New research shows finance businesses rank mid-table for online performance
Finance businesses ranked mid-table for online performance, according to new analysis of all FTSE 100 and 250 webpages, compiled by an expert team at Contensis.
The findings have been published today by web experts, Contensis, as part of new research: Big Players, Slow Web Pages: Which FTSE 100 and 250 Businesses Value their Online Presence the Most.
Despite a higher accessibility score than the number one ranking sector, media and publishing, the findings revealed that finance businesses’ online platforms were being let down by slow homepages and a poor general performance score.
Further results shone a light on travel, hospitality and leisure and the retail and grocery sectors – industries which existentially rely on their online presence – yet each failed to make it into the top half of the table.
Overall, the study also found that FTSE 250 companies are doing better than their FTSE 100 counterparts, loading a whole second faster and getting better scores for accessibility too.
The full league table highlights the great disparity online.
| Sector / Industry | Performance | Accessibility score | Homepage speed index | Score |
| Media and publishing | 69.29 | 84.43 | 100.00 | 253.71 |
| Manufacturing and logistics | 55.25 | 84.69 | 92.43 | 232.37 |
| Software and IT | 46.50 | 91.17 | 72.84 | 210.51 |
| Insurance | 45.82 | 88.91 | 75.27 | 210.00 |
| Aerospace and Defence | 45.38 | 80.00 | 73.77 | 199.14 |
| Finance | 44.93 | 86.78 | 60.71 | 192.43 |
| Healthcare and life sciences | 48.20 | 80.10 | 59.62 | 187.92 |
| Services | 44.73 | 84.91 | 53.87 | 183.51 |
| Telecoms and technology | 42.00 | 93.63 | 40.72 | 176.35 |
| Retail and Grocery | 36.35 | 85.75 | 52.20 | 174.30 |
| Property and construction | 43.70 | 85.41 | 44.51 | 173.62 |
| Travel, hospitality and leisure | 40.96 | 79.18 | 53.43 | 173.57 |
| Utilities | 38.50 | 83.13 | 43.14 | 164.76 |
| Food and beverages | 35.93 | 82.57 | 15.34 | 133.84 |
| Chemicals, mining, oil and gas | 40.87 | 81.70 | 0.00 | 122.57 |
ICG Enterprise Trust plc, one of the largest investment trusts on the stock exchange, achieved the best results among its FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 counterparts in the sector.
Despite encouraging findings on the sector’s accessibility scores, ranking on average around 86.7, the industry’s online portfolios are falling behind due to slow homepages, currently taking just under 7 seconds to load and weak performance scores, on average hitting 44.
Across the board, construction and engineering firm John Laing had the best Google Lighthouse performance with a score of 100 for overall performance, 97 for accessibility and a homepage load speed of less than half a second.
The best performing FTSE 100 business, Kingfisher, which owns B&Q, among other home improvement brands, had an accessibility score into the mid-nineties and a homepage load speed of just over two seconds.
Richard Chivers, co-founder of content management system, Contensis, and chief executive officer of Zengenti, the software company which makes Contensis, commented:
“This research shows us just how much the big players value their online presence. Industries that you’d expect to be doing really well, like travel, hospitality and leisure, are not performing as you might think. Other industries, like finance, could be doing much better – especially if each business aims to make its services stand-out in what is already a crowded market.
“I think the biggest eye-opener is that, consistently, we all need to up our game when it comes to accessibility. Finance businesses, for example, should be mindful that 22 percent of the UK population have a long-term illness, impairment or disability according to latest figures. More can be done to support these users online which would be win-win for businesses operating in this space and their customers.”
