Websites Benchmark Report
Scandinavian Higher Education Website Experience 2023
Acquia analyzed the primary websites of the top Scandinavian universities to determine their optimization and accessibility.
The following are the top performers in the areas of Digital Accessibility, Content Quality Assurance, Response Time, Performance, and SEO.
Top 5 Websites Overall
In the Overall category, we highlight the best Scandinavian Higher Education websites in terms of SEO, response time, performance, and accessibility. A high overall ranking was achieved by these websites in 2023. Keep up the good work! Congratulations!
| Overall Ranking* | University Name |
|---|---|
| 1st | Design School Kolding (Designskolen Kolding) (DK) |
| 2nd | The Royal Danish Academy of Music (DK) |
| 3rd | Royal Institute of Technology (SE) |
| 4th | Linköping University (SE) |
| 5th | Copenhagen Business School (DK) |
Top 5 Websites for Web Accessibility
17% of the Scandinavian population live with some sort of disability. Digital accessibility is vital to many of them. Your website should be accessible to everyone, regardless of age, level of digital competency, or disability. This is especially true for students, employees, and their families.
Acquia Optimize scans websites for accessibility issues. Recommendations for fixing these problems are also provided along with an overview of how well your website is performing.
We advise achieving an accessibility compliance score of at least 70% for organisations using the Acquia Optimize platform in order to demonstrate progress towards compliance. The average score for this report of Scandinavian Higher Education websites was 70.85%.
These 5 Top Universities in the report scored highest for Digital Accessibility in 2023.
| Ranking | University Name | Accessibility Compliance* |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Chalmers University of Technology (SE) | 76.72% |
| 2nd | Aalborg University (DK) | 75.91% |
| 3rd | University of Stavanger (NO) | 74.37% |
| 4th | Royal Danish Academy of Music (DK) | 73.62% |
| 5th | IT University of Copenhagen (DK) | 73.15% |
Top 5 Websites for Content Quality Assurance
The Content Quality Assurance module looks for misspellings, broken links, broken images, and readability issues. By taking on Quality Assurance, you can decrease bounce rates, increase conversions, and improve your SEO, helping (future) students more easily find the information they need about their university or education program.
The websites of Universities in Scandinavia received a 65.83% average rating. The Universities listed below deserve special praise for raising the bar for Content Quality Assurance.
| Ranking | University name | Content Quality Assurance |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Örebro University (SE) | 98.4% |
| 2nd | BI Norwegian Business School (NO) | 96% |
| 3rd | Roskilde University (DK) | 95.4% |
| 4th | University of Stavanger (SE) | 95.2% |
| 5th | Copenhagen University (DK) | 94% |
Top 5 Websites for SEO
On-page SEO still plays a significant role in search engine rankings. Common errors like missing H1 tags, broken links and too many internal links on a page can harm your rankings and visitor experience.
The average SEO score for the websites of the Scandinavian higher education websites was 80.31. We praise the following universities for being leaders in the SEO category.
| Ranking | University Name | SEO Compliance* |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Oslo & Akershus University College (NO) | 96.48% |
| 2nd | Karolinska Institute (SE) | 93.49% |
| 3rd | Umea University (SE) | 91.87% |
| 4th | Royal Institute of Technology (SE) | 91.42% |
| 5th | Chalmers University of Technology (SE) | 91.39% |
Top 5 Websites for Response Time
In addition to improving user experience, having a quick-loading website is important for SEO because Google uses it as a ranking factor. With Acquia Optimize's Heartbeat module, you can keep an eye on how well your website is performing to guarantee a positive user experience for your visitors and prevent any potential member annoyance.
The Scandinavian higher education websites had an average response time of 417 ms. Your score must be under 200 ms for you to be considered an excellent performer. The top five Scandinavian high education institutions should be pleased with their exceptional response time results.
| Ranking | University Name | Average Respnose Time (ms)* |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Design School Kolding (DK) | 99 ms |
| 2nd | Royal Danish Academy of Music (DK) | 101 ms |
| 3rd | Copenhagen Business School (DK) | 158 ms |
| 4th | Karolinska Institute (SE) | 167 ms |
| 5th | University of Stavanger (SE) | 172 ms |
Top 5 Websites for Performance Score
Getting a pulse check on the overall website performance score (0–100) based on Google LightHouse and Core Web Vitals provides a comprehensive view of how visitor location, network speed, and device affect your site's performance.
The average desktop performance rating for this benchmark report was 53.48. We suggest you aim for a score between 90 and 100. Below is a list of the top five Scandinavian higher education websites based on this report.
| Ranking | University Name | Performance score (0-100) |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Umea University (SE) | 91 |
| 2nd | Uppsala Universitet (SE) | 89 |
| 3rd | Royal Institute of Technology (SE) | 83 |
| 4th | Örebro University (SE) | 82 |
| 5th | Design School Kolding (DK) | 75 |