Education UK is the official British Council online resource for students around the world that what to study in the UK, want to follow relevant courses in their country or are studying in the UK. The Education UK website provides a useful online resource for finding information related to courses and institutions including secondary, undergraduate, diploma, and post graduate courses. The website analysis of the Education UK website will indicate how user friendly the site is, how comprehensive the information supplied is, and how well the website does in Internet Marketing.

Many academic or education related websites take ages to load and provide less than helpful navigation methods. This is perhaps on of the reasons why the Education UK website is so popular. It is not dull, doesn’t make use of jargon and loads fast. The images though take a while to load. The use of animation has been limited and apart form the large banners on top, there are enough graphics to ensure visual attractiveness. Fortunately the images contain ALT tags, which in this case is essential because the user may browse to another page before the images have all loaded.

The clean-cut and professional look of the Education UK website somehow enhances the image of professionalism and importance. It is obtained through a top menu set in a blue banner navigation bar with main categories present. Since it is simply stated, a huge website, some form of searching facility should be provided. The Education UK website skilfully integrates a variety of search options to help users navigate to the relevant pages in the shortest possible time.

Apart from the search facilities the website design also contains a list of categories on the home page for directory style drilling down searches. The logo clearly displays in the top part of the website throughout navigation affirming that the user is still at the same website. Even though a broad range of categories and sites are involved, the website design stays coherent through repeat features.

The standard statements of privacy, registration, terms and conditions, and copyright are present. The site map however, does not feature and this is something that will surely come in handy at such a large website for search engine optimisation purposes and for navigational assistance.

The home link is present throughout and jumping from one category to another is made easy. The user doesn’t have to backtrack because the main menu is present at all times.

The website design makes it possible to locate relevant information regarding for instance:

Each of the above categories contains comprehensive information, useful tools, and links. The user also has the option of doing a country based search. Living and working in the UK, immigration advice, summer courses and a specific page for those already resident in the UK are also available. The information is relevant and focuses on particular topics. This is most probably also one of the reasons for the Education UK website popularity; it is not cluttered with banners, adverts and activities deferring from the topics at hand. Useful orientation advice is provided under “Where in the UK?” As an information resource it caters to the needs of its audience.

Accessibility is important to ensure that users with visual and reading disabilities can also access the information. This is catered for through the Download Browse Aloud software button on the main page. In addition the standard web fonts are used and text blocks broken up through headings, images, and columns to ensure easy reading. Enough contrast exists between the white background and the text for readability. Printable versions of specific pages are available. No side-scrolling is required.

A general contact option however, is not obvious, which is a feature that simply cannot be left out when usability is a concern. There is also no general feedback option, and no about us page which is useful to gain an understanding of the purpose of the Institution or website at hand.

In terms of Internet marketing and thus also SEO, the website analysis shows that the Education UK website has a current Google Page Rank of 7 which shows that its SEO, website design and Internet marketing strategies work. The high total of incoming links which at present comes to more than 19 000 is also a contributing factor for its high ranking. The Metatags include an particularly short description and a few keywords. Content is definitely a reason for its search engine standing as well as the fact that the page information is updated on a regular basis. The fact that the domain name also includes a keyword is another factor that helps with Internet marketing. If you are interested in furthering your education, you should no doubt visit the Education UK website.