A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk QA For Web Sites: Benchmarking Web Sites Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath UKOLN is supported by: Talk 3

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 2 What Is Benchmarking? Benchmarking is about: Sharing Learning from best practices Learning from mistakes others have made Note that in this benchmarking example: We dont intend to have league tables No prizes for the best We should recognise that: Organisations have differing priorities Organisations have different levels of resources Organisations have different starting points Organisations have differing organisational politics

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 3 About Web Benchmarking A wide range of benchmarking exercises have been carried out which: Help to compare Web site with your peers Identify common problems Help prioritise solutions Help to learn from best practices Spot trends

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 4 Benchmarking Exercises We will now use the QA Focus Web toolkit to check your Web sites for compliance with: HTML & CSS standards Accessibility guidelines Link errors … H

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 5 Search Engines Benchmarking can also be used to discover the approaches taken in providing services across related services. For example a survey of search engines used on University Web sites shows that ht://Dig is the safe solution. Monitoring trends shows that Google is growing in popularity This information can be used to establish communities of practice

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Pages Does your 404 error page: Use your institutions branding (logo, colour scheme, etc) Provide a navigation bar to help the post user Contain access to search facilities … Benchmarking surveys can help find examples of best practices

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 7 Conclusions Benchmarking: Allows you to make comparisons between your Web sites and your peers Helps to spot examples of best practice – which you can seek to emulate Helps to spot mistakes and errors – which you can seek to avoid Are there other areas in which benchmarking may be useful?

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 8 Accompanying Resources Search Facilities Search Facilities For Your Web Site, QA Focus, Briefing Document No Pages 404 Error Pages On Web Sites, QA Focus, Briefing Document No. 6