Australian website statistics – December 2009

15Dec09

The evolutionary nature of the internet means that its increasingly important for organisations to have a website that is keeping pace with change. A neglected website is one that will be left behind by the most powerful marketing force in the world. Amazingly, only a small percentage of organisations are really taking advantage of their web presence.

Web NLYZR, a free website rating service owned by my company, has been appraising the marketing effectiveness of websites for most of 2009. In this time we have ranked thousands of Australian websites, looking at their Search Engine Optimisation, Keyword Search Results, Competitors, Social Media integration and Traffic Conversion strategies.

Web NLYZR provides us with a fascinating insight into the state of Australian web design industry and the sites being produced for Australian organisations.

Here are the latest statistics that have emerged from websites tested over the last 6 months:

• Average NLYZR score = 41 /100

• Highest score = 99/100 (Several Australian sites have scored high 90’s)

• Lowest score = 2/100 (this site had been outsourced to India by an Australian web designer)

• Only 28% of sites tested have GOOD search engine optimisation.

• Only 4% of sites tested have excellent Search engine optimisation

• Approximately 36% of sites tested achieved GOOD social media scores. This average has fallen over last 3 months and probably reflects the initial flood of sites we had submitted from our social media friendly contacts.

• 17% of sites tested received a GOOD Traffic Conversion score. This continues to amaze us. So many businesses have sites with little or no conversion strategies in place. This appears to be a major issue in Australian websites and web design.

We believe that NLYZR is providing a very accurate snapshot of the state of Australian business websites. As the year has progressed we the figures have leveled out to reflect steady trends in each area (we had a lot of bloggers and Twitterati submitting sites in the early days which skewed some results).

What NLYZR is revealing is that the majority of organisations have a long way to go until they are really taking full advantage of their online potential.

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