Corporate website

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Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. A corporate website or corporate site is an informational website operated by a business or other private enterprise such as a charity or nonprofit foundation.

Characteristics

Corporate sites differ from electronic commerce, portal, or sites in that they provide information to the public about the company rather than transacting business or providing other services. The phrase is a term of art referring to the purpose of the site rather than its design or specific features, or the nature, market sector, or business structure of the site operator.

Nearly every company that interacts with the public has a corporate site or else integrates the same features into its other websites. Large companies typically maintain a single umbrella corporate site for all of their various brands and subsidiaries.

A recent study (Oct 2014) of corporate websites FT Bowen Craggs Web Effectiveness Index 2014 was published by The Financial Times. Further information is available to download by the authors of the study.

Common Features

Corporate websites usually include the following:

File:Black iD Solutions.jpg
Home Page of a Corporate Site: Black iD

The arrangement of these features, and terminology (see the "synonyms" section below) varies considerably from site to site.

Other Features

Corporate sites sometimes but do not always include the following:

  • A splash page as an entry point that directs users to the site's home page
  • Embedded search engines allowing users to search pages from within the website, or external searches of the Web
  • A site map
  • A blog with news and commentary about the company, its products and services
  • "Community" pages describing the company's environmental / sustainability, charity, corporate citizenship, and other policies as they affect the public
  • A "store locator" or similar feature used to find nearby retail locations of the company or where the company's products or services can be found
  • A "downloads" or "media" section for users to obtain web tools, free or trial software, software patches, company demos, promotional material, and the like
  • A calendar or events section
  • A "links" page with hyperlinks to consumer-oriented or other websites, or information about specific brands or subsidiaries of the company
  • A FAQ section

Synonyms

Terminology used for site navigation is far from standardized. Following are some lists of terms used interchangeably for corporate site navigation:

  • Terms of use, legal, user agreement, privacy policy,
  • People, the team, employees, biographies, executives
  • About us, contact us, about the company, history
  • Community, our values, corporate citizenship, standards of conduct
  • Employment, jobs, careers, join the team, join us
  • News, in the news, press, publications, brochure
  • Contact us, send a message
  • Investors, ownership
  • Downloads, media, library
  • Store locator, find a store, find our products, locations
  • Links