Webranking 20 years – What does the future hold for corporate communications?

By Sophie Karlsson

Ranking company websites, and demonstrating what stakeholders are looking for, means constantly keeping ahead of trends that can affect these demands. This is why the Webranking criteria and protocol changes every year – to reflect the altering demand of the target audience.

Comprend’s CEO, Staffan Lindgren, was one of the co-founders of Webranking back when it all started in 1997. He has seen the changes in protocol that have happened throughout the years. Looking to the future, Lindgren sees four trends that will affect corporate communications online: the impact of quality, distribution, video and voice.

Starting with quality, the quality of the content on corporate websites will change and we will see an increase in better, more engaging, content Lindgren says. As for distribution, the problem today is that a lot of companies keep their information on their websites, when the target audience spends a lot of their time online elsewhere. Adding distribution mechanism and marketing techniques to the content will therefore be essential in ensuring that the target audience is reached.

"Another trend that we see is video. The target audience consume a lot more video which proves to be a very efficient method of communication."

Lindgren points out that the strongest trend we will see is the use of voice, and this will affect our whole way of communicating.

"We have spent the last 20 years trying to teach humans to communicate with computers and now we are teaching computers to communicate with humans."

Instead of using text to communicate with computers, as we have done so far, we will use voice to search for, look for and consume content. This will of course mean both great opportunities and great challenges for companies. One challenge, Staffan Lindgren mentions, is the use of search engines. Searching online using text generates several hits and answers whereas searching with the use of voice only will generate one answer. Hence, it will be up to companies to ensure that they are that one answer.

Irene Engberg Montiel, Chief Digital Consultant at Danske Bank, looks at the future of corporate communications from a company point of view. She believes that content will play a bigger role and that we will see an even bigger focus on content that engages the user. She also mentions that it will be important to continue to show information about the type of company you are. Rather than giving minimal information companies will have to be more open.

"I think that content that tells a story will be important,"
Enberg says.

She elaborates;

"Target groups are becoming more diverse. What engages and interests one group might not engage another. Companies can gain from this if used in the right way. Companies that can tell their story in an interesting way will get more attention in the form of investors and potential candidates."

Fore more information please contact us on webranking@comprend.com.