E-Gov Watch's core offering is the overall quality assessment of government websites against its comprehensive set of best government online practices criteria. The assessment criteria are wide ranging and apply to all government sites.
The criteria are grouped into the following nine criteria areas;
| Criteria Areas | No. of Criteria Elements | Source of Criteria |
|---|---|---|
| Required Government Content | 14 criteria | Usability Standard 1.2 |
| Accessibility | 36 criteria | Accessibility Standard 1.0 |
| Usability | 142 criteria | Best practices in website usability applicable to e-government |
| Information Delivery | 13 criteria for each Information Area (typically 7 to 30 Information Items per website) |
Information Areas drawn from planning documents, websites of comparable organisations, Estimates of Appropriations plus website content |
| e-Services Delivery | 16 criteria for each e-Service (typically 0 to 12 e-Services per website) | Service Items drawn from planning documents, websites of comparable organisations, Estimates of Appropriations plus website content |
| Search Readiness | 12 criteria | Best practices in search engine optimisation (SEO) testable at a point in time applicable to e-government |
| Personalisation | 19 criteria | Best practices in personalisation applicable to e-government |
| Collaboration & Integration | 16 criteria | Best practices in collaboration and integration applicable to e-government |
| Feedback | 6 criteria | Best practices in feedback applicable to e-government |
| e-Consultation | 31 criteria for each consultation offered in the last year | Best e-government practices in e-consultation and engagement |
Expert assessors evaluate the website assessed, rate the site on a 0 to 10 scale against each of the criteria and add comments and links to examples of issues where relevant. Each of the criteria is weighted for importance. The combination of ratings and weightings are summed up to a score out of 100 for each criteria area.
Each criteria area is also weighted for importance relative to the type of government organisation. For example, policy agencies may not have significant scope for e-services delivery but a greater need for e-consultation.
The criteria, ratings, comments and weightings are delivered in the form of an Excel workbook with separate worksheets for each criteria area and a summary page. This digital format allows clients to see the calculations clearly and to follow the example web links back to the source of issues found. Each worksheet is also formatted for printing.