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See the ratings...
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All the criteria are listed in according to 3 groups
of indicators. |
| QUALITY
OF LISTING |
| The
Internet user/client/prospect who is looking for
information about a company must be able to reach
the site he is looking for easily. In this situation
he is faced with one of three situations:
- he already knows the URL address of the site
he is looking for,
- he knows the name of the company but not its
website,
- he does not know which company can meet his
needs.
In the last two instances it is essential to
use a search engine. This is why listing is so
important for the company, so as to increase the
probability of the visitor being directed to its
site (to the detriment of a competitor).
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AVAILABILITY AND RESPONSE TIME |
| Once
the site has been found, it has to be accessible.
This statement may seem trivial, but some companies
do not manage to make their site accessible for
more than 95% of the time. Yet because websites
represent a company’s image to such a great
extent, being able to consult websites without any
problem has now become a strategic issue.
This indicator is calculated by means of permanent
audits of the sites. Throughout the day requests
are received to simulate a visit to the site that
is being measured. We then note the time taken
to access the site and receive a response from
the server. At the end of the period this data
is totalled to determine the availability index
and the response time.
A score of 0.0 for the availability index corresponds
to a server availability of less than 97% of the
time; the normal acceptable rate for sites of
this size should not normally fall below 99.5%.
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PAGE LOADING RATE |
| Having
cleared the first two hurdles (finding the site
and accessing it) the Internet user expects efficient
loading rates. It is a fact that whilst Internet
sites are often tested in companies which enjoy
broadband Internet access, end users do not always
have the opportunity of using broadband despite
the fact that it is becoming more widespread. And
even when a user has broadband access, the increased
speed this offers stimulates new demands, which
means that the maximum acceptable loading time is
continuously reducing.
This indicator has been determined on the home
page of the sites, with the score being modified
according to the quality of the IT developments
and including where appropriate pre-pages or tunnel
pages (pages above the home page which are used
for example to select the navigation language).
Hence the Lab40 index enables us to classify
each company in respect of its competitors, and
to point out the companies which are most in a
position to dominate the Internet channel in their
area of activities over the coming years.
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