News

What a corporate website needs in 2026

Core Web Vitals, WCAG 2.2, technical SEO, structured data, content for AI and cookies: what a company website in Andorra and Catalonia has to meet.

Published By BDR Group11 min read

A corporate website in 2026 has to load and respond quickly (Core Web Vitals in the green), be accessible (WCAG 2.2 level AA as the reference), be properly indexed (technical SEO and structured data), give clear answers that search engines and AI assistants can cite, and comply with privacy and cookie rules. None of these points depends on having more pages.

Speed: what the Core Web Vitals measure

Google uses three page experience metrics, the Core Web Vitals, and defines a result as "good" when it is met at the 75th percentile of real visits, separately for mobile and desktop (web.dev, updated 7 May 2025):

MetricWhat it measuresGoodPoor
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)When the main element appears2.5 s or lessMore than 4 s
INP (Interaction to Next Paint)Response to clicks and taps200 ms or lessMore than 500 ms
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)Visual stability0.1 or lessMore than 0.25

INP replaced FID as a stable metric in 2024. As for ranking, Google recommends achieving good Core Web Vitals and says that page experience aligns with what its systems want to reward, without assigning it any specific weight. We do not treat them as a switch: a slow page loses visitors before it loses rankings.

The usual causes of poor results are heavy images, third-party scripts (chat widgets, pixels, maps), banners that push the content around and slow hosting. The first step is to measure: the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console and PageSpeed Insights show where each page fails.

Accessibility: WCAG 2.2 and what the law requires

The technical reference is WCAG 2.2, a W3C Recommendation published on 5 October 2023 and republished on 12 December 2024. It adds 9 new success criteria compared with 2.1 and removes one (4.1.1, Parsing). Among the new ones there is, at level AA, a minimum size of 24 by 24 CSS pixels for elements that are clicked or tapped. The W3C states that content that conforms to 2.2 also conforms to 2.0 and 2.1, and recommends using it. For a company website, level AA is a reasonable goal.

In Spain and Catalonia

Directive (EU) 2019/882 on accessibility requirements for products and services (the European Accessibility Act) has applied since 28 June 2025 (Article 31). In Spain it is transposed by Ley 11/2023 of 8 May (the Spanish law transposing the EU accessibility directives), whose title I has applied since the same date. It does not cover every website: it applies to a list of services, including e-commerce (services provided at a distance, through a website or app, at the request of a consumer, to conclude a contract), consumer banking services, travel agencies and tour operators, passenger transport and social networks. Micro-enterprises providing services (fewer than 10 people and turnover or balance sheet of up to 2 million euros) are exempt (Article 3(3)).

So a website that only presents the company is not on the list, but an online shop or a travel agency’s website may well be. The third additional provision requires the websites covered to reach at least the intermediate level of the generally recognised accessibility criteria, with the UNE 139803 standard (the Spanish web accessibility standard) as the reference. Penalties are governed by sector-specific rules and, failing those, by title III of Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2013 (the Spanish general law on the rights of persons with disabilities); the autonomous communities designate the supervisory authorities. If you sell to EU consumers, take advice on how this affects you.

The European standard EN 301 549 has a new version (V4.1.1, September 2026) that incorporates WCAG 2.2. We have not checked whether its reference has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, which is what gives a presumption of conformity (Article 17 of Ley 11/2023).

In Andorra

Andorra has Llei 24/2025 of 13 November on universal accessibility, which applies to the public and private sectors. Article 26 says that the information society must be accessible under universal design; that public and private entities must ensure that their communication systems, including telephone and digital customer service, are accessible; and that digital information must be provided in accessible formats and with usable, understandable interfaces. The text does not cite WCAG or any technical standard for private websites: it leaves the detailed conditions to a regulation that the Govern must approve within a maximum of one year (first final provision). Penalties range from 300 to 50,000 euros (Article 48).

In Andorra, then, the obligation exists and the technical detail has yet to be specified. WCAG 2.2 AA is the soundest reference for getting ahead of it.

What to check first

Full keyboard navigation with visible focus, text contrast, alternative text on images, labels on form fields, button size, captions on videos and the page language declared. Automated tools only detect part of the problems: the rest shows up with a keyboard and a screen reader.

