Big players, slow web pages: FTSE web performance 2023

Back in 2022, we determined which FTSE 100 and 250 businesses valued their online presence the most by reviewing their website performance, accessibility and page load speed.

Our campaign, ‘Big Players, Slow Web Pages’, seeks to continue to raise awareness of website usability, putting emphasis on the importance of online accessibility – a topic we’re still seeing overlooked in many industries and across the wider discourse.

2023 vs. 2022

What the results say

What do these findings mean

Methodology

Further reading

Contact our team

Last year, media and publishing topped the list, while the chemicals, mining, oil and gas industries fell short at the bottom of the index.

In 2023, our team of CMS experts have, once again, crunched the numbers to find out which FTSE 100 and 250 companies, along with their industries, fare the best online – eager to see whether any wider efforts to improve have been made since last year’s campaign debut.

By using Google’s Lighthouse tool to measure performance and accessibility and GTMetrix to measure homepage speed, we calculated averages for each sector and compared them to update our ranking of industry digital performance scores.

The results this year paint a very different picture. Media and publishing have fallen a staggering 14 places to the bottom three, while the utilities industry has climbed up 12 places to reach first place.

Looking at accessibility specifically, the travel, hospitality and leisure sectors landed in last place, falling in Google Lighthouse’s ‘amber’ range, meaning improvement is needed.

In today’s digital age, it cannot be understated how important website performance is to a business’s success. Lost sales and low engagement are among the consequences of slow website speed, while sites which fail to meet accessibility requirements risk alienating significant portions of each market.

On the other hand, those who pay attention to their website performance encourage visitors to stay longer, engage with their content more and, ultimately, enjoy greater sales volumes.

The full list of findings can be found in the below league table.

The index has, once again, revealed the top five performing websites across each industry of the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 indexes. The industries are listed from top-performing to under-performing.

1. Severn Trent
2. United Utilities
3. Informa
4. Big Yellow Group
5. Drax Global

1. Entain
2. Flutter Entertainment

1. Compass Group PLC
2. Tate & Lyle
3. Diageo PLC
4. Ssp Group
5. Hilton Food Group

1. Aviva
2. Direct Line Insurance
3. Beazley Insurance
4. Admiral
5. Lancashire Holdings

1. Kianos Group
2. Playtech
3. Softcat PLC

1. Ithaca Energy
2. Ferrexpo
3. Synthomer
4. Shell
5. Diversified Energy Company

1. QinetiQ

1. Keller
2. 4Imprint
3. Clarkson PLC
4. Marshalls
5. Hill & Smith

1. Haleon
2. Croda International
3. Indivior
4. Pz Cussons
5. Dechra Pharmaceuticals

1. Baillie Gifford Japan Trust
2. Harbourvest Global Private Equity
3. Bgbi Global Infrastructure
4. Herald Investment Trust
5. Phoenix Group Holdings

1. Morgan Sindall
2. Bellway
3. Rightmove
4. Great Portland Estates
5. Grafton PLC

1. Serco Group
2. Unilever
3. Sthree PLC
4. Relx
5. Diploma PLC

1. International Airlines Group
2. Intercontinental Hotels Group
3. Tui

1. Dunelm
2. B&M
3. Me Group International
4. Frasers Group
5. Marks and Spencer

1. Ascential
2. Baltic Classifieds
3. Future PLC
4. ITV
5. Pearson

1. Wpp
2. discoverIE Group
3. Telecom Plus
4. Capita PLC
5. BT

1. Dowlais Group
2. Ti Fluid Systems
3. Mobico Group
4. Redde Northgate
5. AutoTrader

If a business’s website doesn't load quickly or is inaccessible to large sectors of the market, they will inevitably lose sales and risk damaging their reputation in the process. For FTSE 100 and 250 companies, the impact of this could be critical.

Recent statistics show why:

• Users form an opinion about a website in 0.05 seconds. According to research by Google, the time it takes for users to form an opinion about a website is incredibly brief - just 0.05 seconds -meaning getting first impressions right is crucial.
• 88% of online users won’t return to a site after a bad experience. Nearly nine out of 10 online users won’t revisit a website if they have a negative experience with it, according to Sweor. Providing a smooth and user-friendly website for users is key to capturing a loyal customer base.
• 61% say that if they don’t find what they’re looking for within about five seconds, they’ll go to another site, according to Forbes’ own research. This demonstrates the importance of Information Architecture (IA) in your website design, placing a high emphasis on user experience (UX).

Getting things right is not just important for a business’s performance. At Zengenti, we’ve always been a big advocate for improving online accessibility, collaborating with the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) to ensure our clients both prioritise and have the ability to easily accommodate a wide variety of access needs on their websites.

Unfortunately, in the wider world, many industries still have significant room for improvement:

• 96.3% of existing home pages online have detected 'WCAG 2 failures', from low contrast text, missing alt text and empty links to missing form labels, empty buttons and missing document language, according to the 2023 WEB Aim report. These crucial features make the World Wide Web accessible for the reported 1.3 billion disabled users across the globe.
• 90% of disabled users click away from a website rather than report accessibility issues, according to the DAC. Businesses that have not spent the time and effort meeting accessibility requirements risk unfairly excluding large portions of the population.

As industry leaders, FTSE 100 and 250 companies have the opportunity to encourage their wider industries to embrace a culture of accessibility and inclusivity – and put in place the practical improvements to transform disabled users’ experiences.

To create the league table of FTSE 100 and 250 websites that value their online presence the most, the Zengenti team analysed the websites of all companies listed on the FTSE 100 and 250 indices featured on the Fidelity website.

The team then compared each site’s performance and online accessibility metrics using Google Lighthouse and website speed using GTMetrix, to create an unbiased view of the top websites. We then calculated averages for each sector listed and compared them to create a league table of sectors that value their online presence the most and least.

Google Lighthouse scanned each website’s homepage to calculate the performance and online accessibility metrics, in line with the 2023 WEB Aim report’s findings that 96.3% of existing home pages online have detected 'WCAG 2 failures'.

To note, some websites were excluded if scores could not be calculated for all three metrics due to technical restrictions.

Don't let your organisation fall behind with a poorly performing website. Improve your accessibility knowledge with our accessibility eBook.

Download "Open to all: Why every organisation needs an accessible website" to improve your accessibility knowledge.

Talk to our team to find out how the right tools, for example, your content management system (CMS) will allow you to meet your online accessibility requirements and improve your overall website performance.