European companies top website effectiveness Index

According to Bowen Craggs, German company Siemens’ website is “carefully bound together”, something lacking in U.S. corporate websites which lack cohesiveness. The fact that 8 out of 10 of the top ranking companies were European demonstrates the European’s serious approach to the Internet and their constant refining of an already excellent service.

Not so in the U.S., it seems, where poor governance leads to a “strange mix of good content and terrible functionality.” The only two U.S. companies to make the top 10 are IBM (5th) and Coca-Cola (10th). Google was just squeezed out at 11th.

“Americans are much more hands off,” said David Bowen, senior consultant at Bowen Craggs. “Google has good content, but try to move between them. You can't. It very much reflects the famous Google culture of let everyone do their own thing.”

Even some of the largest corporations aren’t getting it right with Toyota appearing 42nd in the Index, JP Morgan Chase 54th and PepsiCo 69th.

The Index evaluated corporate websites on their effectiveness to a variety of users, including customers, the media, investors and general public.

Tags: corporate website, Index, website performance