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ArchivedCase Study of Accessibility Benefits:
Legal & General Group (L&G)
This page is part of an older version of The Business Case for Digital Accessibility and made available here for archival purposes.
This page is part of the Resources for Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization.
“The new site has almost doubled the number of visitors seeking quotes and buying Legal & General financial products online. It has cut maintenance costs by two thirds and increased the amount of natural search traffic we get by half as much again.”
(Caroline Fawcett, L&G Customer Experience Director9)
About the business
Established as a life assurance provider in 1836 (and exclusively for those belonging to the legal profession until 1929), the Legal & General Group (L&G) provides over 6.5 million1 people with life assurance, investment plans, pensions and general insurance policies in the UK. The group is responsible for the investment of over £180 billion GBP2 worldwide on behalf of investors, policyholders and institutions.
Website visitor numbers
www.legalandgeneral.com, 13,000 visitors per month as of March 20063
Accessibility changes
Implemented: 31st July 20054
Measures taken:
- Accessibility audit and usability testing of existing site
- Market research from the existing customer membership
- Incorporation of the accessibility needs of the target audience most likely to be excluded or obstructed by inaccessible websites2
A new site was designed and built, seeking to ensure conformation to all relevant accessibility standards, successful passing usability testing and evaluation by users with disabilities5 before going live in Summer 2005.
Results
- Within 24 hours natural search engine traffic saw a 25% increase, eventually growing to 50%.4,5
Significant improvement
in Google rankingsfor all target keywords
6- Reduction in maintenance costs by 66%2
- Site visitors receiving quotations doubled within 3 months2
- 100% return on investment (ROI) in 12 months2
Additional benefits
- Average times for content maintenance jobs reducing from 5 days to 0.5 days, saving £200,000 GBP per year3
- Page loading times reduced by 75%8
- Positive customer feedback on noticeably improved performance of site5
- Inaccessibility complaints reduced to zero5
- New site is accessible to mobile devices7
References
- Legal & General (accessed 2009), Website: www.legalandgeneralgroup.com (www.legalandgeneralgroup.com/)
- Wilton, D. & Howell, J. 2007. Accessibility helping business: the case of Legal & General in United Kingdom. (http://inova.snv.jussieu.fr/evenements/colloques/colloques/article.php?c=45&l=en&a=49)
- Nicholl, C. 2006. Legal & General Business Case. (www.shaw-trust.org.uk/files/legal___general_business_case.doc)
- Various Authors 2007. Legal & General Case Study. (icant.co.uk/webstandardsforbusiness/pmwiki.php/Main/LegalAmpGeneral)
- Abrahams, P. 2007. Massive Business Case For Accessibility. (www.it-director.com/business/compliance/content.php?cid=9258)
- Lawson, B. 2006. PAS 78: Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites. (www.brucelawson.co.uk/2006/pas-78-guide-to-good-practice-in-commissioning-accessible-websites/)
- Econsultancy.com 2007. Fortune Cookie and Legal & General demonstrate outstanding business returns in government web accessibility film. (econsultancy.com/press-releases/2512-fortune-cookie-and-legal-general-demonstrate-outstanding-business-returns-in-government-web-accessibility-film)
- Sloan, D. 2006. PAS 78: A New Standard In Web Accessibility. (www.dmag.org.uk/resources/design_articles/pas78.asp)
- Davies, M. 2009 (accessed). Web Accessibility. (www.isolani.co.uk/presentations/wsg/wsg-webaccessibility.pdf)