Study: Majority of Australian websites failing in search

5Sep11

Its crucial to be found online in search

As we move from a bricks and mortar economy to one where we are increasingly doing business online the is a growing need for businesses to adapt.

The media this year has been full of doom and gloom about the impact of the digital economy on a beleaguered traditional retail sector. Some of our most famous retailers have been crying foul over purchases made online from foreign websites being GST exempt.

Yet despite the anguish it is surprising to find that very few Australian businesses are taking the appropriate steps to effictively compete online. We have just completed a study of over 6000 websites by NLYZR to determine the standard of website optimization in Australia and the results are telling.

The NLYZR study found that the majority of Australian websites are not up to scratch when it comes to SEO:

• 87% of the sites had substandard SEO

• 29% had no SEO at all

• Only 6% of sites tested were properly optimized

The study looked at over 6000 different websites in a cross section ranging from large publicly listed companies to small businesses and sole traders.

These statistics are alarming and indicate that very few businesses are taking the time to do the one thing that can have the greatest impact on their results – website optimization.

The more we spoke to businesses about their online marketing, we realised that most found search too complicated to understand and solutions too hard to implement. Many found the cost of professional SEO too prohibitive despite the potential benefits of an improved web presence.

Yet I am adamant that the first and most essential challenge for any business wanting to compete online is to be easily found in search for relevant search terms. This alone can make an incredible difference to your business. If Australian businesses are going to embrace the digital age and compete in a global economy they need to get the basics right first.

This is why we decided to develop NLYZR, a website optimization system that anyone could use. Our overriding principle was to keep it simple, clear and easy-to-use. We wanted to give business owners and marketers the information they really need to compete successfully online, even if they weren’t web geeks themselves.

We have taken two years to develop and refine the system, using the invaluable data gleaned from our initial Free Web NLYZR to determine what was needed. Our series of Alpha and Beta tests this year have returned some amazing results for those involved.

• Richard Windeyer, a mortgage broker, saw his traffic increase 256% within one month and go from nowhere to the first page of Google search results. Subsequently his inquiry rate has more than doubled.

• Hadley Cycles, an established retailer, are now ranked first for all their target search terms and have had an amazing trading period despite a sluggish economy and cold, wet winter.

• Leading national advertising agency, George Patterson | Y&R recently started using NLYZR for one of their digital clients, and the impact of the NLYZR recommendations was immediate. The client was completely blown away by the result and the agency is now ready to roll NLYZR out for other clients.

My team and I are extremely proud to be launching NLYZR. It’s our first real web start-up, built from scratch with all of our thinking there for all to see. It’s deliberately simple and easy to use, which we felt was crucial to its success.

But mostly we are proud because we honestly believe that being found online is so important and clearly has been too hard to address for too many businesses. NLYZR is here to address that glaring issue quickly and affordably, and hopefully help many more businesses be able to compete online and take their services to the world.