How mobile-ready is the FTSE100?

Transcription

1 Mobile internet access has exploded over the past year, leaving companies little time to respond. In this report, Magus and Investis analyse the mobile-readiness of FTSE100 corporate websites to assess how prepared they are to capitalise on this new business opportunity. How mobile-ready is the FTSE100? A survey of FTSE100 corporate websites 13/02/2012

2 Contents Introduction... 2 Why mobile matters... 3 The mobile challenge... 4 Which approach?... 4 Content optimisation... 5 Accessing expertise... 5 About the survey... 6 Analysis of the mobile-readiness of FTSE100 corporate websites... 7 Extent and type of mobile support... 7 Use of device detection for routing visitors to mobile websites... 8 FTSE100 mobile website compliance ranking... 9 Mobile websites compared to desktop websites Conclusions Ensuring the success of corporate mobile websites Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 1

3 Introduction With web visits from mobile devices forecast to overtake desktop access by , the mobile web is set to transform corporate communications, and presents early adopters with an unrivalled opportunity to build brand and capture audience share. While a few pioneering corporates have staked their claim to this new digital space, 80% of FTSE companies have yet to provide support for mobile devices on their corporate websites. And even those companies at the forefront of mobile website provision are struggling to adapt to the new channel, with investment being undermined by basic failings in execution. This paper presents the findings of a survey of the mobile-readiness of FTSE100 corporate websites undertaken by Magus and Investis in January It looks at the extent to which FTSE100 companies have embraced the mobile channel on their corporate websites, what approaches they have taken in terms of implementation 2 and how successful they have been at optimising their content for mobile devices. Drawing on the results of the survey we examine the key challenges businesses face in meeting the requirements of the mobile web and discuss how these issues can be resolved. Key findings 20% % The percentage of FTSE100 corporate websites providing support for mobile devices. The average number of mobile content optimisation issues per page on FTSE100 mobile websites. The percentage of FTSE corporates with mobile websites using device detection to ensure their mobile content is correctly served to mobile devices This paper is concerned with mobile websites. Mobile applications are not covered within this report Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 2

4 Why mobile matters For many years the long-promised growth in mobile access to the internet failed to materialise. The experience on most websites was so poor that few visitors came back for more. Many factors contributed to this connectivity issues, the limitations of early mobile browsers, clunky mobile devices and site owners faced a chicken and egg situation whereby the lack of mobile visitors made it hard to justify the investment needed to create websites that worked well for mobile. Much has now changed. Improvements in connectivity, mobile browsers and devices have all gone a long way to addressing the mobile user experience. And the social media explosion of the last few years has brought audiences to the mobile web in huge volumes. Web visits to corporate sites from mobile devices doubled in and are forecast to overtake desktop access by a trend which has shot mobile communications to the top of web managers strategic priorities. The advantage for early adopters is clear, with recent research indicating that companies that provide support for mobile devices outperform those that don t by 80% in terms of year-overyear increase in web traffic, and achieve a 55% greater year-over year increase in the number of repeat visitors 5. For companies with the ability to get there early and get it right, the mobile web is an opportunity to seize competitive advantage and grow audience share. 3 Research by Investis based on 35 corporate websites Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 3

