Why content is better as a web page

We recommend publishing content as a web page rather than a document like a PDF. This is because:

Web pages work better on smartphones and tablets. They are easier to read and navigate. More than 50% of Norfolk County Council (NCC) website visitors use mobile devices.
It is easier to keep web page content and web links up to date. Information remains accurate.
Web pages provide analytics. We can check a page's performance and improve it. We do not know how many times a user views a downloaded PDF or how they navigate it.
You can adjust web browser settings to make web pages easier to read. You can change things like colour, text size and line spacing. Documents cannot be easily adapted.

Publishing documents on our websites

There are still some occasions where we publish documents like a PDF or Excel spreadsheet on our websites. For example:

The document content is very long. It would be very time-consuming to convert into web page content.
The document contains a lot of data. Being able to use Excel tools like sorting and filters would help users understand it.
The document has a small audience. Only a small number of users will benefit from web page content.
The document includes essential information that is hard to present on a web page

If we do publish a document like a PDF or Excel spreadsheet on our website, it must be accessible: