Web Site Creation: Good Practice Guidelines

Self Assessment Of Project Web Sites

Marieke Napier

NOF-digitise AdvisorUKOLN

University of Bath

UKOLN is supported by:

EmailM.Napier@ukoln.ac.ukURLhttp://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

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Why?

Self assessment of your Web site can be used to:• Monitor compliance of your Web site with

standards• Report on usage of your Web site• Monitor problems with your Web site

Benchmarking of NOF-digi project Web sites can be used to:

• Identify areas of best practices• Identify areas in which improvements are

needed

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How?

Many Web-based analysis services are available:• HTML, XML and CSS validators to check on

compliance with standards• Link checkers• Usage analysis• Linkage analysis• Performance monitoring

Some services are available for free (e.g. funded by advertising and free service provides limited functionality) and others are licensed

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Systematic Monitoring

You may find it useful to:• Monitor the status of your Web site

– Nos. of pages indexed.– Nos. of links to your Web site– Accessibility of your Web site– Compliance with standards– Downtime of the service

• Monitor trends– Do the findings change over time / after dissemination

• Compare your findings with your peers– Comparison with other projects– Comparison with other institutions– Comparison with other communities

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Monitoring

Many evaluation tools and Web services are available (some for free)

See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/jusw-2001/auditing-workshop/> for exercises from Auditing and Monitoring Your Web Sites workshop

See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/jusw-2001/auditing-workshop/> for exercises from Auditing and Monitoring Your Web Sites workshop

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Some Examples…

• Size of your home page• Look of your home page• Does it work?• Accessibility• Broken Links• How popular is it?• Other browsers• Statistics

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The Size of Your Home Page

You can find out the size of your home page using various tools:

• Netmechanic• Bobby

http://www.netmechanic.com/http://www.netmechanic.com/

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The Look of Your Home Page

What type of entry point is yours?

A “rolling demonstration” of University entry points is available at:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/site-rolling-demos/universities/

A “rolling demonstration” of University entry points is available at:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/site-rolling-demos/universities/

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Does it Work?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/http://watson.addy.com/

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Is it Accessible?

• The Bobby Web service can check the accessibility of individual Web pages

• The Bobby Java application can check the accessibility of Web sites

• WAVE is another accessibility checker

http://www.cast.org/bobby/http://www.cast.org/bobby/

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Are there Broken Links?

Monitoring the number of broken links on your Web site is very important

• Xenu • LinkAlarm • Xenu• Linkguard• Nodeworks• Netmechanic• Site valet

http://www.linkalarm.com/http://www.linkalarm.com/

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How Popular is Your Site?

There are a number of services that will tell you how many pages link to your Web site

• WebSiteGarage

• LinkPopularity

• Netscape’s What’s Related service is used through the Netscape browser

http://www.linkpopularity.com/http://www.linkpopularity.com/

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What about Other Browsers?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

http://www.anybrowser.com/http://www.anybrowser.com/

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Comparing Statistics

Hit counters have developed into comprehensive Web statistical services that can give immediate feedback on user visits

• Web-based statistical services such as SiteMeter provides information on the whole site

• Nedstat provides information on individual pages

http://www.sitemeter.com/http://www.sitemeter.com/

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Conclusions

To conclude:• You should ensure that you have procedures for

monitoring various aspects of your Web service • A wide range of tools area available, including

some which are free• Note that tools may give flawed results - e.g. see

paper on Automated Benchmarking Of Local Authority Web Sites at <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/euroweb-2001/>