5 The mobile challenge When it comes to mobile web strategy, businesses typically encounter three major difficulties which can hamper their progress. Which approach? The first dilemma companies face is where to invest. There are two main approaches to the delivery of mobile web content for corporate websites: Dedicated mobile sites Responsive web design Each approach requires significant investment and comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. Dedicated mobile websites These are websites which have been optimised specifically for mobile devices and have their own unique URLs. They typically offer a limited selection of content from the main desktop site, such as press releases, share price information and corporate contact details. The advantage of this approach is that it is relatively cheap, and technically simple to implement and maintain. However, there are two key drawbacks. Firstly, the varied landscape of different mobile devices and screen resolutions makes it very difficult to provide one solution that fits all. Secondly, because these sites typically offer a limited subset of content, some users will still have to navigate to the main desktop site to find what they need. While some companies opt to offer a more extensive selection of content on their dedicated mobile sites, maintaining parallel content resources on this scale increases the challenge in terms of cost and complexity. Responsive web design A second approach, known as responsive web design, uses device detection to automatically determine the user s access device and serve up content within a template optimised for the screen size, platform and orientation (portrait vs landscape) of the visitor s device. Responsive design addresses several of the issues surrounding dedicated mobile websites negating the need for selective content, and enabling companies to deliver an increased quality of user experience across their target devices. However, the initial implementation of this type of solution is more complex and costly to execute, as different versions of each template must be configured to accommodate the wide range of resolutions and platforms. At the time of conducting our survey, no FTSE100 company was using a responsive web design for their main corporate site. Determining the best approach to mobile optimisation has caused many organisations to hold back while they debate which channel is best suited to the needs of their audience and their business goals Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 4

6 Content optimisation Many of the challenges of mobile derive from the variety of screen sizes that need to be catered for, which even advances in technology and web coding techniques are unlikely to eradicate. Desktop screens are typically at least ten times larger than those of smartphones. When viewing sites optimised for desktop access on mobile devices, the potential problems are many (see: Table 3 for a summary of key mobile content optimisation issues and their usability impacts). Another factor which makes engaging with the mobile web difficult for many organisations is that their experience is mostly limited to the conventions of desktop websites. As the saying goes, content is king. Corporate websites have grown bigger and bigger, with an emphasis on delivering vast quantities of content in a feature-rich environment. Having become so used to providing reams of content on their desktop site, web teams simply aren t sure how to distil their brand for mobile. Accessing expertise Having made decisions about the type of site they need and how much content to include, businesses then have to deal with a lack of access to mobile- specific expertise. Frequently, even those companies at the forefront of mobile site provision don t fully understand what constitutes best practice for the channel. They rely on their existing web expertise, applying the same standards to their mobile websites as they do to their desktop site with less successful results. Given the pace of change in mobile technology, both in hardware and software, it is clear that there are going to be no simple fixes. But it is also clear that the challenge is not going to go away and that wait and see is no longer a defensible strategy for any company that treats online communications seriously Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 5

7 About the survey This paper is based on the findings of a survey carried out by Magus and Investis in January Data from Investis s bi-annual IQ Corporate Website Ranking of FTSE100 Companies 6 was used to determine the extent and type of mobile support currently provided on the corporate (.com) websites of the FTSE100. The quality of the mobile websites was then assessed using the Magus ActiveStandards 7 website compliance monitoring platform, to determine how well they are serving mobile users Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 6

8 Analysis of the mobile-readiness of FTSE100 corporate websites Extent and type of mobile support The corporate (.com) websites of the FTSE100 were audited to assess the extent and type of mobile support provided. Our analysis found that only 20% of FTSE100 companies have taken steps to optimise their corporate websites for mobile visitors, a surprisingly low number given the growing importance of the channel and the size of the companies. CHART 1: Provision of mobile support on FTSE100 corporate websites 4% 16% Companies without mobile sites 80% Companies with dedicated mobile sites (Full content) Companies with dedicated mobile sites (Selected content - typically IR mini-sites) All of the FTSE100 companies offering mobile support have opted to provide it via dedicated mobile sites as opposed to a responsive web design. 16% of the mobile websites are in the form of mobile mini-sites targeted at investors and journalists the audience segments most likely to need data on the go. These mini-sites typically cover investor relations (IR) information such as news, press releases, share price performance data and corporate contact information, and are updated simultaneously with the corporate website. Many of these websites are very small with fewer than 30 pages. Four companies (ARM Holdings, BT, Investec and Vodafone) provide much broader coverage, making the majority of their desktop content available via their mobile websites Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 7

