A corporate website is a valuable opportunity to communicate with stakeholders. A website that is lacking in information, or clarity, is a wasted opportunity that could put off potential investors. According to the Webranking research by Comprend, a digital corporate communications specialist, only 12% of the FTSE100 maximise the potential of their corporate websites.

Phil Marchant, managing director of Comprend in the UK, says, “Far too many sites make the potential investor do the work – having to download the latest results presentation, scrutinise the major press releases and find management speeches at Capital Market days. The best corporate sites put the story together for the user and present their investment case front and centre.”

In addition, companies are too frequently failing to provide tax policy on their websites, despite this being a key area of interest for media, and only 16% of the FTSE 100 published information on their responsible tax policy. A further 49% of the FTSE100 failed to present any information on risk management, an area which is also of particular interest to many stakeholders and only 31% offered market information and competitor analysis.

By analysing the corporate websites of FTSE100 companies, Comprend has shown that UK companies in particular aren’t meeting their stakeholder’s needs. The UK’s top ranking company, Land Securities, rank 37th in Europe.

Webranking is the longest-running annual research of corporate websites. The survey reflects the content needs of a global focus group of typical corporate website stakeholders, such as analysts, fund managers, investors, journalists and jobseekers.