UK FTSE companies will have their websites ranked lower by Google than their US rivals because their websites are slow.
Research carried out by web optimisation company Aptimize, found that the websites of FTSE companies in the UK were 27% slower than their Fortune 1000 counterparts in the US.
Slow websites lead to unhappy customers, lost sales and increased costs supporting customers. But now they can actually damage competitive ranking on Google.
From last month Google has been using the speed of websites as a variable when ranking them.
"Like us, our users place a lot of value in speed - that's why we've decided to take site speed into account in our search rankings. We use a variety of sources to determine the speed of a site relative to other sites," said Google.
Ed Robinson, CEO at Aptimize, said this threatens the competitiveness of many leading UK businesses. "We were surprised to see a country which gave birth to the pioneer of the Web, falling behind relative to its US counterparts."
FTSE companies with slowest websites
| Company | Website | Global load time (seconds) |
|---|---|---|
| Renishaw | http://www.renishaw.com/ | 53.228 |
| Eddie Stobart | http://www.eddiestobart.co.uk/ | 47.342 |
| RPS Group | http://www.rpsgroup.com/ | 36.791 |
| Vedanta | http://www.vedantaresources.com/ | 36.361 |
| Carillion | http://www.carillionplc.com/ | 32.949 |
| Euromoney | http://www.euromoneyplc.com/ | 28.542 |
| Invesco Perpetual | http://www.invescoperpetual.co.uk/ | 25.744 |
| Wiseman Dairies | http://www.wiseman-dairies.co.uk/ | 25.11 |
| HMV | http://www.hmvgroup.com/ | 25.061 |
| Atkins | http://www.atkinsglobal.com/ | 24.295 |
FTSE companies with fastest websites
| Company | Website | Global load time (seconds) |
|---|---|---|
| The Restaurant Group | http://www.ccruk.com/ | 1.916 |
| Tesco | http://www.tesco.com/ | 2.047 |
| WH Smith | http://www.whsmithplc.co.uk/ | 2.076 |
| Anfogasta | http://www.antofagasta.co.uk/ | 2.148 |
| Genesis Investment Management | http://www.giml.co.uk/ | 2.525 |
| Senior plc | http://www.seniorplc.com/ | 2.604 |
| Charter | http://www.charter.ie/ | 2.898 |
| Grainger | http://www.graingerplc.co.uk/ | 2.928 |
| Electrocomponents | http://www.electrocomponents.com/ | 2.937 |
| Electra Investments | http://www.electraequity.com/ | 3.012 |