9 Use of device detection for routing visitors to mobile websites All the companies with dedicated mobile websites were audited for the use of device detection, to see how effective the corporate websites were at channelling mobile visitors through to their mobile-optimised web content. Device detection is standard functionality in most modern Content Management Systems (CMS), and plays a vital role in ensuring that mobile content is actually found and used. Without device detection enabled, it is likely that mobile visitors will miss out on the mobile-optimised content altogether when accessing the site through search results or links from other sites. Device detection capability has been around for some years, so it is surprising to find that only seven of the twenty FTSE100 mobile websites were using this functionality to ensure their users were being appropriately redirected to the available mobile content. TABLE 1: Use of device detection on FTSE100 mobile sites Company Type of mobile site Device detection ARM Holdings Full BT Full Investec Full Vodafone 3i Group Full Aviva BAE Systems British Land Hammerson ICAP Imperial Tobacco Kingfisher Land Securities Prudential Rolls-Royce SABMiller SSE Shire Tullow Oil WPP 2012 Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 8

10 FTSE100 mobile website compliance ranking In order to deliver a high quality mobile user experience, mobile websites must be designed to take account of the content formatting challenges associated with the channel. The twenty dedicated mobile websites were tested against a core set of best practice mobile content optimisation standards (see Table 3), and ranked according to the compliance level attained (see Table 2). All sites displayed significant mobile optimisation issues, averaging 4.25 errors / page. WPP Group tops the ranking, achieving the lowest rate of issues at 1.46 errors / page. TABLE 2: FTSE100 mobile optimisation compliance ranking 8 Rank # Website Ave. errors per page Pages Errors = 4 = WPP Group (Mobile) Imperial Tobacco Group (Mobile) SABMiller (Mobile) BAE Systems (Mobile) Rolls-Royce Group (Mobile) BT (Mobile) Hammerson (Mobile) Kingfisher (Mobile) Land Securities Group (Mobile) SSE (Mobile) Tullow Oil (Mobile) Vodafone Group (Mobile) i Group (Mobile) Aviva (Mobile) Investec (Mobile) Shire (Mobile) British Land Co (Mobile) Prudential (Mobile) ARM Holdings (Mobile) ICAP (Mobile) Analysis was based on a sample of up to 200 pages from each mobile website. Many of the mobile sites detected are very small with fewer than 30 pages. Only mobile sites with more than 1 page have been included in the compliance ranking Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 9

11 Analysis of mobile content optimisation issues Chart 2, below, shows the relative number of key mobile-specific issues detected across the twenty mobile websites and 2401 pages analysed. The most common issues found relate to readability. Many of the pages tested contained overlong links (94% of pages) and overlong headings (70% of pages), which wrap on small screens, impacting readability and pushing other content out of view. Another key finding was that many mobile sites were using inappropriate technologies which are either problematic for users or unsupported by mobile devices. Examples include: Use of Frames: these take up precious screen space and can force both horizontal and vertical scrolling (8% of pages). Use of pop-ups: these can cause unpredictable results as most mobile devices cannot display multiple windows on the same screen (21% of pages). Use of access keys: these can cause keystroke conflicts (33% of pages) CHART 2: Relative number of mobile optimisation issues on FTSE100 mobile websites 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 44% 40% 39% 33% 28% 21% 16% 12% 11% 8% 5% 3% 1% 0% 0% 0% 70% 94% 1. Overlong links 2. Overlong headings 3. Use of absolute measurements 4. Images without width and height specified 5. Overlong page content 6. Use of accesskeys 7. HTML over 10 KB 8. Use of pop-ups 9. Images over 200 pixels wide 10. Use of tables for layout 11. Specifing fonts 12.Use of frames 13. Images over 50 KB 14. Use nested tables 15. Use of "float" and "display" properties 16. Use of Flash 17. JavaScript and CSS files over 25 KB 18. Large number of externally linked resources % of pages failing mobile content optimisation standards 2012 Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 10

