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By
Kalena Jordan
15 August
2003
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.
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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.
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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.
Copyright © 2003 by Kalena Jordan. All rights reserved under U.S. and international
law.
The above article may be
re-published as long as the content remains unchanged and the following
paragraph is included at the end of the article, including the URL links:
Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia and New Zealand, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running her own SEO business Web Rank, Kalena manages Search Engine College, an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing subjects.
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