Keeping up with cyberspace developments is proving tough for the marketing executives of some of the country’s biggest businesses.

A survey published today shows that Britain's largest public companies risk falling out of view on the internet, suggesting that older companies are being outmanoeuvred online.

Research showed that 64 of the websites of FTSE 100 - those blue chip companies with the greatest market values on the London Stock Exchange - do not appear in the first page or top ten results when relevant keywords are typed into the most popular search engines.

The Search Works, the marketing consultancy that carried out the research, claims that the findings show that two-thirds of the UK’s biggest companies stand to lose sales by failing to exploit search engine marketing.

However, the FTSE’s online visibility has improved. Similar research carried out in 2003 found that nearly one third of FTSE 100 company websites did not appear in the top 30 results when searched for by name. In 2005 all of the FTSE 100 did.

Internet marketing has moved sharply into focus in recent months with Yahoo identifying a "tipping point" between conventional and new tech advertising, with advertising budgets migrating online. Google, the online search and advertising company, has also reported record profits while Microsoft, the software company, has piled into the paid-search advertising market in a bid to make up lost ground.

Espotting, the online advertising company that is now owned by FindWhat.com, led the British media field last year, recording a 726 per cent hike in revenues. Old-media stalwarts, which have larger bases for comparison, failed to get close to those growth rates. WWP, the marketing services giant, recorded a 5 per cent increase during the same period. Emap, whose media concerns include magazines, newspapers and commercial radio, posted a 3 per cent increase in revenues.

Outlooks - and memories - differ sharply, however, with contrasting views emerging of the dot.com frenzy that fuelled the FTSE 100 index to an all-time peak of 6,930 on December 31 1999.

"The best-kept secret is that the fall-out out from the dot.com crash really wasn’t so bad," Daniel Rimer, a partner at Index Ventures, the hi-tech venture capital house, said.

"You look at the charts now and you see that the curve is heading up and to the right."

In contrast, the Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein global strategist, James Montier, commented: "This isn't the return of the boom, it is the bubble redux and it is likely to end in tears once again".

Today’s research also showed that online performance varies widely between sectors. Travel businesses, which have quickly adapted to consumers booking flights and holidays online, are the most advanced in terms of search engine marketing strategies. Despite the increased popularity of online banking, the financial sector is "lagging far behind", according to The Search Works.

"The way in which consumers are searching is developing and becoming more sophisticated," said Nick Hynes, the chief executive of The Search Works, which counts BP among its clients.

"Users are now using phrases such as 'cheap flights to New York', rather than keying in just one word. That means businesses have to be much more aware of the portfolio of keywords they pay for through paid-search advertising and have to be on the ball when it comes to the various black arts that the experts can use to ensure you appear under the correct algorithmic index.

"It's all about making sure you're around at the moment of truth when a customer makes a purchase."

The results ought to raise eyebrows in British boardrooms, where the growing popularity on online shopping, bookings services and advertising will not have been overlooked.

Meanwhile, search providers are keen to emphasise the "purity" of the search results generated by their websites. Google, the search market leader, says that the main search results listings on its site are "completely unbiased".

The fairness and integrity of search functions are seen as essential if users' trust is to be maintained. Google works by recognising the most popular, most-linked-to sites, which it then promotes to the top spots in a list of results.

Yet even the most web-savvy of companies can sometimes fail to make the most of their presence on the internet. The Search Works, which conducted the research, describes itself as a "search marketing services" business. A search for "The Search Works" on Google, however, failed to pick out the company in the first page of the listings except as a paid-for advertisement.

"Well, we re-branded our company today," said Mr Hynes when Times Online asked him about the glaring omission. "You're going to find that it's going to take two or three weeks to get up there online, whether you’re a baker or an expert - like us."

Click here for the Daniel Rimer interview in full.

Times Recommends

• Minister in talks with Saudis to protect creditors
• Premier Inn hits back in £29-a-room row
• Bankers hit back at 'populist' bonus supertax