WebWatch is a benchmarking report analyzing corporate websites in the Indian IT and BPO space against global practices for website design, navigation, content and online marketing. We study websites that stand out for their innovative designs, navigation styles, and content strategies. The study also highlights best-in-class tactical ideas and practices and uncovers websites that are closest to providing the ultimate brand and user experience to visitors.

1. WebWatch 2010
Prayag’s Third Annual Website
Benchmark Analysis Report
October 2010

2. Study Overview
• The annual Prayag Website study benchmarks websites of
companies operating in the Indian IT and BPO sector
against global websites
• It showcases websites that stand out through their
innovative design, navigation and content strategies
• Best-in-class tactical ideas and practices are also
highlighted
• It compares this year’s findings with the findings from 2009

3. Corporate websites searched
The study this year examined
Number of corporate websites analyzed corporate websites of 70 companies
Companies reviewed were
25 organized into four categories
representing a typical mix of
19 technology companies. This was
15 done to compare practices followed
11 across different industry segments.
The study tracks both Indian
companies as well as MNCs
operating in India – since both were
competing in the same markets, it
IT Services IT Products Niche BPO was considered appropriate to
compare them on an equal footing
IT Services: Companies deriving revenues from diverse vertical and
List of companies studied available at the end
horizontal services
of the report
IT Products: Companies deriving most of their revenues from software
products
Niche: Companies targeting one specific vertical or horizontal
BPO: Companies deriving majority of their revenues from BPO
services
3

4. Study Parameters
Navigation
– Flexibility
– Sitemap and search
– Personalization
– Call to action
Content
– Wide angle view
– Content style
– Value proposition
Design Aesthetics
– Hygiene Factors
– Packaging
– The ones we loved
SEO
– Why SEO
– Page Titles
– Description Tags
– Structuring Content
Web 2.0
– RSS
– Blogs
– Communities 4

5. ― Flexibility
Navigation ―
―
―
Sitemap and search
Personalization
Call to action

6. Steering through the web
Organizations have realized that they need to keep their audience engaged; an
increasing number of companies are shifting their focus from voluminous content
to interactive content
• What is essential
– Quick availability of interactive data
– Clarity in appearance of the site
• Information given should be concise and consistent
– Innovative and interactive visual effects
• To attract visitors
Navigation - Introduction I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 6

7. What is there in the Dynamic Menu?
Flexibility Case In Point
Navigation should enhance site flexibility and The IBM site is a clear example of flexible
enable the user to access any targeted page easily. navigation. It gives the visitor the freedom to
Navigation should also make browsing and search choose from the categories and subcategories
effortless. available in the dynamic menu as well as to
navigate to the previous page through breadcrumb
An improvement compared to last year, this trails. The sectional navigation bar on the left hand
study revealed a significant increase in the use of side shows the services available.
breadcrumb trails and dynamic menus.
Websites Websites
Navigational using using this
features this feature in
feature 2009
Breadcrumb trail 76% 59%
Breadcrumb trail
with backward 70% 49%
navigation
Dynamic menus 67% 58%
Navigation - Flexibility I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 7

8. Innovative styles of navigation
Wipro Before Wipro Now
Wipro’s new site is not only visually attractive but also makes good use of
primary navigation techniques and dynamic menus.
Navigation - Flexibility I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0

9. Information comes with a Click
• The fewer the clicks – the quicker the access to information
• Except for a few, all companies managed to get site visitors to the desired page in 2 to
3 clicks
• None of the companies required more than 3 clicks for the visitors to reach the desired
level.
How many clicks to your critical information?
IT Services IT Products Niche BPO Overall
% 2010 2009 2010 2009 2010 2009 2010 2009 2010 2009
1-2 clicks 8 5 21 21 9 11 40 36 19 17
2-3 clicks 64 55 74 36 73 22 33 29 61 39
3-4 clicks 16 18 5 36 0 44 7 14 9 25
4-5clicks 0 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
>5 clicks 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Inconsistent 12 14 0 7 18 22 20 21 11 15
Note: Critical information represents web pages that provide important information on the company and do not include any downloadable material
Navigation - Flexibility I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 9

10. The Related Zone
Contextual Navigation Case in Point
Contextual navigation bar is placed beside or The Genpact website places contextual
embedded in the body copy to attract users to go navigation at the right hand side of the body
deeper into the site. They are situational and copy in service-related pages. The related links
insightful. support the information available on the page
This year’s study revealed a comparative growth and make it more interesting and explanatory.
in the use of contextual links by BPO companies.
Websites Websites with
with contextual
Category
contextual navigation in
navigation 2009
IT Services 92% 91%
IT Products 84% 86%
Niche
73% 78%
Services
BPO 53% 36%
Overall 79% 75%
Navigation - Flexibility I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 10

11. Access to Information
Sitemap Search
IT services and BPOs scored more than 80 per Compared to the previous study, there is a rise in
cent the percentage of companies offering search
option
IT IT IT IT
Niche BPO Overall Niche BPO Overall
Services products Services products
With With
84% 74% 82% 87% 81%
sitemap search 96% 90% 91% 73% 89%
option
With
sitemap 82% 71% 78% 86% 80% With
in 2009 search 91% 100% 89% 57% 85%
option in
Companies are increasingly moving towards a 2009
sitemap which is aligned with the site architecture
IT IT
Niche BPO Overall Advanced Search
Services products
Only 30% of the companies providing search option
With are using advanced search functions –search by
consistent 84% 68% 82% 73% 77% specific sections, kinds of resources
sitemap
With Sites offering Advanced Search 16
consistent
77% 57% 78% 64% 69%
sitemap in
% of Total 23%
2009
Navigation – Sitemap & Search I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 11

12. Around the World…or not
Personalization Category % of sites with % of sites with
personalization personalization in
• Country-specific sites or multi- 2009
lingual sites were offered by IT Services 72% 68%
companies with presence in
those markets IT Products 58% 79%
Niche Services 36% 22%
BPO 0% 0%
Overall 47% 47.5%
Unity in Diversity
Navigation – Personalization I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 12

13. Interactive session
Call to action
“Call to action” is an invitation to website visitors to connect with the company
Call-outs such as subscribe to our newsletter, find out more, sign up now, etc. are common. In some
sites, there were blog posts that were open to comment that encouraged an interactive relationship
with the visitor
70% of the companies reviewed prompted their users to interact and communicate – an area to
watch out for and work on for the rest
% of sites with call to % of sites with call to
Category
action links action links in 2009
IT Services 76 % 91%
IT products 79 % 57%
Niche Services 64 % 78%
BPO 53 % 50%
Overall 70 % 71%
Navigation – Call to action I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 13

14. Interactive session
L&T Infotech has interaction cues such as contact us, follow us and polls
on the left side of the webpage – persuasive measures to improve
customer engagement
Navigation – Call to action I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0

15. ― Wide angle view
Content ― Content style
― Value proposition
Yahoo!
Do you hear me?

16. Wide angle view on Content
IT
Services
IT Niche
Product
BPO
Content Rich
Consistency
• IT Services: Compared to last year’s study, IT services’ websites have become consistent
• Product Companies: Consistency of layout has been maintained. Content-wise, some
companies have slipped into deeper technology details while describing their products
• Niche players: Almost all websites are consistent in layout and structure. Some are yet to
ensure consistency of length
• BPO: These sites have concise content
Navigation I Content – Wide angle view I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 16

17. Content Styles
Case studies, white papers and other resources Charts, table, graphs, diagrams and
support the content available effectively, so most graphics form an integral part of the content
companies had them included in their site (there for Niche Players and BPO companies.
is a slight dip compared to 2009 though)
Sites with contextual use of resources Use of Diagrams
82 78 79
100 67
92 89
84 86 58 57
73
45
53 32
21
% 2010
IT Services IT Products Niche BPO IT Services IT Products Niche BPO
% 2009
Overall Cross Segment Scores
78 76
61
54
Contextual Diagrams
Resources
Navigation I Content – Content style I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 17

18. Value Proposition & Messaging
• Accenture recovered from the Tiger
Woods debacle quite well.
Accenture retained its messaging
but revamped its campaign to and
adopted “safer icons”
• Companies are keen on presenting
thematic websites . For example,
Mahindra Satyam uses the FIFA
theme to depict a contemporary
picture
Navigation I Content – Value proposition I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 18

19. Messaging Relevance: To the prospective employee
Hits Misses
• An increasing trend in using social • Tally , Yash Technologies and Sykes
media is noticed across most Enterprises provided no real
companies - pages on Facebook and information for job seekers, thus
Twitter, RSS feeds, blogs, etc. linked losing an opportunity to
to their websites communicate to prospective
employees
• Most of the companies projected a
global outlook and style –key to
catering to their audiences globally • Some companies while mentioning
the positions open, however, could
• EXL Services, compared to the have communicated more effectively
previous year, has a comprehensive by providing employee testimonials,
careers section details of work culture and easy
search/filter options or vacancy
categories E.g. Cranes Software,
Ramco Systems
Navigation I Content – Value proposition I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 19

20. ― Hygiene Factors
Design Aesthetics ― Packaging
― The ones we loved

21. Design Decisions
• We have structured our review in two parts. In the first part, we grade the
reviewed websites according to different hygiene parameters
– Color Impact
– Legibility
– Readability
– Consistency
• In the next part we look at a few sites, which had that “certain something”,
that made us sit up and take a closer look.
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – Introduction I SEO I Web 2.0 21

22. Hygiene Habits
• Black is a perennial favourite. A
whopping 85% of the sites studied
had black fonts on a white
background.
– Grey was the other color
commonly used
– Most companies have taken the
tested route in this area
 Did most sites maintain design consistency ? – Yes, 91%
 Did most sites follow a consistent design theme ? – Yes, 78%
 Did companies maintain page length consistency through the site? – Almost half
the companies did not! Only 52% of them did so.
 Did the sites stick to a consistent font ? – Yes, most stayed with Font size 11 or 12
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – Hygiene Factors I SEO I Web 2.0 22

23. Packaging: think outside the box, to make the box
Great Stuff
• Play of colors, graphics and rich media to visually enliven websites
• Abundant usage of flash without compromising on buffering speed was noticed in many
sites
 HP’s homepage has a scrolling
set of dominating images that
illustrate and link to different core
businesses of the company.
 Use of myriad colors by Sonata
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – Packaging I SEO I Web 2.0 23

24. Packaging: think outside the box, to make the box...
 Microland gave its website a
personalized touch through a neat
virtual tour of its facility
 Citrix gets to the heart of the matter right
on its homepage – a glimpse into its
products and services, and top
downloaded items
Informative, but..
• Honeywell’s website is heavily laden
with information, but to get it right
without interfering with the aesthetics is
something it needs to strive at
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – Packaging I SEO I Web 2.0 24

25. Getting it right the first time – homepages
which gave clutter a miss
• Logica makes judicious use of pictures
and flash on its homepage to create an
aesthetically pleasing look, without
hindering navigation.
• Cognizant has a homepage that
effectively furnishes the essentials in a
succinct manner
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – Packaging I SEO I Web 2.0 25

26. The “Certain Something” Sites
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – The ones we loved I SEO I Web 2.0 26

27. Information and space constraints need not be conflicting issues – A simple,
informative website of HCL. A more energetic look can be sported by using
vibrant colors
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – The ones we loved I SEO I Web 2.0 27

28. Use of rich media to strike a chord with the viewers
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – The ones we loved I SEO I Web 2.0 28

29. Crafted to convey its value proposition explicitly on the homepage
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – The ones we loved I SEO I Web 2.0 29

30. Fitting combination of flash and text placement to provide maximum
information
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – The ones we loved I SEO I Web 2.0 30

31. Communicating through appropriate images to project a more
organized appearance
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – The ones we loved I SEO I Web 2.0 31

