Danish corporate websites prioritise financial reporting but lack R&D projects

By Anna Dunder

Although reporting content has improved, the overall scores of Danish corporate websites have decreased in this year's Webranking. This is in line with the European trend, as companies are struggling to keep pace with the increasing needs of their audiences. Too-brief coverage of business areas and a lack of R&D information are the main challenges for Danish companies.

For Danish companies, general company information and agile development are the often the most challenging content areas. When evaluating the 25 largest Danish companies in this year’s Webranking, the results largely followed the European trend. Both capital market audiences' and jobseekers' registered an increased demand for content on corporate websites, but large companies are not yet meeting these needs.

This year's average Danish score was 44.7 (out of 100 points), a reduction of 4.6 points from last year. Compared to the Nordic average, Danish websites are not currently on the same level. In order to close this gap, the challenge for many of the ranked Danish companies is providing up-to-date information throughout the year.

Danish companies commonly describe their business areas in too little detail

Providing general company information is a challenge with which companies throughout Europe struggle. In Denmark, the biggest challenges compared with the 20 largest European companies are the presentation of business areas and the inclusion of Research & Development information. 55% of Danish companies favour short summaries of their business areas, whereas 80% of the largest European companies tend to describe their business areas in greater detail.

Short descriptions of a company's operations can be useful when linked to more information, but sometimes this content can raise more questions than answers, considering that not all website visitors will make the effort to read the annual report from cover-to-cover. Offering more information per business area - such as the different projects undertaken by each one - can foster a fuller understanding of a company's overall business.

Don't hide Research & Development in the archives

R&D is an area considered important by capital market audiences, but many companies across Europe are struggling to present information on it. In 2018, Danish companies were particularly active with patent applications, but this R&D activity has not been reflected in the content on their corporate websites. Only 24% of the ranked Danish companies refer to their previous R&D projects whilst just 12% discuss their current projects.

The challenge for many companies is how to keep information available throughout the year. For companies where R&D is not a main area of business, information on innovations might be mentioned in press releases only, which will quickly disappear in the archives. By contrast, Health Care company Novo Nordisk provide a good R&D section with details of their ongoing and past projects.

Reporting content is impressive but search engines can't find it

Danish reporting content has improved from last year and many companies go beyond providing the mandatory regulatory information. All ranked Danish companies had their latest annual report available during the summer, but interestingly the internal search engines of many companies were not on the same page. Latest reports were not find-able in 32% of cases. More than 90% of the companies have a search engine and the annual report is one of the most-read company documents, so it is crucial to ensure it is searchable. One Danish company that offers a search engine with good features is Health Care company Lundbeck.

Chr. Hansen climbs from third place to first

This year’s winner is Chr. Hansen with 65.5 points, climbing from third place last year to the highest podium. Novo Nordisk takes second place with 56.1 points, whilst last year’s winner Ørsted is in third with 55.4 points. This year’s climber comes from the Banking sector, as Jyske Bank has increased their score by more than 8 points.

The 25 ranked Danish websites represent 10 sectors, with a majority of the companies in the Banking and Health Care sectors. As well as topping the Danish list, Chr. Hansen’s performance is notable in their supersector, with a third place finish out of all ranked Health Care companies.

Top ten in Denmark

See the full Danish results