Benchmarking Web SitesBrian Kelly ran a workshop session on Benchmarking Web Sites as part of his STIMULATE 2001 workshop. The workshop session took place on Monday 8th December 2001 from 14:00-17:00.
Note that you may find it helpful to bookmark the URL <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/stimulate-2001/benchmarking/> in order to have easy access to the benchmarking Web resources used in the exercises.
We all provide Web sites. But how many of us check our Web site to see if it is working correctly? Is our Web site accessible? How easy is the Web site to find using search engines? How does it compare with other institutions? In this hands-on workshop session delegates will use a variety of freely-available Web-based tools to give a health-check to their Web site and compare their Web site with other institutions.
Having reviewed their own Web sites participants will then discussion the implications of the findings, the survey methodology and make plans for follow-up actions for when they return to work.
| Time | Topic | Comments |
| 14:00 | Introduction | Session aims, introduction from facilitator |
| 14:10 | Introduction to "Benchmarking Web Sites" | Quick look at the tools you will be using and an introduction to qualities of measurement |
| 14:15 | Hands on Exercises | Hands-on exercise in which participants evaluate their own institutional Web site |
| 15:00 | Report back | Participants report back, benchmarking of everyone's Web site |
| 15:15 | Benchmarking Issues | Slides on issues that have arisen |
| 15:20 | Final Discussion and conclusions | Group discussion on the benchmarking results, completion of the report back slides. |
The following table gives the URLs of some of the Web sites which will be used during the workshop.
The following URLs may also be useful.
| Service | URL | |
| Bookmarklets | <http://www.bookmarklets.com/> | |
| Cacheability Engine | <http://www.ircache.net/cgi-bin/cacheability.py?action=show_ext> | |
| Extending Your Browser | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue19/web-focus/> | |
| WebWatch Services | <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/webwatch/services/> |
| EchoEcho | <http://www.echoecho.com/> | |
| Entuity | <http://www.entuity.com/> | |
| e-TEST Suite | <http://www.rswsoftware.com/> | |
| Freshwater's SiteScope | <http://www.freshwater.com/SiteScope.htm> | |
| Keynote Systems | <http://www.keynote.com/iw.html> | |
| MercuryInteractive | <http://www.mercuryinteractive.com/> | |
| MercuryInteractive | <http://www-heva.mercuryinteractive.com/> | |
| Prutsman | <http://www.prutsman.com/> | |
| Servicemetrics | <http://www.servicemetrics.com/> | |
| Somix | <http://www.somix.com/> |
| Anybrowser | <http://www.anybrowser.com/> | |
| DejaVu (Browser Emulators) | <http://www.dejavu.org/> | |
| Evolt.org (archive of old browsers) | <http://browsers.evolt.org/> | |
| Wapilizer | <http://www.gelon.net/> |
| AltaVista | <http://www.altavista.com/> | |
| LinkPopularity | <http://www.linkpopularity.com/> | |
| NetMechanic | <http://www.netmechanic.com/powerpack/tracker.htm#free> | |
| Searchenginewatch's Guidelines I | <http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/checkurl.html> | |
| Searchenginewatch's Guidelines II | <http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/popularity.html> |
| Bobby | <http://www.cast.org/bobby/> | |
| Color Readability Test | <http://snow.utoronto.ca/readtest/> | |
| WAVE | <http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/webmet/> | |
| Wave 2.01 | <http://www.temple.edu/inst_disabilities/piat/wave> | |
| Vischeck | <http://vischeck.com/vischeckURL.php3> | |
| Web Accessibility | <http://www.w3.org/WAI/report/> |
| Dr HTML | <http://www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/> |
| NetMechanic | <http://www.netmechanic.com/> |
| WebSiteGarage | <http://websitegarage.netscape.com/> |
| InternetSeer | <http://www.internetseer.com/> |
| NetMechanic Monitoring Service | <http://www.netmechanic.com/monitor.htm> |
| Watchdog | <http://watchdog.mycomputer.com/> |
| Alertsite | <http://alertsite.com/freetrial/> |
| WebWatch Services | <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/webwatch/services/> |
| Dr Watson | <http://watson.addy.com/> |
| LinkAlarm | <http://www.linkalarm.com/> |
| NetMechanic Maintenance Service | <http://www.netmechanic.com/maintain.htm> |
| SiteValet | <http://valet.webthing.com/> |
| This Old Mouse | <http://www.thisoldmouse.com/> |
| Linkguard | <http://www.linkguard.com/> |
| Netmechanic | <http://www.netmechanic.com/> |
| Nodeworks | <http://www.nodeworks.com/> |
| Site valet | <http://valet.webthing.com/> |
| Xenu | <http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html> |
| LinkTool | <http://www.linktool.com/> |
| Usable Web | <http://usableweb.com/topics/000811-0-0.html> |
| Software in Use: | <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue5/software-used/> |
| Freshwater Software | <http://www.freshtech.com/> |
| Web Criteria | <http://www.webcriteria.com/> |
| WebKing | <http://www.thewebking.com/products/webking/> |
| A Survey Of Links to UK University Web Sites | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue23/web-watch/> |
| A Survey Of Numbers of UK University Web Servers | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/web-watch/> |
| A Survey Of Web Server Software Used In UK University Web Sites | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue25/web-watch/> |
| Showing Robots the Door | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue15/robots/> |
| UK University Search Engines | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue21/webwatch/> |
| Web Watch: 404s - What's Missing? | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue20/404/> |
| WebWatching UK Universities and Colleges | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue12/web-focus/> |
| What's Related To My Web Site? | <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue27/web-watch/> |
| Rolling Demonstration of UK University Web Entry Points | <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/site-rolling-demos/universities/> |
| Rolling Demonstration of UK University 404 Error Pages | <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/site-rolling-demos/university-404-pages/> |