London South Bank University leads way for digital capability, says latest Sitemorse INDEX report

MAYFAIR, U.K. - Feb. 21, 2018 - PRLog -- London South Bank University has been identified as the UK's leading higher educational institution for digital governance, after coming in first place in its field in the latest Sitemorse INDEX quarterly report.

The Sitemorse INDEX reviews sites, scoring and ranking them based on optimisation, experience and compliance and factors such as loading speed and accessibility.

LSBU took first place with an overall score of 7.42 out of 10, representing a high standard of optimization, user experience and content delivery. The university took first place for performance, HTML and email and was near the top of the list for metadata. Basingstoke College of Technology was the most improved higher educational institution, increasing its score by 1.74 points to 4.92 and climbing 228 places in the list.

Also in the top ten were:

2. Stockport College – scoring 6.5 out of 10

3. University of Sunderland – scoring 6.3 out of 10

4. Guildford College – scoring 6.3 out of 10

5. The University of Bradford – scoring 6.0 out of 10

6. Ravensbourne – scoring 6.0 out of 10

7. West Herts College – scoring 6.0 out of 10

8. University of the West of England, Bristol – scoring 5.9 out of 10

9. Hereford College of Arts – scoring 5.9 out of 10

10. Chesterfield College – scoring 5.9 out of 10

Issues discovered on low performing sites included broken links, missing images, faulty email addresses and webpages that came without titles and descriptions. Many companies are unaware of the issues that are discovered and many more struggle with the substantial challenge of manually monitoring and implementing repairs. Companies that score highly, however, generally have strong leadership and a firm understanding of corporate responsibility.

Lawrence Shaw, CEO of Sitemorse, said, "It's really essential for universities and higher educational institutions to ensure that they're fully compliant, that they're delivering a high standard of accessibility and that they're providing the best user experience for all. Getting the technical details right can be tough so it's great to see London South Bank University's results here.

"One of the biggest challenges that web teams face is the fact that manual monitoring is extremely difficult, if not impossible. We believe that the answer lies with automated digital governance monitoring. Our solution prioritises the delivery of actionable insights, to ensure that non-technical digital managers can make big changes, fast."

The results of the INDEX were based on a total of over 115m tests on public pages carried out in January 2018. Every page on every site surveyed was subjected to over 1,600 unique tests, checks and measures each.

Other sectors surveyed include local government, higher education, police forces, US airlines and consumer finance.

The Sitemorse INDEX report is carried out by Sitemorse, which helps clients to continuously and automatically monitor for issues relating to optimisation, experience and compliance (including SEO and accessibility) on public and private pages. The findings of the latest report, for Q1 2018, will be released over the course of February and March 2018. The full results for the universities and higher education field can be found here: http://www.sitemorse.com/rt/1392/22bfade2

About the Sitemorse INDEX

Since 2002, the Sitemorse INDEX has provided an independent industry standard for benchmarking digital governance. Sites are reviewed and scored based on some 1,600 tests, checks and measures per page, identifying actions that improve optimisation, experience and compliance. Since its inception, it has been the fundamental measure of digital capability for organisations that strive for online excellence.

Scoring highly typically reflects those that have strong digital leadership and understand the importance of providing the best visitor experience possible – and it reflects positively on the entire organisation's operations and branding.

The latest results follow over 115m tests on public pages carried out in January 2018. These results provide extensive insights into the experience that these sites deliver and offer vital information on how they can better meet audience expectations – points that are crucial, but impractical to capture manually. Indeed, organisations are all too often unaware of what might be simple actions that they could take that would offer immediate improvements to their delivery.

About Sitemorse

Sitemorse helps organizations to efficiently drive improved user experience, ensuring that content is always optimised and that compliance requirements are always met. With clients in every corner of the world, Sitemorse sets out to remove endless reporting from Digital Governance and to instead provide actionable insights so that major changes can be made quickly.

The company has now been moving the field of Digital Governance forwards for over 15 years, while remaining privately owned, and continues to provide clients with new tools and capabilities every year.

Sitemorse help digital managers to build strong processes and accountability, to minimise risks and to achieve the highest standards of content quality. With Sitemorse, there is no need for the substantial infrastructure, support and accordant costs that are required for manual quality and compliance checks.

For more information, please visit: www.sitemorse.com

Contact

Sitemorse, 48 Charlotte Street, London W1T 2NS

Telephone: +44 (0)77 2940 5889

PR enquiries:

Michael Simon: msimon@sitemorse.com