Corporate communications in the FTSE 100: evidence using search engines

Search engines have become an essential tool for information seekers on the world wide web. This makes it critical that company websites are optimised to achieve the highest possible ranking across the major search engines, in particular Google, ensuring maximum exposure and subsequent awareness. This paper identifies key factors in search engine optimisation and then analyses a sample of the largest 10 firms listed on the London Stock Exchange. The findings reveal a lack of adoption of best practices which will impact on their search rankings. The paper also discusses tradeoffs inherent in search engine optimisation and draws out key implications for managers and academics.