[Draft] Case Study of Accessibility Benefits:
Legal & General Group (L&G)

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 billion² worldwide on behalf of investors, policyholders and institutions.

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 of user testing and evaluation by disabled users⁵ before going live in Summer 2005.

Results

• Within 24 hours natural search engine traffic saw a 25% increase, eventually growing to to 50%.^4,5
• Significant improvement in Google rankings for all target keywords⁶
• 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 £200K per annum³
• 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

1. Legal & General (accessed 2009), Website: www.legalandgeneralgroup.com (http://bit.ly/sIN1M)
2. Wilton, D. & Howell, J. 2007. Accessibility helping business: the case of Legal & General in United Kingdom. www.inova.snv.jussieu.fr (http://bit.ly/CIa9r)
3. Nicholl, C. 2006. Legal & General Business Case. www.shawtrust.org.uk (http://bit.ly/vVGuE)
4. Various Authors 2007. Legal & General Case Study. www.icant.co.uk (http://bit.ly/C1FED)
5. Abrahams, P. 2007. Massive Business Case For Accessibility. www.it-director.com (http://bit.ly/43okSN)
6. Lawson, B. 2006. PAS 78: Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites. www.brucelawson.co.uk (http://bit.ly/3GU9Tr)
7. Econsultancy.com 2007. Fortune Cookie and Legal & General demonstrate outstanding business returns in government web accessibility film. www.econsultancy.com (http://bit.ly/VMMCG)
8. Sloan, D. 2006. PAS 78: A New Standard In Web Accessibility. www.dmag.org.uk (http://bit.ly/k4N0a)
9. Davies, M. 2009 (accessed). Web Accessibility. www.isolani.co.uk (http://bit.ly/1TafW4)