Pages on the mobile websites of Fortune 100 companies take five seconds on average to load, much longer than Google's recommendation of one second or less, according to a recent report by The Search Agency.
The agency examined the mobile sites of the Fortune 100 and gave each a score based on five factors: load speed, site format, calculated download speed, social media presence, and app presence.
Site speed in particular was emphasized because of Google's recent mobile best-practices guidelines.
Out of a possible five points—one being the lowest and five being the highest—the average score for the companies in the study was just 2.31.
However, the average score varied significantly by industry, with the mobile sites of telecom (3.26), logistics (2.97), and retail (2.89) companies ranking the highest, and those of wholesalers (1.16), aerospace (1.17), and oil/gas (1.87) scoring the lowest.
Below, additional key findings from the report.
Top-Performing Mobile Sites
- Coca-Cola and FedEx had the top performing mobile sites of the Fortune 100, tying for first place in the report's ranking with scores of 4.49 out of five.
- TIAA-CREF and Walgreens tied for third place with scores of 4.24.
- Liberty Mutual ranked fifth with a score of 4.19.
Worst-Performing Mobile Sites
- Sysco and Hess had the lowest scoring mobile sites of the Fortune 100 (0.36 out of five), Philip Morris International had the next lowest score (0.39), followed by Fannie Mae (0.48).
Responsive Web Design
- Although Google has established Responsive Web Design (RWD) as the best-practice for serving the same HTML across devices, the 20 sites that ranked the highest in the report use dedicated mobile sites rather than RWD.
- Of the 100 sites examined, only nine use RWD.
- Of the remaining 91 companies, 47 use dedicated mobile sites, while the other 44 do not provide a separate mobile experience from the desktop version of their site.
About the research: The report was based on an analysis of the mobile sites of Fortune 100 companies. Each site was assigned a score based on load speed, site format, calculated download speed, social media presence, and app presence.
