The very best websites provide an excellent, error free customer experience to ensure their visitors find just what they are looking for and want to return.

Behind the scenes they also have to be compliant with latest web standards and fast-moving legislation, free from links to online risks like malware and ‘phishing’ sites and they should be built in a way to enhance search engine optimisation, to ensure potential customers find them.

The latest INDEX benchmark of almost 230 UK top consumer finance websites from Sitemorse continues the improving trend spotlighted in the two most recent survey, with 134 websites of those tested showing some improvement in score over the period. Our automated checks cover quality, user experience, accessibility, performance and search engine optimisation.

If you are a bank or building society customer – and that includes virtually all of us these days – then chances are you will check your funds, apply for a mortgage or loan or a number of other financial services online at some stage.

All of the big consumer finance players are represented online, and as our latest benchmark of the sector proves, their websites offer a huge scale of consumer experience.
If you use a finance website regularly, you will know that even comparatively minor problems can affect user experience. Broken links, missing images, inaccessible pages and other errors can leave users frustrated and annoyed.

Topping our list of high performing websites, with 8.6 out of a possible ten marks, is Northamptonshire-based Clarity Credit Solutions. Set up in 2005, the company provides credit management solutions to a number of blue-chip clients. Clarity has risen seven places in the INDEX since our last survey earlier this year.

Second in the survey and rising three places is wealth management specialist Brown Shipley, whose website scored 8.1/10. The company has bases in London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Edinburgh - Third in the rankings this time is previous winner the Leeds Building Society, which drops two places with an overall score of 8.0/10. The society dates back to the mid-1800s but has been in its current form since 2005, describing itself as one of the UK’s top ten building societies.

Other top-ten rated banks and financial institutions this time include BM Savings (8.0/10), Intelligent Finance (7.9/10), WH Ireland Stockbrokers (7.9/10), Welcome Finance (7.6/10, up 44 places), Julius Baer Investments (7.5/10) which jumps 103 places in the INDEX, and Advantage Finance (7.3/10).

Some of the biggest names in banking and credit feature in our table, notably MBNA, rising three places to 30th position, Santander, up six places, Nationwide Building Society, up 63 places to 55th and small rises recorded for Barclays and Natwest. Biggest risers are Northern Trust (+126), Julius Baer Investments (+103), Lloyds TSB (+95), 3i Group (+87), and Altium Capital (+86)

Dropping down the table this time are Brewin Dolphin Holdings (-53), Darlington Building Society (-73), Exeter Friendly Society (-99), Vanquis Bank (-101) and Mirabaud Investment Management (-135).

Only three financial institution websites scored highly on accessibility – Leeds and Intelligent Finance scored 8/10 in this area, but the highest accessibility score (9/10) went to Julian Hodge Bank, ninth in the table overall.

Sitemorse commented: There has been a big focus recently on banking websites that don’t always work, and these days banks whose customers use their websites for online banking can hit the headlines quickly when they fail to work properly, often with a lot of speculation on social media as to the solvency of the bank in question.

Websites do occasionally go down, but in normal circumstances should be a good experience to navigate for users. We are working with many web teams who want to be the best in their field, and our INDEX benchmarks provide a good test of where they are at any given point.

About the INDEX

The quarterly INDEX Website Review, powered by the Sitemorse software platform, is an important independent benchmark that clearly shows how websites are performing, meeting compliance levels and satisfying their users.

It’s also a key indicator for website managers who, while always wanting to be at the top of their game, could be hampered by poor-performing suppliers, non-compliant legacy content or content management systems that often fail to spot errors affecting user experience.

Using Sitemorse’s services such as Governisation and the Web Manager’s Toolkit, which immediately find the issues that affect web users the most on any website, will help demonstrate real improvement and ensure control, and ultimately confidence, in your web presence.

They will help you minimise unnecessary risk, issues covering everything from compliance with web standards to helping you deal with malware, protect your brand across even a large web presence, and enhance search engine optimisation to help more potential customers find you.

They can help spotlight content that may need updating, issues with staff training and support, and focus supplier management.

 

Technical Data

This survey took place on April 29, 2013 and involved benchmarking more than 300,000 separate URLs. Poorest code quality was recorded for the Abbey National site, with more than 126,000 failures. Fastest overall response time from any site tested was the website of One Account.