Trade Mark New Zealand: Issue Six
Trade & Enterprise New Zealand
International search engines are unable to locate most of New Zealand’s top 100 exporters web sites, according to a survey by Internet marketing company First Rate.First Rate found 56% of web sites could not be found on international search engines using a company’s name. Additionally, 53% of the web sites did not state their core business activity in their homepage title tag, making the sties likely to rank poorly using phrases. Of the 100 companies surveyed 20% did not have a web site.
“This in itself is a concerning finding radically reducing their ability to be found by their target audience through the Internet,” First Rate said in their report, Search Engine Readiness of 100 Top New Zealand Exporters.
Meanwhile, a Statistics New Zealand survey, Information Technology Use in New Zealand, found 36% of New Zealand businesses has a web site in 2001, but sales represented only 0.3% of total operating income.
Most sites were used as an information source, with only 11% of sites set up to take online payments.