12 TABLE 3: Mobile content optimisation standards and their usability impacts # Standards issue Usability impact 1. Overlong links Long links (over 15 characters) can wrap and be difficult to read on screen. 2. Overlong headings Long headings (over 15 characters) can take up several lines, pushing other key content out of view. 3. Use of absolute measurements for page layout and fonts 4. Images without width and height specified Defining dimensions of objects and fonts in absolute sizes (e.g. pixels) can prevent content scaling effectively. Relative sizes (like ems and percentages) work best. Leaving image dimensions unspecified increases download time as it necessitates the browser to reflow the content once the images have been received. 5. Overlong page content Long pages of text are hard to read on small screens. 6. Use of access keys Access keys can cause keystroke conflicts. 7. HTML over 10 KB Heavy pages increase download times. Many users pay per KB of data downloaded, so it is best practice to keep page sizes as small as possible. 8. Use of pop-up windows Pop-ups can have unpredictable results as most mobile devices cannot display multiple windows on the same screen. 9. Images over 200 pixels wide Images should not exceed 200 pixels in width (unless advanced device detection techniques are being used). Any images that are too large for the screen will be difficult to view. Sometimes devices resize these large images and distort them. The entire image should be viewable without scrolling. 10. Use of tables for layout Although iphones and some other smartphones support tables, not every mobile device displays them correctly. 11. Specifying fonts Most mobile devices will use their own system fonts. Font specification adds unnecessary code which can increase download and processing times. 12. Use of frames Not every mobile browser supports frames. Where they are supported, the dimensions of the screen often cause display problems. 13. Images over 50 KB Large images increase download times. Many users pay per KB of data downloaded, so it is best practice to keep image sizes as small as possible. 14. Use of nested tables Nested tables add to download times and can render poorly. 15. Use of float and display properties in stylesheets Although supported by many mobile browsers, content that uses float may not look good on a small screen. These properties are often used to create multi-column layouts, and tend to require mobile users to scroll or zoom. 16. Use of Flash Many mobile devices (such as Apple iphone, ipod, ipad and many other popular devices) do not support Flash. Those that do support Flash often struggle with performance. 17. JavaScript and CSS files over 25 KB 18. Large number of externally linked resources Many users pay per KB of data downloaded, so it is best practice to keep file sizes as small as possible. In addition, the iphone will only cache files that are 25 KB or less, so files should be kept within this restriction. Mobile phones have less memory than desktop computers Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 11

13 Mobile websites compared to desktop websites As seen above, dedicated mobile websites typically only cover a small subset of corporate content, so in many cases the mobile visitor may still end up having to browse the desktop website in order to get the additional content they need. And they will expect a good user experience when they get there 9. For this reason, even when a company has invested in the development of a dedicated mobile site it is best practice to ensure that the desktop site also be optimised to meet at least the core set of mobile content optimisation standards. The desktop sites of the twenty FTSE100 companies with mobile websites were analysed to see if they were geared up for mobile users. As indicated by Chart 3, the desktop sites can be seen to perform poorly across the range of mobile content optimisation standards. The mobile websites performed better than the equivalent desktop sites in terms of code quality (e.g. avoiding use of tables for layout), reflecting the fact that mobile templates have generally been written more recently than their desktop counterparts. However, the chart reveals that there isn t a significant difference between mobile sites and desktop sites when it comes to content presentation standards. The overall correlation in performance in this area indicates that many web teams are applying the same website optimisation standards to content across both mobile sites and desktop sites. This suggests that while organisations are prepared to allocate budget to mobile operations, they are struggling to gain access to relevant expertise. 9 The same issue arises if there is no automatic detection of the visitor s device (as is the case with two thirds of FTSE100 corporates providing dedicated mobile sites) as the user has to navigate the desktop site in order to find the link to the mobile version Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 12

