Are University Web Sites in Decline?

Earlier this year an article suggested that this was the case for an number of well-known companies, such as Coca Cola (“ Coca Cola’s website traffic is down more than 40% in just 12 months “). The article cited a study by Webtrends published in March 2011 which revealed that static or declining website traffic is affecting the majority of Fortune 100 web sites, with 68% experiencing negative growth over the past 12 months with a 24% average decrease in unique visitors.

Are we seeing similar trends across University Web sites? Analysis of Usage Trends for Russell Group Universities A recent tweet from Martin Hawskey suggested that Google’s Double Click Ad Planner service could be useful in providing usage statistics for University Web sites. This tool has been used to provide a graph of estimated usage of the twenty Russell Group Universities for a period of slightly over a year, from March 2010 to August 2011. The findings are displayed in the following table.

Institution / Double Click Stats Graph Additional Statistics 1 University of Birmingham – Stats for Birmingham Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 390K Unique visitors (users) 260K Reach 0.0% Page views 9.1M Total visits 920K Avg visits per cookie 2.4 Avg time on site 13:00 2 University of Bristol – Stats for Bristol Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 160K Unique visitors (users) 110K Page views 1.1M Total visits 270K Avg visits per cookie 1.6 Avg time on site 6:00 3 University of Cambridge – Stats for Cambridge Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 1.3M Unique visitors (users) 1M Reach 0.1% Page views 19M Total visits 2.4M Avg visits per cookie 1.8 Avg time on site 10:50 4 Cardiff University – Stats for Cardiff Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 220K Unique visitors (users) 150K Page views 3.9M Total visits 570K Avg visits per cookie 2.6 Avg time on site 7:50 5 University of Edinburgh – Stats for Edinburgh Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 680K Unique visitors (users) 520K Page views 13M Total visits 1.4M Avg visits per cookie 2.1 Avg time on site 10:50 6 University of Glasgow – Stats for Glasgow Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 420K Unique visitors (users) 300K Page views 6.8M Total visits 900K Avg visits per cookie 2.1 Avg time on site 10:40 7 Imperial College – Stats for Imperial College Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 200K Unique visitors (users)> 140K Page views 2.4M Total visits 310K Avg visits per cookie 1.6 Avg time on site 8:00 8 King’s College London – Stats for King’s College London Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 1.3M Unique visitors (users) 1M Page views 19M Total visits 2.4M Avg visits per cookie 1.8 Avg time on site 10:50 9 University of Leeds – Stats for Leeds Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 580K Unique visitors (users) 390K Page views 15M Total visits 1.5M Avg visits per cookie 2.5 Avg time on site 11:40 10 University of Liverpool – Stats for Liverpool Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 350K Unique visitors (users) 240K Reach 0.0% Page views 8.9M Total visits 1.1M Avg visits per cookie 3 Avg time on site 11:50 11 LSE – Stats for LSE Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 470K Unique visitors (users) 350K Page views 5.6M Total visits 860K Avg visits per cookie 1.8 Avg time on site 9:40 12 University of Manchester – Stats for Manchester Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 610K Unique visitors (users) 430K Page views 14M Total visits 1.6M Avg visits per cookie 2.6 Avg time on site 11:40 13 Newcastle University – Stats for Newcastle Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 390K Unique visitors (users) 260K Page views 6.2M Total visits 1M Avg visits per cookie 2.6 Avg time on site 9:50 14 University of Nottingham – Stats for Nottingham Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 470K Unique visitors (users) 320K Page views 13M Total visits 1.4M Avg visits per cookie 3.1 Avg time on site 13:00 15 University of Oxford – Stats for Oxford Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 1.5M Unique visitors (users) 1.1M Page views 21M Total visits 2.7M Avg visits per cookie 1.9 Avg time on site 9:50 16 Queen’s University Belfast – Stats for Queen’s University Belfast Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 220K Unique visitors (users) 140K Page views 6.7M Total visits 770K Avg visits per cookie 3.5 Avg time on site 13:00 17 University of Sheffield – Stats for Sheffield Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 470K Unique visitors (users) 320K Reach 0.0% Page views 7.4M Total visits 1.1M Avg visits per cookie 2.3 Avg time on site 8:00 18 University of Southampton – Stats for Southampton Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 430K Unique visitors (users) 290K Reach 0.0% Page views 6.6M Total visits 910K Avg visits per cookie 2.1 Avg time on site 8:50 19 University College London – Stats for University College London Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 830K Unique visitors (users) 560K Page views 9.9M Total visits 1.6M Avg visits per cookie 1.9 Avg time on site 8:40 20 University of Warwick – Stats for Warwick Unique visitors (estimated cookies) 430K Unique visitors (users) 320K Page views 6.8M Total visits 980K Avg visits per cookie 2.3 Avg time on site 7:50 It should be noted that, as described on an Ad Planner help page “ information from a variety of sources including anonymized, aggregated Google Toolbar data from users who have opted in to enhanced features , publisher opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in external consumer panel data, and other third-party market research “.

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Using Google Trends To Make Comparisons In order to see if the findings were reproducible using other tools the Google Trends service was also used. The findings are depicted below, with trends since late 2008 being shown in groups of five institutions. Trends across Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Edinburgh and Southampton Trends across Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow and Imperial College Trends across KCL, Leeds, Liverpool, LSE and Manchester Trends across Newcastle, Nottingham, Queen’s University Belfast, Sheffield and Warwick It can be seen from these comparisons that similar trends are taking place across all twenty Russell Group Universities, with the possible exception of Warwick University, which did not see a drop in usage in 2009, although after this its usage patterns followed that of the other institutions.

It should be noted that the Google Trends site does give the warning that “ several approximations are used when computing these results ” and gives the warning that “ All traffic statistics are estimates “. The site goes on to add that “ The data Trends produces may contain inaccuracies for a number of reasons, including data-sampling issues and a variety of approximations that are used to compute results ” and gives the warning that “ you probably wouldn’t want to write your Ph.D. dissertation based on the information provided by Trends “!

So perhaps it would be inappropriate to make policy decisions based on this data. But if no addition data is available, how else can be make evidence-based policy decisions? And as described in a post on “ University Web Sites Cost Money! ” we know that the Daily Telegraph has a record of

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