Welcome to our full December 2020 Global websites analysis. We are looking at the most successful and best-performing websites on a global scale in this study. That’s right, we have collected the best of the best from .com, .net, .tv, and any other top-level domain you could think of.
Why? Well, with the ever-growing growth of technology, our reach is no longer limited to the traditional borders of our own countries and markets. In fact, especially during these trying times, most businesses turned to the digital world n order to get at least a chance at competing and keeping their place on the market.
So, to help you leverage that competition, we will look at the average website scores per sector and the average loading time each industry recorder in November 2020. Then we will look into a very important factor – are these international websites catering to their global market by using multiple languages or are they missing out?
Or better yet, do you have a competitive advantage by using multiple languages when your high-level competitors are not? The report generated by our web analysis tool will answer that question and more, as we broke down the results giving you the top insights and the full list!
Read on and find out, and don’t forget that every month we will refresh our data and our Global websites review results to keep you on top of your competition at all times.
Key take-aways in December
Top 3 Global Websites
Our Global Websites Review brings us two of the pole sitters from last month: Duckduckgo and Zalando, while third place was lost from TrustPilot in favour of Mozilla.
The overall top score remains 85 but it has been taken by Zalando, the online retailer from the Appareal sector. Its loading time is almost the same as last month (0.32) but, this time the retailer has been consistent, while its “competitors” could not keep up the pace.
DuckDuckGo claims the silver with a score of 83 points, equalying Mozilla and Instagram but assuring its 2nd place with an impresive loading time of 0.19 seconds. Once again, the private search enginge shows us that it can be a really good replacement for our old Google Search, as Google didn’t get to taste the champagne from the pole once again.
The tiebreaker for the third place is again the loading speed. Mozilla had won the bronze with a gap of just 0.01 seconds to Instagram’s loading time. The Tech company while it has one of the best web browsers available, it also comes with more products and utilities for day by day users such as VPN, security monitors, etc.
Top 3 Sectors
The top 3 sectors from our Global Websites Review in December are Motor Vehicles and Parts, with an average score of 77 and an average loading speed of 0.34 which is faster than what last months winner could achieve. The second sector was Apparel with 76,5 points, which was so close to winning, the difference between the two being just 0.5 points, but having an incredible average loading speed of just 0.27 seconds. Last but not least, Business Services gets the Bronze with a score of 71.3 points and an average loading time of 0.92 seconds.
Similarly, the reason why Technology doesn’t have a place in the top 3 sectors – again – is maybe because while DuckDuckGo took the second place as the best performing website, sites like Microsoft and Yandex both scored low points on our last check, and Sina scored a mere 46 making it this reviews lowest scored website, are actually bringing the scores down for the entire sector.
However, it is interesting to see that some websites from different sectors can score more points, or better loading times, than the ones from Technology. This might be caused by the thinking behind all these websites. While some of them are more UX/UI oriented, some other could be more functionality oriented, which could make even an unknown website score more than Google, or any other Technology websites.
Top 3 Insights in Global Websites Review
It’s always important to know who are the top players in each market. Also, if you are thinking of starting a business, it is important to know where your future sector stands. However, we are talking about top Global websites which means that the threshold is high as a given.
If you are working on improving your online performance, or are simply planning to start a new website, webshop, or blog, these numbers might seem scary.
However, rest assured, things are not as bad as they might seem. In fact, they are better than you might think. So, take the top scores and make them your goal for the future. And for now, here are some interesting insights to strive for in the short-term.
- The Global websites review reveals an average website score of 69.5 – a bit higher than Fortune 500 websites, but still easily manageable!
Reaching a site score of 85 is an incredible, undeniable achievement, but competing at a global level is a totally different game. So what is your competition actually looking like? Well, the average overall website score is 69.73. While this is a very good score, it’s still quite easily achievable with a few optimizations here and there.
Of course, when it comes to calculating the average score of these websites we have to take into consideration a plethora of factors, such as the complexity of each website, the page size, how well the HTML to text ratio is optimized, mobile compatibility, and mobile-friendliness, and so on.
However, most of these factors have a direct impact on the website’s loading time, which is one of the main factors we are looking into. Also, as mentioned above, these are the top global websites, so naturally, their market is also global. So, the question is, how many are actually using multiple languages?
- Loading times are faster compared to Fortune 500 – the average loading time Globally is 1.01 – fast, but reachable!
Our Global Websites Review uncovered an average loading time of 1.16s, almost half the 2s threshold set by Google for desktop websites, and very close to the 1s high limit suggested for mobile websites.
However, what is interesting to note is that, while average scores by sectors are very close together, keeping the results between 60 and 80, the load speed by sector varies quite a lot. However, what is even more intriguing is that Technology, a sector where most of us would expect to see in the top performers, is actually lagging behind.
In fact, Technology and Retailing are “fighting” for the last place, with a score of 66.96 for Technology and 66.85 for Retailing.
- The Global Websites Review shows only 61.7% of websites use multiple languages
Did you know that only 20% of the global population speaks English? Also, did you know that another 15% of the global population speaks Chinese-Mandarin? As global companies, and websites catering to a truly international market, one would expect more of our contenders would use multiple languages.
However, interestingly enough, only 61.5% of the websites in our Global Websites Review actually have a multiple languages feature implemented, while the rest 38.5% do not.
Of course, it is a strategic choice to have multiple language choices on a website, but the websites on our list that chose to go without have certainly made a deliberate decision. For instance, they may actually only want to target the English-speaking market segment, not concentrate on other segments using other languages.
Another possibility might also be that the company has a mobile application alongside the website that does cater to these needs, so the website is used only for promotion, therefore there is no need to invest the time, money, and development resources in translating it.
Or, they are simply using a different domain or subdomain for their translated version such as Google does with Google.com and Google.dk.
Whatever the explanation or their reasons are, one thing is sure – 80% of the global population does not speak English, which means that translating your content in different languages can exponentially expand your potential reach. More importantly, it shows specific care for your users’ convenience and user experience that will not go unnoticed.
That said, our best advice is to employ the services of a native speaker for each language you want to translate your platform in and give your users the best version of your multilingual website. In the long run, you will see the benefits.
And remember, aside from these interesting 3 insights we preset in our Global Websites Review, we have plenty more info in the full report. So don’t miss out, claim the full report, and plummet yourself in front of your global competition.
Rank | Company | URL | Current Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zalando | zalando.com | 85 |
| 2 | Duckduckgo | Duckduckgo.com | 85 |
| 3 | Trustpilot | Trustpilot.com | 82 |
| 4 | History | history.com | 82 |
| 5 | Mozilla | mozilla.org | 82 |
| 6 | Paypal | paypal.com | 79 |
| 7 | Skyscanner | skyscanner.net | 79 |
| 8 | Wikipedia | Wikipedia.org | 79 |
| 9 | Instagram.com | 79 | |
| 10 | Twitch | Twitch.tv | 79 |
Rank | Company | URL | Current Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zalando | zalando.com | 85 |
| 2 | Duckduckgo | Duckduckgo.com | 85 |
| 3 | Trustpilot | Trustpilot.com | 82 |
| 4 | History | history.com | 82 |
| 5 | Mozilla | mozilla.org | 82 |
| 6 | Paypal | paypal.com | 79 |
| 7 | Skyscanner | skyscanner.net | 79 |
| 8 | Wikipedia | Wikipedia.org | 79 |
| 9 | Instagram.com | 79 | |
| 10 | Twitch | Twitch.tv | 79 |
More reports
https://wiredelta.com/top-100-most-popular-fortune-500-websites/
https://wiredelta.com/top-100-most-popular-websites-in-denmark/
