The strategic development of an academic library website is an ongoing process. The methods available to libraries in their efforts to understand the use of their website are also changing. A pilot survey of a group of UK academic libraries provided an insight into the approaches and methods adopted by this group. The study also revealed some of the issues these libraries faced in maintaining a website capable of satisfying the needs of its users. This group of libraries demonstrated that practical measures to develop their sites are being taken. However, in some cases a library's ability to develop its site was constrained by institutional procedures and processes. Lessons learnt from this pilot will be implemented in a national survey of UK academic libraries. (Contains 2 figures.)