United Kingdom Museums Website Experience 2022
In preparation for a new year, Monsido analyzed the state of TOP 30 UK Museums websites at the end of 2022.
We are honored to announce the most recent winners in Web Accessibility, Content Quality Assurance, Response Time, Performance, and SEO.
Top 5 Websites Overall
The Overall category highlights the best-performing UK Museum websites for Web Accessibility, Content Quality Assurance, Response Time, Performance and SEO. These websites received high overall rankings in 2022. Congratulations, and keep up the good work!
| Overall Ranking* | Museum Name |
|---|---|
| 1st | Science Museum |
| 2nd | Oxford University Museum of Natural History |
| 3rd | Museum of Science and Industry |
| 4th | Pitt Rivers Museum |
| 5th | Natural History Museum |
Top 5 Websites for Web Accessibility
Accessible websites allow anyone to use your website and access its content, regardless of their age, level of digital competency, or disabilities. To check for any potential issues that might impede web accessibility, Monsido scans your website. The next step gives you an overview of your website's performance and suggestions for resolving these issues.
For organizations using the Monsido platform, we suggest achieving an accessibility compliance score of at least 70% in order to show progress in achieving compliance. The average score for UK Museums’ websites was 69.64.
The Top 5 UK Museums received the highest scores in 2022 for web accessibility.
| Ranking | Museum Name | Accessibility Compliance* |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Museum of Liverpool | 73.02% |
| 2nd | Ulster Museum | 72.36% |
| 3rd | National Gallery | 72.23% |
| 4th | Museum of Science and Industry | 71.9% |
| 5th | Beamish Museum | 71.66% |
Top 5 Websites for Content Quality Assurance
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 your members more easily find the information they need about their museum visits.
The websites of UK Museums received a 63.75 average rating. The following museums deserve special recognition for setting the bar high in the field of content quality assurance.
| Ranking | Museum Name | Content Quality Assurance* |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Museum of Liverpool | 100% |
| 2nd | Ulster Museum | 100% |
| 3rd | National Gallery | 98% |
| 4th | Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery | 97.6% |
| 5th | British Museum | 97.2% |
Top 5 Websites for SEO
On-page SEO still plays a major role in search engine rankings. Having common errors like missing H1 tags, broken links, and too many internal links on a page can harm your rankings and visitor experience.
The websites of UK Museums had an 83.27 average SEO score. We salute the following museums for setting the standard in the SEO field.
| Ranking | Museum Name | SEO Compliance* |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Museum of Science and Industry | 96.39% |
| 2nd | National Railway Museum | 95.59% |
| 3rd | National Science and Media Museum | 92.83% |
| 4th | The Fitzwilliam Museum | 90.34% |
| 5th | Ulster Museum | 89.42% |
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 Monsido'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 UK Museums' websites had an average response time of 336.97 ms. For you to be rated as an excellent performer, your score should be under 200 ms. The Top 5 UK Museums can be proud of their outstanding response time results.
| Ranking | Museum Name | Average response time (ms)* |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Imperial War Museum | 73 ms |
| 2nd | Victoria and Albert Museum | 86 ms |
| 3rd | British Museum | 87 ms |
| 4th | Science Museum | 88 ms |
| 5th | Tate Modern | 94 ms |
Top 5 Websites for Performance Score
Getting a pulse check on the overall website performance score (0-100) based on Google Light House and Core Web Vitals provides a comprehensive understanding of all measures that affect your site's performance based on a visitor’s location, network speed, and device.
The UK museums received an average performance rating of 55.31. Usually, we advise you to aim for a score of 90 to 100. The top 5 UK museums with the best overall website performance are listed below.
| Ranking | Museum Name | Performance score (0-100) |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | V&A Museum of Childhood | 92 |
| 2nd | Natural History Museum | 91 |
| 3rd | Victoria and Albert Museum | 81 |
| 4th | The Fitzwilliam Museum | 75 |
| 5th | Glasgow Life Museums | 73 |
All UK Museums Websites We Tested in This Report
Over the course of 2.5 weeks in November 2022, we examined the top 30 UK museums websites.
If you can’t find your museum name and you are curious about what your website score will look like - scan your website here.
Are you on the list and you want to know more details about your results?
Let's discuss your results!
- Ashmolean Museum
- Beamish Museum
- Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
- Black Country Living Museum
- British Museum
- Glasgow Life museums
- Imperial War Museum
- London Transport Museum
- Museum of Liverpool
- Museum of London
- Museum of Science and Industry
- National Gallery
- National Museum Cardiff
- National Museum of the Royal Navy
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- National Portrait Gallery
- National Railway Museum
- National Science and Media Museum
- Natural History Museum
- Oxford University Museum of Natural History
- Pitt Rivers Museum
- Royal Museums Greenwich
- Science Museum
- Scottish National Gallery
- Space Center
- Tate Modern
- The Fitzwilliam Museum
- The Peace Museum
- Ulster Museum
- V&A Museum of Childhood
Not on the list at all? We work with 1000s of organizations across many different sectors. We’d love the opportunity to scan your website and see how Monsido could help your organisation. Book a demo with us!
See How Your Website Scored in 2022
See your website's scan results and how your museum performed in this report. P.S. We can also scan your museum's online souvenir store if that is of interest to you!
How the rankings work
Monsido:
- Scanned a sample of 500 pages from the main publicly facing websites of the top 30 UK Museums Websites using Monsido’s Web Governance software during a one-week period in November 2022.
- Ranked the top 30 UK Museums Websites based on their scores in Web Accessibility, Content Quality Assurance, SEO, and Response Time.
- Calculated the Overall champions based on the average (weighted) ranking in all categories, prioritizing Web Accessibility, then Content
Improve Your Accessibility Rankings
Benefits of improving accessibility:
Increased Audience
By building an accessible website, you open yourself up to a much larger audience as 1/5 of the world’s population is living with a disability that could prevent them from using your site.
Improved SEO
Many web accessibility standards overlap with good SEO practices like ensuring descriptive alt and title attributes, checking for correct HTML, and offering a site map to users.
Enhanced User Experience and Quality Assurance
Accessibility means creating a website which provides a good experience for everyone, so when you ensure a good experience for users with disabilities, you can rest assured that your overall website experience and quality will improve.
Strengthen Brand Image and Reputation
Committing to accessibility is not just good for your users, but shows you take your social responsibility seriously and can benefit your brand. So make sure to promote your accessibility efforts.
