UKOLN LinkPopularity Analyses of the Shortlist for 2001 SPIN-SOCITM Website Awards


This page provides access to the LinkPopularity service which reports on the number of links to the Web sites.

This data was collected to support a paper on Automated Benchmarking Of Local Government Web Sites.

Table 1: Entry Point of Short-listed Web Sites

England

Scotland

Wales

Northern Ireland
L B Brent Dumfries & Galloway Council Cardiff CC Antrim BC
L B Camden Dundee City Council Ceredigion CC Armagh DC
L B Richmond East Renfrewshire Council Isle of Anglesey CC Belfast City Council
Tameside MBC Moray Council Wrexham CBC Newtownabbey BC
Wokingham Council West Lothian Council    

Summary

The following information was recorded on 30 July 2001.

Table 2: LinkPopularity Analyses of Short-listed Web Sites
Site Analyse Nos. of Links
AltaVista		 Nos. of Links
Google		 Nos. of Links
HotBot
L B Brent Go 485
Go		 626
Go		 > 100
Go
L B Camden Go 700
Go		 604
Go		 > 200
Go
LB Richmond Go 765
Go		 624
Go		 > 300
Go
Tameside MBC Go 443
Go		 148
Go		 > 200
Go
Wokingham Council Go 305
Go		 131
Go		 > 100
Go
Dumfries & Galloway Council Go 484
Go		 873
Go		 > 200
Go
Dundee City Council Go 896
Go		 241
Go		 > 500
Go
East Renfrewshire Council Go 267
Go		 111
Go		 > 100
Go
Moray Council Go 182
Go		 285
Go		 85
Go
West Lothian Council Go 268
Go		 132
Go		 > 200
Go
Cardiff CC Go 750
Go		 254
Go		 > 600
Go
Ceredigion CC Go 496
Go		 269
Go		 > 200
Go
Isle of Anglesey CC Go 314
Go		 145
Go		 > 100
Go
Wrexham CBC Go 255
Go		 117
Go		 > 100
Go
Antrim BC Go 355
Go		 135
Go		 > 100
Go
Armagh DC Go 207
Go		 188
Go		 > 100
Go
Belfast City Council Go 634
Go		 439
Go		 > 600
Go
Newtownabbey BC Go 88
Go		 53
Go		 80
Go

Why Is This Information Useful?

If a link is provided to your Web site, this active statement is likely to say something positive about your Web site.

Links to Web sites can help to drive traffic to your Web site.

Citation-based search engine such as Google will give a positive weighting to sites which have many links to them.

Companies make use of this type of information in their advertising.

How Can This Information Be Misinterpreted?

Links to your Web site will only be measured if the page containing the link has been indexed by a search engine. This means, for example, that links on Intranets, links on new Web sites which have not yet been indexed, etc. will not be included.

The results from the search engines can fluctuate for a number of reasons, such as load on the search engine.

Different results can be obtained depending on whether a trailing slash is added or not.

Different search engines can give very different results.

Review

Most Links

Of the 18 Web sites surveyed, the most linked-to site was Dundee City Council (896 links according to AltaVista) or L B Brent (626 links according to Google).

Fewest Links

Of the 18 Web sites surveyed, the least linked-to site was Newtownabbey BC (88 links according to AltaVista and 53 links according to Google).

What Other Link Popularity Tools Are Available?

The following Link Popularity tools are available:

Note that link popularity information can be obtained from many search engines using Advanced Search features.

Maintained by Brian Kelly, UKOLN
Last updated on 30-Jul-2001

Email comments to B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk