Comparing the Websites of 3 Companies - Case Study Example

Domain Names A domain name, for e.g. commbank.com.au, anz.com, nab.com.au are the addresses used to locate an entity on the Internet (Registering A Domain Name 101, 2010). The last part of a domain name is called a top level domain (TLD). In http://www.commbank.com.au/ and http://www.nab.com.au/, it is a country code TLD as it carries the nationality of the domain name (.com.au = Australia) informing clients that these are a legitimate Australia business, registered with state governments. http://www.anz.com/personal/ refers to a commercial site as it carries the .com TLD. Ideally, a domain name should concisely indicate what the business is all about and be meaningful to the respective target market so that they can remember it (Registering A Domain Name 101, 2010). In this regard, only Commonwealth Bank’s domain name is apt as it used the word ‘bank’ in its domain name, unlike the other bank’s domain names. Basically, domain names become the brand identity of the organisations and thus Commonwealth Bank has done good by getting itself identified as a bank in its domain name itself. However, another desirable aspect of a domain name (Registering A Domain Name 101, 2010) is that it should not be easily misspelt and not be too lengthy (3 words or less is best). Under this criteria, the domain names of Anz Bank and NAB Bank fit better than that of Commonwealth Bank. But, one may still argue that getting itself identified as a bank in the domain name is definitely an advantage over a shorter name. Search engine position Using advanced web ranking report (www.advancedwebranking.com), following visibility of the different websites, was fetched:- According to the above rankings, http://www.commbank.com.au/ fares the best in terms of its rankings and visibility, followed by http://www.anz.com/personal/ and then http://www.nab.com.au/. The website of Commonwealth Bank is the only website which ranks in the first place. Website of NAB Bank does not feature until the Top 10 website ranks are taken into consideration. Condition The Ranking around the world for the three banks respectively are as under:- Commbank.com.au’s Regional Traffic Ranks Country Rank   Australia 13   Thailand 2,083   China 21,523   United States 43,948 Anz.com’s Regional Traffic Ranks Country Rank   Australia 19   New Zealand 31   Singapore 1,673   Indonesia 4,591   China 23,567 National.com.au’s Regional Traffic Ranks Country Rank   Australia 23   Thailand 3,518   United Kingdom 18,863   Japan 20,692   China 31,870 The subdomains which majority people visit when visiting the respective banks’ websites are as under:- Subdomain (Commbank.com.au) Percent of Visitors my.commbank.com.au 76.94% netbank.commbank.com.au 61.77% commbank.com.au 56.30% commbiz.commbank.com.au 1.58% evolve.commbank.com.au 0.63% Subdomain (Anz .com) Percent of Visitors banking3.anz.com 32.01% banking4.anz.com 30.50% anz.com 84.95% anz.com.au 42.85% banking6.anz.com 4.41% Subdomain (National.com.au) Percent of Visitors ib.nab.com.au 58.22% nab.com.au 96.83% nabconnect.nab.com.au 1.22% transact.nab.com.au 1.97% aurdev.national.com.au 0.33% Commonwealth Bank has international presence in Asia, New Zealand, Europe as well as North America. ANZ Bank aims to become the leading regional bank by growing presence in Asia Pacific Europe and America while continuing domestic business in Australia and New Zealand. NAB Bank has prominent domestic presence only. The top keywords which are driving traffic to the respective banks’ websites are:- Keywords Percent of Search Traffic Commbank.com.au netbank 27.18% commbank 10.06% commonwealth bank 9.92% cba 7.23% commonwealth netbank 2.90% commbank netbank 2.62% comm bank 2.61% Anz.com anz 40.94% anz internet banking 10.90% anz bank 6.53% www.anz.com.au 2.08% anz.com.au 1.35% anz online 1.22% www.anz.com 0.77% National.com.au nab 43.80% nab internet banking 11.56% national bank 6.11% national australia bank 3.49% www.nab.com.au 2.14% nab.com.au 1.92% nab bank 1.23% Context, Content, Corporate ID and Design http://www.commbank.com.au has quite many information on its website which has been neatly segregated and categorised. Starting with the site map, it shows the links in various heads as is also available while navigating on the website. The homepage contains lot of links, however, since organised properly the user does not have much problem understanding the flow of the site once he/she spends some time on the website. There is a constant colour theme of grey and yellow (Picture 1) all throughout the website which further adds to the familiarisation of the site. The search results option gives a useful choice of refining our search based on certain pertinent categories. Picture 1 http://www.anz.com/personal/ does not contain too many details on its homepage and have efficiently used the drop down menu to list the detailed options only when the user takes the cursor on the broad heading. Again, a stable colour theme of blue (Picture 2) gives elegance to the look of the website. However, the sitemap is poorly arranged and only seems like a hyperlinked list of all the content available on the website. The search results option provides a plain list of results. Picture 2 http://www.nab.com.au/ in stark contrast to the earlier two websites does not carry the elegance since font type, size etc are very crude and uneven. The content of the website is thrown all over its homepage with no particular pattern of arrangement. The colour theme is not following all throughout the websites and suddenly changes to blue-white as compared to red-white theme as started out on its home page (Picture 3). Surprisingly, the search results option gives a useful choice of refining our search based on certain pertinent categories. Picture 3 Conventions, Customer Focus and Customisation In terms of catering to users with different needs, all the 3 websites have broadly categorised their homepage into personal/business/corporate products. However, the website of commonwealth Bank outperform the others in the detailed / minute presentation of banking solution to its customers. It also provides option for news feeds so as to keep up with current updates, online trading, managing portfolio, cash and fund management, other tools & support and provides 6-months free internet security subscription (ComBank Online security). It has a dedicated advertisement section on the lower right corner of the home page which continuously flashes various offers and videos on products of the bank. Also, the About us link carries a specific section on media release, report, gallery, news and research. It’s Clear and comprehensive menu searches therefore clearly aim to provide the users ample opportunity to find the product / option / service as desired. The website of ANZ bank apart from broad categories also has other features such as planning for retirement and home loans advisor section. It further does contain a brief section on media centre featuring announcements, speeches, presentations and library. Even though not s thorough as website of CommBank, its website does sufficient justice towards its target market by presenting neatly all the basic features and options desired in its menu searches. Modest of all 3 sites, website of NAB has only two broad categories of personal and business users for routine features like everyday banking, finance, loans, investments, insurance and trade. It does not focus any other customised client need specifically. Its media centre link only provides an archive of the media releases. This website can be better managed in terms of menu options by increasing the depth with which the menus and content have been presented. Community, Communication and Connection http://www.commbank.com.au/ provides the user various options such as logging into NetBank, CommSec & CommBiz. Inside these, features such as customer feedback panel, current highlights, Merchant Insights user guide, online support, online banking newsletters (CommBiz Extra – Picture 4), contact & support as advisory services/ service difficulties and Interactive online seminars prove to be pretty useful to the users. This website has been awarded Outstanding Achievement Award’ by Interactive Media Awards 2011 (Commonwealth Bank Awards). Further, they do have an access to blogging/social networking websites such as Twitter etc. It has a continuous interaction with its users and post an individual reply to the queries/ suggestions posted by them. Thus, they are quite active on social networking websites and blogging sites. Picture 4 Although not as exhaustive as commonwealth bank, http://www.anz.com/personal/ also has a list of specialists displayed on their website, have a dedicated portal for lodging complaints, suggestions & compliments and has a newsletter feature (Picture 5). However, it does not have any direct linkages on its website for networking websites like twitter. Picture 5 Finally, http://www.nab.com.au/ only briefly touches upon a feedback on website option to users and has a direct linkage to networking sites like twitter on its website, however, no other significant interactive/ communication tool available to its user. The website of commonwealth Bank links to a host of (12 or more) other websites, category – wise through a clearly marked hyperlink of ‘Other sites’ at the bottom of its home page apart from specific connection to Twitter. The other sites in the above are as under: i. 12 sites of Commonwealth Bank Group websites ii. 3 sites on Commonwealth Bank Group institutions iii. 9 other sites of affiliated and wholly owned international subsidiaries In contrast to that, NAB Bank does not have a separate specification of linking to other sites apart from hyperlinks to social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Furthermore, website of ANZ Bank neither has a dedicated link for re-directing to other related sites, nor to any social networking media websites. Respective screenshots are appended below:- Read More