FTSE and Fortune 100 websites put to the test
- Added:
- Feb 26, 2007
Tested on functionality, code quality, and basic and advanced levels of accessibility, the comparison showed 4.7% of FTSE 100 company web pages failed basic functionality tests against 4.39% of Fortune 100 web pages.
SiteMorse CEO Lawrence Shaw said if a website contained, for example broken links or missing files, it failed in functionality.
On the other hand, SiteMorse found 58.6% of Fortune 100 web pages failed the most basic level of accessibility (Priority A) while only 22.9% of FTSE 100 pages failed.
Commenting on the findings, Shaw said: "Overall this data indicates that flaws exist in the websites of some of the largest, publicly-listed companies in the world, some of which are significant functionality flaws. To the general online consumer, and more so, to company shareholders, this is exceedingly poor business practice.”
The comparative survey, which SiteMorse conducts monthly on both financial indexes to monitor improvements, showed Sage Group had the best performing website out of the FTSE 100 companies, and Marks & Spencer, the worst with 99.2% of web pages failing html standards.
Dow Chemicals scored the highest rating out of the Fortune 100 and Costco, the worst.
Shaw asked: "Are senior management receiving accurate information from their web managers or media agency's regarding the quality and efficiency of their websites? I would encourage them to ask their technical advisors for written evidence that their websites are compliant according to mandatory, corporate and industry standards. Otherwise, there's no guessing the amount of business being lost through ineffective websites.”
SiteMorse technology tested the first 150 web pages of the FTSE 100 and Fortune 100 company websites listed in February 2007. All UK companies were notified of the results.
SiteMorse are endorsed by industry regulators such as, W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) which sets compliance standards for the online industry.
A summary of survey results include:
Test categories
FTSE 100
Fortune 100
Functional failure
4.7% of tests failed
4.39% of tests failed
HTML coding standards
72.6% of pages failed
90.0% of pages failed
Accessibility (level A)
22.9% of pages failed
58.6% of pages failed
Accessibility (level AA)
93.9% of pages failed
99.5% of pages failed
For full survey results and individual company reports, click on the links below.
Fortune 100 results
FTSE 100 results