Website services
Better connected assessment and ranking
The Better connected website ranking system denotes performance by council websites based on an annual assessment of their usefulness and usability. The Better connected report based in this assessment is published each year on March 1. The survey has been running since 1999.
The survey for the 2011 report will start on Monday 1 November and finish on Sunday 12 December. As individual site reviews are not scheduled within that period, websites need to be ready the end of October.
The assessment is carried out by a team of expert reviewers commissioned by Socitm. It is based on a structured questionnaire (120 questions in 2010) that test website performance against a range of specified criteria (see below) that define the usefulness and usability of the website.
The assessment is carried out in November and December each year. Individual websites and their performance may have changed since the 'snapshot' taken at that time.
The four star ranking is based on two elements:
- the reviewer's overall score for the website's quality, which can be 1 (poor), 2 (adequate), 2 (satisfactory); or 3 (very good)
- the number of criteria (see below) on which the website meets the Better connected performance standard*
| Rank | Overall rating (minimum) | Achievement of criteria (minimum) |
|---|---|---|
| **** | 3 | 9 out of 9 (essential) |
| *** | 3 | 4 out of 9 (essential) |
| ** | 2 | 7 out of 9 (essential) |
| ** | 2 | 3 out of 12 (any) |
| ** | 1 | 5 out of 12 (any) |
| * | 2 | Less than 3 out of 12 (any) |
| * | 1 | Less than 3 out of 12 (any) |
Usefulness of content
| Criteria | Essential? |
|---|---|
| 1 Information |
Yes |
| 2 Links elsewhere |
Yes |
| 3 Currency |
Yes |
| 4 News value |
No |
| 5 Transactions |
Yes |
| 6 Participation |
No |
Usability
| Criteria | Essential? |
|---|---|
| 7 Use of A to Z |
Yes |
| 8 Use of search |
Yes |
| 9 Navigation |
Yes |
| 10 Use of location |
Yes |
| 11 Accessibility |
Yes |
| 12 Resilience |
No |
Ranking for all councils reported in Better connected 2010 was as follows:
| 4 star |
11 (3%) |
| 3 star |
107 (25%) |
| 2 star |
199 (45%) |
| 1 star |
116 (27%) |
There is more information about Better connected elsewhere on this website. The report is available only to employees of organisations subscribing to Socitm Insight.
