Are You Sabotaging Your Site's Visibility?
By Kalena Jordan of Web Rank Ltd
A recent
study of New Zealand's Top 100 Companies by us
here at Web Rank Ltd has revealed that every
single one of New Zealand's leading companies have
web sites that sabotage their ability to be found by
Internet users.
How did this happen? The study reveals that each site
belonging to the Top 100 contains design elements that
in some way negatively impact their compatibility with
and visibility in search engines. As a result, many of
New Zealand's leading companies are not found listed in
the search results of the most popular U.S. and New
Zealand search engines, impacting their potential online
revenue.
Most Internet users rely on search engines to find
product and service providers. Unless they know the
exact website address or search by the company or
brand name, they will try to find what they are looking
for by using keywords that describe a product or
service's features, benefits or attributes. By ignoring
the most important method used by people browsing
the Internet, these companies are sacrificing an
enormous opportunity to attract more traffic to their
sites.
Websites are often a very large expense for these
companies, ranging from a few thousand to hundreds of
thousands of dollars. To invest such a massive amount
of time, money and effort into an online presence and
not ensuring it can be found is like constructing a
storefront without any doors. After all, what is the
point of paying so much money for a web site that will
never be found?
Does your web site contain any of the same self-
defeating elements? Let's take a look:
~ 25 percent of the Top 100 New Zealand
Companies could not be found for their chosen search
terms in either U.S. or New Zealand search engines. Are
you targeting the most appropriate search terms for
your site?
~ 62 percent of the Top 100 New Zealand
Companies fail to utilise their site TITLE tags
effectively. Are you including keywords in your web
page TITLE tags instead of just your company name?
~ 13 percent of New
Zealand's Top 100 Companies are using techniques that
could get them penalised on search engines
for "spamming". Are you avoiding techniques considered
as "spam" by the search engines?
~ The majority (59 percent) of New Zealand's
Top 100 Companies use little or no body text on their
home page. Are you using plenty of text on your pages
for search engines to index?
~ 42 percent of the web sites belonging to
New Zealand's Top 100 Companies are inaccessible to
the visually impaired. Are you using ALT IMG attributes
for your graphics and image files?
~ 5 percent of the Top 100 New Zealand
Companies are not listed in any of the most popular
U.S. or New Zealand search engines examined. Have
you submitted your site to the major international and
local search engines and directories?
~ 63 percent of New Zealand's Top 100
Companies do not include a META Description Tag on
their home page and 70 percent of the Top 100 New
Zealand Companies do not include a META Keywords
Tag on their home page. Have you included relevant
META Tags in your site's HTML code?
~ 78 percent of the Top 100 New Zealand
Companies do not use target search terms within their
home page text. Do you?
Addressing all these elements will ensure your web site
has the best chance possible of being visible in search
engines and easily found by your target audience.
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Dear Reader,
Not sure what sort of month you've had, but it's been a
month of new beginnings for Web Rank.
Firstly, we redesigned our
web site to give it a more professional look. The
feedback from customers and visitors has been terrific,
making me wish we'd made the change a lot sooner.
Next, we launched our Special Report -
Search Engine Compatibility and
the Top 100 New Zealand Companies - which
reveals just how invisible the web sites of New
Zealand's top companies are to the average searcher.
See our feature article this month for the shocking
results and how you can get your hands on a copy.
The publicity we've had as a result of the
report launch has been incredible. Until recently we had
been better known in the U.S. than in our own country
of New Zealand but the report launch and resulting
press coverage has changed all that. The publicity in
combination with our site re-design has tripled the
number of enquiries we receive and has seen our
business turn a corner. I highly recommend any small
business out there invest some time and money into
these areas for instant results.
Lastly (and the most exciting news of all!) is that my
husband and I discovered that we are expecting our
first child in February. This is both a shock and a
delight considering we didn't think we could have
children.
Enjoy this issue and remember to visit our daily
Search Engine News Blog for the latest industry
news and gossip.
Till next time - here's cheers to new
beginnings...
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| Yahoo Confirms Overture Buyout Rumor | | |
 Search giant
Yahoo! last month confirmed recent rumors of a
take-over bid for pay-per-click search engine Overture,
announcing the company would acquire Overture for
USD 1.63 billion in cash and shares.
The announcement was a serious wake up call for the
remaining players in the search industry, given the
amount of consolidation that has happened in the past
six months.Full Story... | | |
| Overture Ousts Google to Win Freeserve Deal | | |
 Overture won a significant victory last month in their
European search battle with Google. In the U.K.,
Overture
replaced
Google as algorithmic search supplier for Freeserve, the
country's largest Internet access provider.Full Story... | | |
| Google Releases New AdSense Features | | |
 Google has released a new feature of their
AdSense advertising product that enables
webmasters to customize the look of the AdSense ads
that are displayed on their web sites.AdSense publishers can now set the background, text
and border colors of the AdWords ads displayed on their
site so that they complement their color scheme and
overall site design. Full Story... | | |
| Special Offer! | | |
 Buy our latest report Search
Engine Compatibility and the Top 100 New Zealand
Company Web Sites from just USD 75 and
receive our companion report Search Engine
Compatibility and the Top 100 Australian Public
Company Web Sites free!Click here for more info... | | |
| WotBot - the New Search Kid on the Block | | |
 There's a new search kid on the block. WotBot is
currently in Alpha testing and has been in development
since October 2002.Full Story... | | |
| Overture to Open Sydney Office | | |
 Commercial search giant Overture has
announced plans to expand their Asia Pacific network
with the opening of an office in Sydney by the end of
the year.
Full Story... Click here for a full text/print version of this newsletter... | | |
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