Report Claims Top Corporate Websites Wallow In Mediocrity
The majority of websites for the UK’s top 100 companies are “wallowing in mediocrity”, according to the findings of the Interactive Bureau’s second annual Web Oscars survey.
The study, carried out by web usability company, Porter Research, claims that an alarming number of top corporations treat their key online audiences “appallingly”, making it difficult for them to access vital information via the internet.
According to the Interactive Bureau, nearly half of the websites examined fail to identify a section for the media on their home pages, a third do not list their share price and one in ten have no investor area.
This year’s survey ranks 28 companies as good or very good, but claims that the other 72 vary from needing “substantial attention” to being “irredeemably bad”, and in a state where they should be scrapped.
The best website was considered to be National Grid, scoring 86% for its homepage and the worst of the FTSE 100 company sites was Next, with 27%. Some of those whose ranking declined, despite extensive redesigns, included Granada, which slipped from 51st place to 72nd, Reuters, down from 20th to 54th and Standard Chartered Banks, which fell from 5th to 19th.
However, a number of last year’s worst company websites, including Pearson, BG-Group and Scottish & Newcastle, have made it into this year’s top ten following extensive makeovers.
Commenting on the report, the Interactive Bureau’s managing director, Rodney Tyler, said: “Do the CEOs of these companies not care? Do they not realise that the home page of their website is how the world sees them? It is how investors and potential investors see them. It is how the media sees them.”
He added: “It is a well established now that a massive percentage of all the above groups form their first and often lasting, impressions about a company on seeing its homepage for the first time. You don’t get a second chance.”
Earlier this month internet search engine Google was named website of the year 2002 in a poll conducted by Nielsen//NetRatings. The study found that Google.com/Google.co.uk was visited by 4.7 million at-home internet users during 2002.
Interactive Bureau: 020 7490 2080 www.iablondon.com
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