tax payment changes. This is the most prominent action on the page — a press release about removing a payment method. Citizens are being invited to 'learn more' about losing a feature. That's the opposite of a city that puts people first.
The Open Graph image and hero section reference 'COB_white_seal.png' — the city seal. A government seal in the primary image position is a branding instinct that says 'we are an institution,' not 'we serve you.' Seals communicate authority; they don't communicate welcome.
Full Marketing Audit
birminghamal.gov — functional but institution-first; no task-oriented hero
City of Birmingham page — active, events and news
@cityofbirmingham — inconsistent; more tourism content than city services
City channel exists but minimal consistent content
Government listing present, hours and departments visible
Matt Headley · Gather Studio
Ready to fix what this audit found?
These changes are targeted moves that put your best proof front and center. Gather Studio does exactly this kind of work.
Gather Studio by Matt Headley · Alabama