When it comes to clicks, Fidelity’s site does the trick

Fidelity Investments may be the the nation’s No. 2 online broker, but it tries harder with its website.

The Boston company came out on top with a 91 out of a possible 100 score in a yet-to-be-released year-end survey of brokers’ Internet sites by Dalbar Inc., a financial research company in Boston.

Charles Schwab & Co. ranked second with an 87, followed closely by Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. and E*Trade Group Inc., with 84 and 83, respectively.

“Fidelity has been consistent across every single one of its product lines,” says Louis Harvey, president of Dalbar. “Anywhere you turn, they are the technology leaders.”

Dalbar also ranked the Internet sites of brokerage firms at the end of the third quarter, but those results were never made public.

InvestmentNews obtained a copy of the year-end report.

Despite finishing first, Fidelity was faulted because material posted on its website failed to meet Dalbar’s standards in terms of relevance, timeliness and quality.

“The fact that they have a richer site than other people makes it more difficult to be up to date with regard to content,” Mr. Harvey says.

“If all I have on my website is my birthday, then I don’t have to change it very often, do I?” he adds.

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The quarterly survey looked at some 300 brokerage sites and rated them on ease of use, functionality, content and overall experience.

At least two brokers – Muriel Siebert & Co. in New York and A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis – will be less than happy when they see how they fared in the survey.

Muriel Siebert ranked 21st, down from ninth three months earlier, while A.G. Edwards fell to No. 23, from No. 13.

“It’s not that they did anything wrong,” says James Osmond, who is in charge of e-business at Dalbar. “It’s just that they haven’t done as good a job at keeping up with everyone else.”Any brokerage firm that thinks it can remain static for three months is going to get chewed up.”

Mitchell Cohen, the chief financial officer at Muriel Siebert, disputes the notion that its Internet site is not up to par with rival sites.

“We’ve made a lot of enhancements to our site during the fourth quarter,” he says.

“We’re charging down the road here.”

A.G. Edwards insists that it also is charging ahead – in a behind-the-scenes sort of way.

“We are currently piloting, internally, a newly redesigned public site and client account-access site that will debut later this spring,” says Margaret Welch, a company spokeswoman. “Consequently, we have not focused on enhancements to the existing public sites at this time.”

PaineWebber Inc. of New York jumped 13 spots to No. 7. In November, it unveiled a major overhaul of its website. The company improved access to research and market analysis, and added unlimited real-time quotes and bill payment tools.

Wells Fargo & Co. of San Francisco, the nation’s fifth-largest banking company, climbed 19 notches to No. 5 after making significant im-

provements to the content of its website.