Technical SEO: so that Google finds, understands and indexes the site

Google’s documentation (SEO maintenance guide, updated 18 December 2025) summarises the technical basics:

  • Important pages and resources must not be blocked in robots.txt. That file is not a way to prevent indexing: that is what noindex or restricted access are for.
  • A sitemap with the important pages.
  • 301 redirects for permanent changes and a real 404 code for removed pages.
  • HTTPS across the whole site.
  • A complete mobile version: Google indexes and ranks using the mobile version, which must have the same main content, the same metadata and the same structured data as the desktop one.
  • Titles and descriptions that describe each page.

If the site is in several languages, Google recommends a different URL for each version and hreflang annotations: each version lists itself and the others, with full URLs and two-way links, and may have an x-default version. An Andorran website in four languages is the typical case.

Structured data: a company profile machines can read

Structured data tells Google what each thing on the page is. Google recommends the JSON-LD format and asks that it describe what the user sees on the page. For a corporate website, the minimum is Organization markup on the home page or the "About us" page: it has no required properties, but Google recommends giving the name, URL, logo, address, contact details and official profiles (sameAs), using the most specific subtype (LocalBusiness for a company with premises). It is validated with the Rich Results Test. It does not guarantee any special appearance in the results.

Content for search engines that generate answers (GEO)

GEO means working so that the systems that generate answers, such as the AI summaries in search engines, can read and cite a website. Google’s documentation is clear: there are no additional requirements or special optimisations to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, no specific structured data is needed, and no new files or AI-specific text files are required. The page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet.

The llms.txt file is a proposal by Jeremy Howard (published on 3 September 2024, version 2 revised on 10 August 2026) to offer agents a Markdown file at the root of the site with links to the key content. It is an open proposal, not a formal standard, and Google says it is not needed for its results. Creating one costs little, but we do not present it as a way of gaining visibility.

What is supported is writing well: Google’s guidance on helpful content asks you to think of people, to show who produces the content and how, and to be wary of tactics such as changing dates to look fresh. For GEO, this means direct answers at the start of each section, headings that make sense on their own, data with a source and a date, and visible authorship.

Privacy and cookies

In Spain, the AEPD’s Guía sobre el uso de las cookies (cookie guide, updated May 2024) asks that the option to reject be offered on the same layer and at the same level as acceptance, that the mere inactivity of the user not count as consent, and that there be no more complicated mechanisms for rejecting. In Andorra, the APDA guide "Ús de cookies, política de privadesa i avís legal" (use of cookies, privacy policy and legal notice; version 4, 23 January 2024) says that the absence of a "reject" button on the first layer is a breach, that continuing to browse is not consent and that users cannot be forced to accept in order to browse. Technical cookies, necessary to provide the service the user has requested, are exempt from the obligation to inform and ask for consent (AEPD guide).

Our interest in this topic

At BDR Group we build websites and handle search positioning together with Nèvola, as part of our digital strategy service, so we have an interest in this topic. Most of the list can be checked without us: the tools are free and the rules are public.

What to do now

  1. Measure your five most visited pages with PageSpeed Insights and the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console, and prioritise the one that fails most.
  2. Test the site with the keyboard only and review contrast, alternative text, form labels and button size.
  3. Check that the whole site runs on HTTPS, that there is a sitemap, that the language versions have hreflang and that the mobile version has the same content as the desktop one.
  4. Add Organization markup in JSON-LD to the home page and validate it.
  5. Review the cookie banner and the list of third-party scripts, and check that rejecting is as easy as accepting.

Frequently asked questions

Does my website have to be accessible?

It depends. In Spain, title I of Ley 11/2023 applies to a list of services (e-commerce, consumer banking, transport, travel agencies, among others) and excludes micro-enterprises providing services. In Andorra, Llei 24/2025 requires communication systems and digital information to be accessible, without yet specifying the technical standard.

Are Core Web Vitals a ranking factor?

Google recommends achieving them and links them to what its systems want to reward, but does not specify their weight.

Do I need an llms.txt file?

It is not necessary to appear in Google’s results, and Google says so explicitly. It is a proposal, not a standard, and you should not wait for any specific effect from it.

Sources

Want to review your company’s website?

If you want to know where your website stands on speed, accessibility and visibility, start with the services page: Web and digital strategy

Back to News

News

Related articles