Sitemorse Report Shows Poor Result for UK Parties

Main UK political parties websites rank poorly in latest Alterian and Sitemorse Government website Index.

Liberal Democrats see significant rise in rankings, Labour now 3rd behind the Conservatives.

London, UK - 31 March 2010 - Alterian (LSE: ALN), a leading international integrated marketing platform provider, today revealed the findings of the Sitemorse Q1 2010 UK Government website index. In partnership with Alterian, Sitemorse tested the functionality, accessibility, performance, email links and metadata of all websites at the heart of the central government and politics, in order to ensure accountability and best practice online. 

With all the main political parties including IT and the internet in their manifestos, and online engagement being seen as key to success in elections elsewhere, the report highlights that further work is required on the key political sites if they are to succeed in effectively connect with the population.  When ranked against a range of government websites, of the three major political parties' websites, only that of the Liberal Democrats made it into the top 50. Additionally, its website was the most improved in terms of accessibility and performance, rising from 333rd place last quarter to 37th this quarter. Overall, the Conservative Party's website ranked 187th ahead of Labour's, which ranked 385th.

David Eldridge, CEO of Alterian commented, "With an eye on the forthcoming general election, online engagement is playing a major part in UK politics.  The main political parties all recognize this, and there has been good progress with some government websites now being very strong, having formed a good basis for building engagement with citizens. However it is evident from the report that there is a long way to go, and worryingly for the three major political parties, who did not rank well at all, there is still a lot of work and investment to be done".

Lawrence Shaw, CEO of Sitemorse, commented "To be truly successful and appeal to as wider audience as possible, government organizations need to transform the way that they engage with the public and provide access to services online.  The report highlights where this is being done well today, and areas where it can be improved for the future."

The results emphasise the importance of governmental departments having a strong Content Management System (CMS), independent from IT and integrated into their communications strategy. Content Management Systems enable government departments to leverage the potential of their websites to engage with the constituents and retain their loyalty by providing a better online experience.

Eldridge continued, "Websites are usually the first point of call for citizens looking for governmental service. The website becomes the organisation's representation of the quality of their services. As such, it is imperative to create a positive experience for website visitors. Technology such Alterian Content Manager and Alterian SM2, for example, enables these organisations to build engaging and accessible websites by providing the ability to deliver dynamic and engaging websites based on in-depth analytics and social media activity."

The full survey methodology and findings can be found at www.alterian.com/sitemorsegov.

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About Sitemorse

Sitemorse is an independent company that works with organisations to evaluate the performance and accessibility of their websites. The Q1 2010 audit showcases the top websites in different industries marked out of ten, based on these six key features:

" Accessibility to A, AA and AAA guidelines 
" First page, metadata and download times
" Server response times
" Reported site errors reported and errors per page
" Site HTML warnings reported and warnings per page
" Calculated site download speed

About Alterian

Alterian (LSE: ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant, effective and engaging experiences with their audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand, through the use of the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform. Alterian drives the transformation of marketing and communications, making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannel engagement with the individual.

Alterian's unprecedented integration of analytics, content and execution through industry leading tools, such as the Dynamic Messenger email platform, SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the award winning Content Management solutions, enables companies to build integrated communication strategies which create a true picture of the individual.
 
Alterian works with marketing services partners, system integrators and agencies who recognize the need to plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients. For more information about Alterian, products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterian's Partner Network, visit www.alterian.com or the Alterian blog at www.engagingtimes.com.