32. Conveying simplicity without compromising on the information
requirements
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – The ones we loved I SEO I Web 2.0 32

33. Classifies information less conventionally – sections such as popular downloads,
frequent destinations, most downloaded and ask Microsoft help users find
desired information quickly
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – The ones we loved I SEO I Web 2.0 33

34. Eye-catching visuals and apt taglines turned into productive
marketing tools
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – The ones we loved I SEO I Web 2.0 34

35. Conscious efforts to make every section interesting – news items, opinions,
special programs - which are commonly sidelined on the homepage - gain
limelight
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – The ones we loved I SEO I Web 2.0 35

36. A departure from the usual corporate color palette, a mini-menu on the
homepage gives a quick overview of contents of the website
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics – The ones we loved I SEO I Web 2.0 36

37. ― Why SEO
SEO ― Page Titles
― Description Tags
― Structuring Content

38. Why SEO is important
• Doing search engine submission and just having a site isn't enough to gain visibility.
Websites need to be engineered to figure prominently in search engine results page.
What drives better SEO?
– Title Tags: A title tag is a piece of HTML code that describes a specific web page’s content
through a keyword query that a person types into a search engine. Creating a relevant title tag
is one of the most important variables in achieving high search engine positioning
– Description tags: Description tags are one of the first places where a search engine looks for
keywords and this appears in the search engine result page
– Content Structuring: The tools used to structure content and the use of graphics and flash
impact SEO
– External links: Having a large number of links to external sites drives SEO
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO - Why SEO I Web 2.0 38

39. The importance of Page Titles
• Page titles are important to search engines
– They are also the descriptions saved by the “bookmark” feature in the browser
• Such title tags should contain relevant keywords
– Most search engines use the page title as the link on search results page.
– Using generic words or just the company’s name does not help
Unique page titles for each page
How did companies studied fare? 100% 95%
89% 91%
100%
93% 93% 88%
77% 79%
 Extremely well. However, some 2010
niche companies and product 2009
companies (12% and15%
respectively) missed out on this
key aspect IT IT Niche BPO Overall
Services Products
*Microsoft is not included as the data is not available in the source page
Note: Pages searched for SEO (if present): Home page, services page, industries page, products page, media page and investors page
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO – Page Titles I Web 2.0 39

40. Description Tags
• Meta description tags describe the page – this is what visitors see in the search results
• Such tags must include keywords and relevant phrases describing the page
– Words must not be repeated
– Complete sentences must be used.
Pages with description tag
75%
67% 65%
61% 63% 60%
56% 58%61% 60% 2010
2009
IT Services IT Products Niche BPO Overall
**Note: All percentages are calculated depending on the total number of pages checked
*Microsoft is not included as the data is not available in the source page
Note: Pages searched for SEO (if present): Home page, services page, industries page, products page, media page and investors page
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO – Description Tags I Web 2.0 40

41. Structuring Content
What does not help
The glaring issues here are use of flash and placement of text within graphics
– In both cases, search engine crawlers will not be able to “read” content, reducing possibilities of
being listed high up in a search
Although largely avoided, both content packaging styles appeared in several websites
– Most companies used flash to supplement a home page message when SEO was already being
addressed by plain text content
Hidden content, another feature not tracked by search engines, was shunned by many
companies
Text As Graphics Use of Flash
64% 59% 60%
57% 57%
47% 45% 44% 41% 49%
48%
41%
29% 34%
25% 30% 25% 29%
2010 26%
20% 2010
2009
2009
IT IT Niche BPO Overall IT IT Niche BPO Overall
Services Products Services Products
**Note: All percentages are calculated depending on the total number of pages we checked
Note: Pages searched for SEO (if present): Home page, services page, industries page, products page, media page and investors page
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO – Structuring Content I Web 2.0 41

