2014 Q2 Universities website benchmark: The Open University site rises 220 places

LONDON - May 6, 2014 - PRLog -- A big fall in the OU score in our previous Index published in January led to comment from Times Higher Education, which in turn prompted the Milton Keynes-based university , world’s leading provider of online degrees and distance learning, with 240,000 students and more than 1100 staff, to issue a statement promising a planned new site would perform better.

“The new site will not only continue to be centred around the user experience, but also have greater focus on the sort of technical web standards monitored by Sitemorse, so we look forward to future survey results with great interest.” An OU spokesman was quoted on the Times Higher Education website in February.

Universities and HE colleges have always been keen to attract the best quality students, but with rising fees, there’s more competition than ever in the sector, and as many potential students use online resources as a key part of their decision making process, the importance of a strong, well-performing website cannot be overestimated.

The latest Universities Index, just published, shows the OU site has risen 220 places in the rankings with an overall score of nearly 4.5 out of a possible ten marks.

The strongest performers in the Uni/HE college sector this time are Warwickshire College, Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education, and Lincoln’s Bishop Grosseteste University College. Warwickshire, a clear point ahead of its nearest rival, has topped the Index for the fourth quarter in succession.

Unlimited access is at; http://www.sitemorse.com/rt/1043/d1115a44 (http://www.sitemorse.com/rt/1043/d1115a44)

About the Index

The scores for the University Index table are created by Sitemorse (www.sitemorse.com) using its automated software that reads and reviews the first 125 pages of each site and places them in a ranked table based on User Experience (UX), Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) and Search Capability (SEO).

The quarterly Index Website Review, powered by the Sitemorse software platform, is an important independent benchmark that clearly shows how websites are performing, meeting compliance levels and satisfying their users. It’s also a key indicator for website managers who, while always wanting to be at the top of their game, could be hampered by poor-performing suppliers, non-compliant legacy content or content management systems that often fail to spot errors affecting user experience.

Sitemorse services such as Governisation and the Web Management Toolkit immediately find the issues that affect web users the most on any website, help demonstrate real improvement and ensure you have control and confidence in your web presence.

They will help you minimise unnecessary risk, issues covering everything from compliance with web standards to helping you deal with malware, protect your brand across even a large web presence, and enhance search engine optimisation to help more potential customers find you. They can help spotlight content that may need updating, issues with staff training and support, and focus supplier management. We offer a confidential internal 'company wide' website testing and benchmarking service - allowing you to review the position of all the sites in your organisation. Contact us to request further details and / or an example.