ibm.com website review

Not measured in this review.

• Fails Core Web Vitals for real visitors

  Real Chrome users on phones do not pass Google's Core Web Vitals on your site (28-day field data from the Chrome UX Report (opens in a new tab)). Google uses this in ranking.

• Real-user LCP: 4.4 s

  4.4 s

  Real visitors wait 4.4 s for the largest content to appear (75th percentile). Good is under 2.5 s.

• Real-user FCP: 3.6 s

  3.6 s

  Real visitors see the first content after 3.6 s (75th percentile). Good is under 1.8 s.

• Real-user INP: 357 ms

  357 ms

  Real visitors wait 357 ms for the page to respond to a tap (75th percentile). Good is under 200 ms.

• Real-user CLS: 0.13

  0.13

  For real visitors the layout shifts by 0.13 (75th percentile). Good is under 0.1.

• Tap response (INP) got 26% slower for real visitors

  +26%

  Over the last 25 four-week periods to 2026-11-07, real Chrome visitors' tap response (inp) went from 290 ms to 362 ms at the 75th percentile (Chrome UX Report (opens in a new tab) history).

• Real-user TTFB: 1.7 s

  1.7 s

  Real visitors wait 1.7 s for your server to start answering (75th percentile). Good is under 800 ms.

• Largest content (LCP) held steady for real visitors

  -8%

  Over the last 25 four-week periods to 2026-11-07, real Chrome visitors' largest content (lcp) went from 4.8 s to 4.4 s at the 75th percentile (Chrome UX Report (opens in a new tab) history).

• Page weight: 8.5 MB

  8.5 MB

  Your homepage downloads 8.5 MB on a phone, 479 KiB of it images (6%). Under 2 MB keeps phones on slow connections fast.

• About 2.4 g of CO₂ per visit

  2.40 g

  By the Sustainable Web Design model, a visit to your homepage emits about 2.40 g of CO₂e: 287.8 kg a year at 10,000 visits a month. It scales with page weight, so every byte cut lowers it.

• Certain ARIA roles must be contained by particular parents (11 elements)

  Certain ARIA roles must be contained by particular parents: 11 elements on the page fail this check, rated critical by axe-core.

  Elements (3)

• Certain ARIA roles must contain particular children (1 element)

  Certain ARIA roles must contain particular children: 1 element on the page fails this check, rated critical by axe-core.

  Elements (1)

• Malformed lists

  Some lists contain elements other than list items, which screen readers announce wrongly.

  Elements (2)

• Links look like plain text

  1 link inside paragraphs relies on colour alone to stand out.

  Elements (1)

• 1 tap target too small

  1 tap target is too small or too close together to hit reliably with a finger.

  Elements (1)

• All page content should be contained by landmarks (79 elements)

  All page content should be contained by landmarks: 79 elements on the page fail this check, rated moderate by axe-core.

  Elements (3)

• Banner landmark should not be contained in another landmark (1 element)

  Banner landmark should not be contained in another landmark: 1 element on the page fails this check, rated moderate by axe-core.

  Elements (1)

• Document should not have more than one banner landmark (1 element)

  Document should not have more than one banner landmark: 1 element on the page fails this check, rated moderate by axe-core.

  Elements (1)

• No main landmark

  The page has no <main> landmark, so screen-reader users cannot jump straight to the content.

  Elements (1)

• 1 link without text

  1 visible link has no text or label, so screen readers cannot say where it goes.

• Headings skip levels

  Headings skip levels (h1 → h5 and h2 → h5), which makes the page harder to scan with a screen reader.

  View sourceElements (3)

• Title is short (3 characters)

  Your title is only 3 characters: “IBM”. Between 30 and 65 characters leaves room to say what you do and for whom.

  View source

• No XML sitemap

  No XML sitemap at https://www.ibm.com/content/sitemap/href-sitemap-index.xml, so Google discovers your pages only by following links.

• No X (Twitter) card tag

  No twitter:card tag. X falls back to Open Graph, which is set, so this is minor.

• 25 internal links, 17 external

  The homepage links to 25 pages on ibm.com and 17 external pages.

• No llms.txt

  There is no https://www.ibm.com/llms.txt, a short Markdown guide to your key pages for AI tools (llmstxt.org). It is optional and few AI tools read it yet, so treat it as a cheap extra.

• 1 link to non-canonical URLs

  Your homepage links to 1 page by a URL that isn't its canonical one, for example https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/report/ai-first-consulting, whose canonical is https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/en-us/report/ai-first-consulting. Linking straight to the canonical URL saves crawlers a detour and keeps ranking signals on one address.

  Elements (1)

• 15 internal pages checked

  We fetched 15 pages linked from your homepage (of 23 found) and read each the way a search engine does.

• 3 broken images

  3 images failed to load on a phone, for example https://id.rlcdn.com/464526.gif.

• 9 small tap targets

  9 of 14 tappable elements near the top of the page are smaller than 24 px, hard to hit with a thumb.

• 6 JavaScript errors while loading

  6 errors were logged to the browser console while the page loaded, for example “Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 ()”.

• No call to action on the first screen

  On a phone, there is no call to action on the first screen: visitors have to scroll to find out what to do next.

• No social proof

  No testimonials, customer logos, ratings or customer counts on the homepage: nothing tells a new visitor that others already trust you.

• No direct contact details

  No phone number or email link on the homepage, so ready-to-buy visitors have one fewer way to reach you.

• No risk reducer

  No guarantee or risk reducer (money-back, free trial, no credit card) is mentioned, which is often what tips a hesitant visitor.

• About 785 words of copy

  The homepage carries about 785 words of visible text.

• 9 trackers load before any consent

  9

  Before a visitor clicks anything, the page loads Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, LinkedIn Insight and Microsoft Ads and 4 mores (measured from a US location before any click). A consent tool (TrustArc) is installed; check it blocks these until visitors agree where the law requires it.

• 43 cookies set on arrival

  43

  Opening the homepage sets 43 cookies, 1 of them by other companies (measured from a US location before any click).

• 65 other companies contacted

  Loading the homepage contacts 65 hosts run by other companies (fonts, scripts, analytics, ads), each of which sees the visitor's IP address.