42. Structuring Content
What helps
• Blogs can help SEO as they double the possibility that your company will be listed, as
search engine crawlers typically search blogs separately
It pays to LINK-up
• Building external links from a website always increases page ranking - this is a well
known fact now, given that all companies studied exhibited diligence in building links.
Websites with Logo Links
100% 100%
95% 91%
86% 82% 84%
80% 79%
67%
2010
2009
IT Services IT Product Niche BPO Overall
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO – Structuring Content I Web 2.0 42

43. ― RSS
Web 2.0 ― Blogs
― Communities

44. As simple as possible
RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a common Web 2.0 feature that we
ran into on most sites
Sites with RSS feeds
92%
84%
68% 71%
64%
55%
49%
2010
33% 2009
22% 21%
IT Services IT Product Niche BPO Overall
RSS feature is available most commonly on Home, Investors, Contacts and Press releases pages
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 – RSS 44

45. ..But can be made better
• Most companies offered feeds for investor information, press
releases and blogs.
• Some demonstrated a more effective use by offering feeds on
specific offerings, verticals etc.
A standard RSS feed setup on the The Capgemini site allows visitors
Infosys site to customize their feeds according
to solution area, industry and
document type
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 – RSS 45

46. Blogs
Many companies used blogs to address
• Blogs are gradually becoming popular issues and redress grievances. Also,
on company websites many companies used them to point out
– Large IT companies were the early technical nitty-gritty
adopters HP employee business blogs
– Niche companies and BPOs lag
behind, with few companies having
adopted this medium
Sites with Blogs
72%
53% 50%
49%
45%
37% 2010
27%
22%
2009 Novell CMO blog (listed as one of the top
20% 21%
ten CMO blogs.)
IT Services IT Product Niche BPO Overall
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 – Blogs 46

47. Communities
Sites with communities
• Communities are still a novelty 52% 53% 57%
– Product companies are early adopters
– The discussions are democratic, 33%
charged and often helpful. 18% 20%
0% 0%
IT IT Product Niche BPO Overall
Services
2010 2009
Microsoft forums enable users to Intuit has a range of community resources. A library of articles, a
get tech guidance from experts forum, and a wiki section, to name a few.
..Also, questions and issues raised in The members of the community In the forum, members can get
the forum helps developers in can upload articles, reviews, and quick fix solutions to their
developing new tools and processes industry stories in the wiki problems
section.
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 – Communities 47

48. The rise of Twitterverse
• The BIG news this year is the arrival of
social marketing tools
• Almost all the companies across all
sectors have started using these Social marketing: The Phenomenon
tools
• Just a year ago, only a handful of
Sites with social media marketing tools companies had profiles on social
84% networking sites. Now, almost all
companies are on these sites, vying
58%
54% for virtual followers
41% 2010
36% • This gives companies direct access
24% 2009
21%
11% 13% to customers and instant feedback,
7%
and acts as a round-the-clock
IT IT Niche BPO Overall channel for information transmission
Services Product
Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Technorati,
Reddit, Facebook etc. are some of the
most commonly used social marketing
tools
Navigation I Content I Design Aesthetics I SEO I Web 2.0 – Communities 48

49. Thank You !
Have a question? Suggestions? Feedback?
We would like to hear from you
Team Prayag

50. Companies covered in this study
IT Services IT Products Niche BPO
TCS Tally Applabs IBM Daksh
Infosys Oracle Sasken Aegis
Wipro Polaris Bearing Point EXL Services
Cognizant SAP Ciber Genpact
HCL Technologies WNS Global Services
Microsoft Persistent
Mahindra Satyam
Cisco Yash Technologies Sykes
IBM
Citrix Microland First Source
HP
Ariba IDS 24/7 Customer
Accenture
Intuit QuEST Global Zenta
Capgemini
Novell SQS Tracmail
Logica
Ramco IBS Sutherland
ACS
Patni Cranes Software Sitel
Keane 3i Infotech Vcustomer
Quinnox Misys Indecomm
CA Sunguard Intelenet Global services
L&T Infotech JDA
Hexaware Servion
CSC Compulink
Siemens information Syst. Ltd Dassault System
Sonata Infotech
Zensar
Mastek
ITC Infotech
Mindtree
50