The automated tests were carried out by Business2www, using site
diagnostic software. The survey considered the site coding, basic
site errors, server response time, download speed and
accessibility.
The Co-operative Bank came out top overall, with the Bank of
England and Barclay's web sites second and third. Bottom of the
league were AIB and HSBC.
The Co-operative Bank contained the lowest number of HTML
errors, while AIB contained the most – with over 62,500 warnings
resulting from the test on its site.
The fastest server response came from the Birmingham Midshires
site, with an average response of 0.01 seconds, as compared to 21
seconds for the Abbey National site – the slowest response
time.
The Bank of England came top for download speed, while AIB,
slowed down by poor HTML and coding warnings, came last.
As regards basic errors – such as faulty links, missing graphics
and bad site structure – the Coventry Building Society site
contained ten times more errors than any other site.
Nine web sites scored over 90% in the accessibility ratings,
with the Royal Bank of Scotland receiving a 99.60% rating, the
highest overall. According to the survey, five sites achieved
between 50% and 90% accessibility, while 11 sites could score no
more than 5% accessibility.
The Britannia and Lloyds TSB sites were not accessible at all at
the time of testing.
