Title: Benchmarking%20Web%20Sites
1Benchmarking Web Sites
- Brian Kelly
- UKOLN
- University of Bath
Email B.Kelly_at_ukoln.ac.uk URL http//www.ukoln.ac.
uk/
Simon Ball TechDis
Email simon_at_techdis.ac.uk URL http//www.techdis.a
c.uk/
UKOLN is supported by
2Timetable
- 1045 Introduction
- 1045 Benchmarking Web Sites What And Why?
- 1100 Hands-on Benchmarking Exercise
- 1200 Accessibility (talk)
- 1230 Lunch
- 1315 Hands-on Benchmarking Exercise (cont)
- 1345 Report Back
- 1415 Discussion
- 1445 Accessibility
- 1530 Conclusion
- 1545 Workshop ends
NOTE Times are subject to change
3A Bit About Me...
- Brian Kelly
- UK Web Focus a JISC-funded post to advise HE
and FE communities on Web developments - Based in UKOLN a national focus of expertise in
digital information management - Based at the University of Bath
- Involved in Web since 1993, while working in
Computing Service at University of Leeds - Links with IT Service Library communities
- The workshop has been informed by UKOLNs
WebWatch work and the WebWatch column in Ariadne
4A Bit About You...
D
- What do you want to get out of this workshop?
- What do you think benchmarking is?
5Benchmarking A Definition
- Benchmarking is about identifying and measuring
best practice processes that work elsewhere and
then emulating them. - The aim is to reduce duplication by learning from
others who have already found the solution. - It is about
- Understanding your weaknesses
- Comparison with your peers
- Note that best practices are constantly evolving.
6Session Aims
- This session
- Hands-on exercises with group discussions
- By the end of the session you should
- Be able to benchmark your Web site in relation to
other sites in your community - Have had hands-on experience in using auditing
and evaluating tools - Have considered other types of benchmarking
activity available - Be in a position to decide whether to adopt this
methodology in your institution or your region
7Todays Exercises
E
- Hands-on exercises to evaluate
- The look and size of your organisations home
page - The accessibility of your Web site
- The validation of your Web site
- How popular your Web site is
- How many sites link to it
- How many people visit it
- How your Web site looks with different browsers
- Etc.
- Commercial Web site auditing tools
Now open the exercises handout
8The Size of Your Home Page
Ex. 1.1
- You can find out the size of your home page using
various tools
http//www.netmechanic.com/
9The Look of Your Home Page
Ex. 1.5
- What type of entry point is yours?
A rolling demonstration of University entry
points is available athttp//www.ukoln.ac.uk/web
-focus/site-rolling-demos/universities/
10Does it Work?
Ex. 2
- It is useful to check key pages for
accessibility, validation and functionality - Web page validators include
- NetMechanic
- Dr Watson
- DrHTML - single pages only
- LinkTool
- Usable Web
- EchoEcho
http//watson.addy.com/
11Is it Accessible?
Ex. 2.1, 2.7
- The Bobby Web service can check the accessibility
of individual Web pages - The Bobby Java application can check the
accessibility of Web sites (now licensed
software) - WAVE is an alternative to Bobby
http//bobby.watchfire.com/
12Are There Broken Links?
Ex. 2.6
- Monitoring the number of broken links on your Web
site is very important
- Desktop and Web-based tools are available
- Xenu
- LinkAlarm
- Linkguard
- Nodeworks
- NetMechanic
- SiteValet
-
http//www.linkalarm.com/
13How Popular Is Your Site?
Ex. 3.13.2
- There are a number of services that will tell you
how many pages link to your Web site
- WebSiteGarage
- LinkPopularity
- Netscapes Whats Related service is used through
the Netscape browser
http//www.linkpopularity.com/
14What About Other Browsers?
Ex. 4
http//www.anybrowser.com/
- Does your home page (and Web site) work in
- Netscape very popular in UK HE)
- IE (the most widely used browser)
- Significant (all?) versions and platforms of
above - Lynx (text browser which may be used by visually
impaired) - AnyBrowser
- DejaVu
15Comparing Statistics
Ex. 3.4
- Hit counters have developed into comprehensive
Web statistical services that can give immediate
feedback - Web-based statistical services such as SiteMeter
provides information on the whole site - Nedstat provides information on individual pages
http//www.sitemeter.com/
16Benchmarking Exercises
E
- You have
- Benchmarked your Web site in relation to others
in your community - Recorded your findings
- And learnt about
- Some of the issues involved when using externally
hosted Web tools - Other benchmarking activities
- WebWatch surveys of communities
Once you have completed the exercises, report on
your findings
17Home Page Size Issues
- There are certain issues necessary for
consideration when using these tools - What is a home page?
- Splash screens
- Spawning new windows
- Frames
- Graphics and graphics folders
- Dynamic pages
- robot.txt files
See http//www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue28/web-watch/
18Look Of Your Home Page
- Types of entry points
- Traditional menu structure
- Changeable page, with news
- Personalised page
- Dynamic page
- Splash screens
- Spawning new windows
- Pages requiring specialist browser functionality
(e.g. plugins, Java support, etc.) - What type was yours?
19Other Benchmarking Activities
- What other type of benchmarking activities are
useful? - Monitoring Content Quality and Freshness
- New developments and technologies - scripts,
other markup languages, personalisation - Stress and security
- Search engine used on site and 404 pages
- Server numbers
- Visibility on search engines
- Usability e.g. by evaluating user feedback
- Performance checkers and Independent testing
services
20Performance Checkers
- Applications can be used to check the performance
of your Web site but often at a price - E-Test Suite
- Keynote
- Somix
- Entuity
- Prutsman
Keep your eye on
http//www.w3.org/WAI/ER/existingtools.html
21Implementing A Benchmark Survey
- To implement your own WebWatch- style benchmark
across a community you can simply examine
WebWatch articles and adapt the HTML for your own
use. - Further details at lthttp//www.ariadne.ac.uk/issu
e29/web-watch/gt
- Technique Used
- Use the Web service on a site
- Copy URL into template
- Determine URL structure
- Use as basis for use with other URLs
http//bobby.cast.org/bobby/bobbyServlet?
URLhttp3A2F2Fwww2.brent.gov.uk2FoutputSubmi
tglwcag1-aaa
22Next Generation Tools
- There is a need for sophisticated testing tools
which - Use rules
- which allow you to ignore types of errors
- can output special error messages for personal
errors - can be time or area dependant
- Can check all aspects of your Web site - network,
machines, processes (code) and individual files - Can mimic Web browsing behaviour (browsers,
cookies, etc.) - Examples of such tools include WebKing,
Freshwater Software, WebCriteria,
23Independent Testing Services
- Occasionally it may be necessary to outsource
testing. - The benefits of doing so include
- Saving time and resources
- Tapping in to outside expertise and experience
dedicated to testing - Testing tool independence
- Objectivity
- Would you be interested in a neutral 3rd party
testing your Web site? If so, how much would you
be willing to pay? - Would you be interested in a body in the HE/FE
sector carrying out a benchmarking survey and
comparing findings with your peers?
24Discussion
- What WebWatch surveys would you like to see
carried out? - Is there a need for a government funded
WebWatch-type survey across all institutional Web
sites? If so - Who should do it?
- How comprehensive should it be?
- How would it be funded?
- Would you prefer to outsource your testing?
- Would you be interested in benchmarking
regionally?
25Conclusion
- Different tools give different results and
results can be limited. The results should be
analysed carefully - like statistics - Independent testing services can be beneficial
- Comparison is useful
- However a league table is not enough, for this
type of evaluation. To have a point there should
be follow up action
Any questions?