TYPO3 at German universities: Data-driven insights from my presentation

On September 17, 2025, I gave a presentation on the topic “A data-driven overview of the situation at German universities with a focus on TYPO3.”

Data from the Hskompass as well as queries from Wikidata served as the fundamental data basis to generate an extensive list of German universities along with their associated websites. A total of 529 URLs were systematically scanned.

Using the tool WebTech, the content management system in use, such as TYPO3, was specifically identified. The evaluation of the websites was conducted through automated Lighthouse audits, which examined key aspects like performance, accessibility, and technical SEO. Additionally, an analysis of the schema markup was performed. This involved both parsing sitemaps and directly fetching individual pages to capture the usage of structured data.

Key findings at a glance

The study revealed both strengths and areas for improvement on the TYPO3 websites of German universities:

Performance: There is a clear need for optimization here. The automated tests showed that many university websites could improve their loading times and overall performance.

Accessibility: The results were predominantly positive, although detailed improvements are still possible. This is particularly important as universities should serve as role models in terms of accessibility.

SEO Basics: The TYPO3 sites generally performed well here. The technical SEO foundation is solid, which helps search engines find all relevant content and generate rich snippets.

Language attribute as a critical factor

One particularly interesting aspect was the analysis of language specifications:

• The lang attribute is used correctly by 97% of the pages examined (513 out of 529)
• There is still room for improvement with hreflang attributes: only 43% of the pages (228 out of 529) use them correctly
• Missing or incorrect language specifications can lead to indexing problems and hinder accessible use

Watch the presentation again

If you missed the presentation or would like to watch it again, you can access it at https://schuemann.it/hochschulscan/. There you will find all the presentation content and can get detailed information about the study’s results.

Individual report for your university

Especially exciting: On the last slide of the presentation, you will find a link to request a personalized, detailed report for your specific university. This individual report allows you to work specifically on the weaknesses of your website and plan concrete improvement measures.

The study was based on automated tests, and I always emphasized that manual checks remain essential. Nevertheless, the collected data provides a solid basis for data-driven decisions to optimize university websites.

Thank you to everyone who attended!