14 CHART 3: Performance comparison between mobile and desktop sites (% of pages failing mobile content optimisation standards) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 21% 16% 12% 31% 11% 11% 8% 8% 5% 10% 3% 10% 1% 3% 0% 6% 0% 2% 0% 10% 44% 40% 39% 42% 33% 34% 28% 50% 29% 60% 70% 68% 81% 86% 94% 96% 1. Overlong links 2. Overlong headings 3. Use of absolute measurements 4. Images without width and height specified 5. Overlong page content 6. Use of accesskeys 7. HTML over 10 KB 8. Use of pop-ups 9. Images over 200 pixels wide 10. Use of tables for layout 11. Specifing fonts 12. Use of frames 13. Images over 50 KB 14. Use nested tables 15. Use of "float" and "display" properties 16. Use of Flash 17. JavaScript and CSS files over 25 KB 18. Large number of externally linked resources Mobile sites Desktop sites 2012 Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 13

15 Conclusions The mobile web has the ability to transform corporate communications, and reward earlyadopters with competitive advantage and increased audience share. However, the survey suggests that corporate websites are currently failing to capitalise on this important trend with only 20% of FTSE100 companies taking steps to provide support for mobile visitors. Even those companies at the forefront of corporate mobile provision are struggling to adapt to the demands of the new channel due the pace of change in mobile technology, both in hardware and software. Crucially, the types of content optimisation issues found on the mobile websites surveyed in this report have a profound effect on an organisation s ability to fulfil its mobile strategy objectives. In a 2011 Forrester survey, ebusiness and channel strategy professionals were asked to name their top three priorities for the mobile channel. Among the most popular were Increase customer engagement, Improve customer satisfaction, and Appear as innovative, 10 all of which are seriously undermined by the common issues identified in our analysis, such as poor usability and failure to meet SEO best practice. Ensuring the success of corporate mobile websites Organisations need to address the challenges of mobile web optimisation head on. There are three key ways in which businesses can ensure their mobile websites deliver the high quality user experiences needed to build visitor loyalty and grow audience share. Creating content with the mobile web in mind As we have seen throughout this paper, copy created solely with desktop access in mind is the source of many usability issues on mobile websites. Companies need to ensure their content is created with mobile users in mind, both when creating specific content for dedicated mobile sites and also when sharing content across both desktop and mobile sites. Setting mobile-specific standards Our comparison of how mobile websites compare with desktop websites revealed strikingly similar levels of mobile content optimisation issues. This suggests that many web teams are applying the same standards to both mobile sites and desktop sites a critical mistake. To make the most of the mobile channel, organisations need to have mobile-specific standards in place. These will ensure any content produced meets all the relevant technical, usability and accessibility requirements, and at the same time will help increase the web team s expertise. Updating and monitoring Just as desktop sites degrade over time, mobile sites can quickly become error-ridden and out of date. Having processes in place to ensure mobile sites are monitored as carefully as desktop sites will help organisations maintain their brand reputation regardless of the channel. 10 Mobile Channel Strategy: An Overview, by Carrie Johnson and Peter Wannemacher (Forrester: June 2, 2011) 2012 Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 14

16 About Magus Magus is the leader in website governance and compliance, helping global enterprises achieve online excellence through our award-winning ActiveStandards website quality monitoring platform. ActiveStandards provides comprehensive coverage of all areas of online compliance, including accessibility, usability, SEO, mobile web, brand and legal compliance. It supports the daily web governance programs for some of the largest brands in the world, including Unilever, Shell, ING, Rolls-Royce, Philips, Alcatel-Lucent, AkzoNobel and Thomson Reuters. Magus champions industry standards on website governance and was instrumental in developing the BSI British Standards Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 124 Defining, implementing and managing website policies and standards. The company is headquartered in London, with a newly opened office in the US. +44 (0) [email protected] About Investis Investis is Europe s leading specialist in digital corporate communications for public companies. Services include the design, build, hosting and management of corporate websites and mobile sites as well as ios and Android app development, social media solutions, and video and webcasting. Investis works with over 1,000 companies in 30 countries across the globe, from the smallest companies to the largest, including more than 50% of the FTSE100. The company s headquarters are in London, with additional offices in Germany, Italy, Finland and India. +44 (0) [email protected] Magus Research Ltd and Investis Ltd 15