Webranking surveys – Why so important?

By André Nunes

What makes Webranking by Comprend stand out from the other website rankings is that our parameters are based on stakeholders’ needs. Our surveys gather the needs from corporate stakeholders and combined with our expertise we use that data to assess more than 800 listed companies worldwide. This assessment process that we have used for 20 years now has given us tremendous experience in developing websites that exceed the expectations of stakeholders both for content and functionalities.

Without our surveys we would not know that journalists attribute more value to the companies’ fast facts and overview of financial key figures rather than photo or video galleries. We would not be able to tell you either that the majority of stakeholders prefer to receive updates about the companies they follow by email rather than social media or corporate apps.

5 things you should have in mind when developing your digital communications

(based on results in our surveys)

1. The most important content for capital markets professionals are companies’ financial outlook, financial targets and achievements, a personal IR contact and annual reports.
2. Knowing what it is like to work at the company, work environment and conditions, is among the most important information for jobseekers.
3. Business journalists don’t only focus on the Press section but in fact they give more value to annual reports and key financial figures.
4. Good site and pages loading speeds are valued higher than any other feature by stakeholders.
5. Megatrends and individual estimates from analysts are dropping in importance while the dividend policy, indices to which the company’s share belong to and stock exchanges where the shares are traded are increasing.

The surveys also reinforced our position on the fact that different channels should focus on different subjects. Most stakeholders that use social media prefer to find press releases and product/services information on Twitter rather than Facebook. Also, about 40% of stakeholders surveyed don’t use Facebook, Twitter or Google+ at all but ones that do prefer to follow companies through Twitter leaving Facebook for more personal usage.

Next surveys are around the corner

The next Webranking surveys are about to be released. The Web Management survey is first out and is directed to Web managers, content producers and Heads of the communication department to get an idea of what they see as challenges and focus areas for this year, to get ideas of what to ask the target groups.

The next surveys will be the Capital Market survey and the Careers survey. The results of these two are used to create the protocol to rank all companies.

By answering one of our surveys – whether you are a Web Manager/Head of Communications, journalist/analyst/investor or jobseeker – you will be contributing towards a better corporate communications practices. Stay tuned with our releases to find out when you can share your professional insights.

Read more on how to boost the relationship with journalists through your website.

For more information contact us at webranking@comprend.com or Helena Wennergren, Head of Research +46 70 971 12 10, helena.wennergren@comprend.com.