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We recently took the same software and approach that we used to survey the Fortune 1000 and turned our attention on the Fortune Small Business 100. These folks, from Taser to Miva and Saucony, represent some of the fastest growing companies under $200 million in annual revenue.
We ran our spiders against the 100 web sites and were able to successfully connect with 94 of them. We mapped out each site to count pages and figure out how many pages were unreachable (404) and how many pages hadn’t been updated in over 30 days. Then we started to dial up these companies so they could answer a few questions about their web sites. This last part is taking a bit longer than I anticipated, but so far the answers we’ve gotten paint a clear picture of the marketplace.
But first, here are the numbers:
| Page Count | Companies | > 10% 404 | > 10% Stale | Both |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-100 | 56 | 25 | 30 | 7 |
| 101-200 | 11 | 4 | 9 | 3 |
| 201-300 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| 301-400 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| 401-500 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 501-600 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| 601-700 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 701-800 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 801-900 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 901-1000 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 1001+ | 7* | 3 | 3 | 3 |
*4 of these sites had 5000 or more pages!
The first thing to note is a distinct similarity between this data spread and the one resulting from our analysis of the Fortune 1000. Just as with the Fortune 1000, we saw plenty of clumping near the bottom of the size range, a steady dropping off in page counts, then a sudden uptick at around 1000 pages.
When we looked closer, we saw no correlation between Web page size and number of employees or revenues, nor did we see any correlation between how well a Web site is run and number of employees/revenue. There were very large companies that ran small and large Web sites, some with as few as 1% bad links, some with 80% or more bad links. And the reverse is also true–very small companies with either well- or poorly-maintained Web sites.
Also note that in almost every single category, the problem with staleness is bigger than the problem with 404s (although in at least 2 categories–the smallest, ironically–they each present themselves as problems).
Then we hit the phones and started surveying these customers. We reached an average of 1 in 3, and so far we’re only about halfway through, but the answers we’re getting are also very enlightening.
| How long have you had the web site? | 3/4ths of all respondents indicated their current site had been redesigned within the past 5 years, most sites had been around at least that long. |
|---|---|
| How often do you update the web site? | Mixed bag of responses. Most said weekly, some said daily or when events called for an update. |
| How easy is the process? | Most said the process was fairly smooth, but they also indicated it could be better, or that more people could be trained on the process. |
| Is the site static or dynamic? | Overwhelmingly static with some dynamic components. Most wanted to go dynamic but needed to find a budget. One respondent felt that going dynamic was the only way she could keep up with the competition. |
| How much outsourcing of copywriting, design, maintenance? | Virtually every respondent indicated that they outsource some, half, or all of their Web design, copywriting, or maintenance. |
| What gives you a positive or negative emotional reaction when it comes to the site? | Most respondents liked the way their site looked after the redesign. On the negative side, most felt that the site could be easier to maintain long term. |
The fact that virtually every single respondent said they were outsourcing their Web sites is an unsurprising development; the fact that many of these web sites had problems with 404s and stale content is something of a surprise. I also found it surprising that so many companies are still running static Web sites. In a world where a dynamic site can offer so much to an organization (not just ease of publishing, but ease of gathering customer data), static sites become to me artifacts of a bygone age.
As we continue to finish up our phone survey, we’ll keep updating this post.
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