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Investis IQ Corporate Website Ranking Q2 2010 – big increase in website redesigns but only modest gains in quality
23/07/2010
Investis' ranking of corporate websites in the FTSE250, Germany's MDAX, Austria's ATX20 and Switzerland's SMI20 indices reveals that 9% of companies we covered launched redesigned websites over the last quarter. This is the biggest rate we have seen since we began tracking corporate websites in July 2008 (by way of comparison, only 4.4% of companies redesigned their websites in this quarter last year). If this rate continues across other indices, some 36% of companies will redesign their websites over the course of the year – meaning that corporate websites have a current 'shelf-life' of less than three years.
However, the IQ ranking also shows the average score of European corporate websites to have fallen by just over 1%. This is largely due to Investis' expanded coverage of the FTSE250 which now includes all companies except for the investment trusts*. When the FTSE250 figures are discounted, the average score of European corporate websites shows a modest increase of 1.9%, only just down from last quarter's gain of 2%.
The MDAX was up 2% compared to a 5% rise in this quarter last year while the SMI20 was up 1% compared to a 9% leap the year before. The ATX20 recorded a more impressive 4% rise but we do not have comparable data for 2009. This marks a break with the historical trend in which this quarter has seen the highest increase in scores as December year-end companies post new reports and do their annual site updates.
The high number of companies redesigning websites probably reflects the easier economic conditions compared with last year. That many of these sites are not showing higher scores (and in some cases are falling) is, however, an oddity in a market where 'new' normally means 'improved'. There is perhaps an ongoing sense of austerity whereby companies feel compelled to redesign their sites to keep them fresh but do not want to be seen to be splashing out by radically expanding them.
Another oddity is in the mixed performance of the CSR category scores. CSR has consistently been the biggest driver of improvements over the past year across all indices, for example CSR for the FTSE100 was up 24% over the year against the overall improvement of 10%. CSR averages are down 2% on both the MDAX and the FTSE250 (again skewed by the 40 new survey entries) but up strongly in the SMI20 (+7%) and the ATX20 (+11%). This indicates a certain spluttering and slowing of the CSR engine – perhaps a period of consolidation was inevitable given the huge strides that companies have made in this area but in any event the picture should become clearer when we score the other indices in Q3.
The deployment of Web 2.0 increased across all of the indices, including the FTSE250, suggesting that companies are paying greater attention to social media and its interaction with the corporate website. This category and that of Multimedia both saw sharp improvement throughout last year – and there seems to be no loss of appetite this quarter.
Highlights for Q2 in the index rankings
UK
FTSE250: Our ranking of the FTSE250 now covers an additional 40 companies: every company is now covered except for investment trusts. The new entrants are typically smaller companies (we previously ranked the Top 100, based on the largest FTSE250 companies by market capitalization, together with other Investis clients in the FTSE250), and they have skewed the average score down by 2%. Nearly all of the categories scored lower – Multimedia falling by 8%. The one exception was Web 2.0, which rose 2%.
Arriva remains on top of the rankings, while Brit is the only new face in the Top 10, up 7 places from 15. New site launches accounted for the two biggest risers in the index: Henderson and Hiscox were up 30 and 28 places respectively. Of the new entrants, the best performer was Laird, who joined the ranking in 61st place.
Germany
MDAX: The MDAX average score increased by 2% over Q1 – with the biggest category rise being seen in Corporate Governance. The biggest faller was CSR at -3% - it is notable that the MDAX continues to score far lower in CSR than any other index we cover, with a quarter of companies scoring zero in this category.
EADS retained its position at the top of the rankings for the MDAX for the fourth successive quarter. Hochtief, meanwhile, is back in the Top 10 after a six month absence but otherwise there was little change. The biggest risers in this slow-moving index were HHLA and Aurubis, both of whom were up 6 places.
Austria
ATX20: The ATX saw the biggest improvement this quarter, up 4% from Q1. The biggest improvements came in CSR (+11%) meaning that the ATX is now outperforming the FTSE250. Other strong improvements came in Web 2.0 (+8%) and Multimedia (+6%), continuing a trend that began in the middle of last year.
There was no change in the Top 10 ranking aside from Vienna Insurance who climbed 6 places to #7, entering the Top 10 for the first time on account of a new site launch notable for a much greater provision of information.
Switzerland
SMI20: The SMI20 only managed a 1% rise over Q1. The biggest category climber was CSR (+7%): Web 2.0 was up 3% but there was little movement in other categories. There were no changes at all in the top 10 rankings.
For more information on the IQ benchmarking service, please contact Al Loehnis on al.loehnis@investis.com , +44(0)207 038 9005 or visit http://www.investis.com/investis/aboutus/iqranking/.
* Investis are now covering an additional 40 companies in the FTSE250 – as they feature at the lower end of the index, it is perhaps not surprising that their websites are not all of the quality of those previously surveyed. It should also be noted that we are now scoring each index once every six months: this quarter Investis scored the FTSE250, MDAX, SMI20 and ATX20 so the data is not strictly comparable with the previous quarter.
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