Easter is over, so we’ve got a bit of a break until the next public holiday. Seasonal keywords are always great to target if your product or service is offering holiday specials (how did you go targeting Easter seasonal keywords?)
While it’s not a stat holiday (although some might argue it should be!) Mother’s Day is coming up in May. If you’re having a Mother’s Day sale on your website, start thinking about targeting key phrases now.
Here’s a helpful list of Mother’s Day-related keyword searches which were popular on NZS.com last year:
mothers day
mothers day poems
mothers day gifts
mothers day quotes
mothers day poem
mothers day gift ideas
mothers day ideas
mother’s day poem
mothers day present
Get in quick are you’ve got the best chance of gaining a good search engine rank for your Mother’s Day-specific pages!
Analysing seasonal trends in search and keeping an eye on what’s coming up on your seasonal keyword list can produce solid results for the in-bound traffic to your website. Are you planning an Easter promotion and have a page targeting Easter keywords on your website?
For NZS.com, the largest spike we’ve seen over the last year was in relation to the Olympic Keyword Searches that were being searched on. These searches were across the widest range of user demographics that we’ve seen in some time.
Here’s a helpful list of Easter-related keyword searches which have gained popularity on NZS.com over the last week:
If you have a statistics package attached to you website (like Google Analytics, which is freely available) it’s a good idea to look back at Easter 2008 and see if people found your site by searching for Easter related terms. Re-cycling those terms this year within your website copy may help increase your traffic on them.
You might be surprised at the extra opportunities that present themselves by following other seasonal keywords that your visitors are using through-out the year.
When you want to look at launching a full search engine optimisation campaign for your website, it’s a good idea to enlist in the help of a SEO company to make sure you get the mix right for your target market.
Instead of investing hours of your own time figuring out how to optimise your site, let an SEO services expert do the hard work for you. They’ll complete a comprehensive Return on Investment (ROI) analysis, assessing the anticipated revenue that will be generated from SEO efforts versus the cost of implementation.
SEO professionals can do all of the keyword research and planning to best suit your market, and will undertake all restructuring of your content and will formulate a link building campaign.
Furthermore, an SEO expert will report, analyze and review your website’s new SEO work to keep you informed with its success. Check out our web promotion category on NZS.com to get the experts on board today!
We’re off to a cracker year on NZS.com, launching our new look this week and breaking a milestone barrier for page views last month - we hit the one million mark!
That’s right, NZS.com breaks a million page views, keeping us up with the increasing growth that the global online world is experiencing. Throughout 2008 we averaged 850,000 page views per month but for the first month of 2009 we soared to 1,075,401 visitor page views. Reaching this milestone is a great indication of the growing importance of New Zealand search.
Despite the predicted economic downturn in 2009, online marketing commentators predict further growth of the online industry as companies increasingly look to online marketing campaigns to increase their brand awareness and create new business.
Being a part of the global online community, we’re always keeping tabs on what is new and exciting in search engine optimisation at NZS.com. It seems like every week there’s a new way of doing things, a new keyword analysis resource from you-know-who.
We forget sometimes just how young SEO is, and how quickly optimisation fads and flutter in and out of popular use. It wasn’t too long ago when every at-home website developer was testing out every new SEO technique: from black text on black background keyword-laden pages, to irrelevant meta data keyword schemes focused on the hottest worldwide searches.
We’re a decade on from the emergence of these methods, but funnily enough they are still highly (and badly) used throughout the World Wide Web. What are the best SEO tools today? SEO companies will continually tell you that going back to the basics never goes awry. Unique content, cohesive page titling, targeted and concise keyword data, clean HTML, and of course, relevant inbound linking.
Set yourself a simple SEO formula for your website (and stick with that formula for every new page you create), and you’ll glide into top ranks and high conversions.
Olympic fever is in full swing and it’s great to see the entire nation getting behind the NZ Olympic Team as we’re all preparing for the glitz and glamour of the opening ceremony in Beijing today.
As avid followers of search within New Zealand, it’s interesting watching the flow of Olympic keyword searches, such as what people are searching for when they’re looking for information about the Olympics online - specifically information on the Olympic team.
Here’s a snippet of some of the top Olympic keyword search phrases that we’re seeing on NZS.com:
new zealand olympic team
olympic games
new zealand olympic team 2008
olympic games 2008
olympic medal tally
first new zealand olympic medal
new zealand olympic medal winners
new zealand olympic medal tally
first new zealander olympic medal
new zealand olympic gold medal winners
The Olympics are a global phenomenon and are one of the few events that capture the interest of the young and old. The level of people searching for background information on the history of the Olympics is something that comes across as a strong focus.
You’ll know of course that NZS.com is a New Zealand resource for online content.
So, what does it mean when, completely out of the blue on a Friday afternoon, NZS.com receives hundreds of people from all around the United States suddenly coming to NZS.com in search for the “New Zealand National Symbol“?
Perhaps Oprah talked about New Zealand and asked her audience what the national symbol was? Or a nationwide radio competition asked listeners who were keen for a major prize? I’m sure if those happened they would probably make the national news here in NZ.
This raises an interesting question, what is our national symbol? Is it the kiwi or the silver fern?
If you’ve been looking at SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) keyword suggestions to put the icing on your search engine optimisation cake, you may have come across the idea of incorporating misspelled keywords to capture a slice of the search market.
But is bad keyword spelling really useful or does it just make your website look unprofessional?
The answer to this question depends on your point of view. Just take a look at any keyword tool and you’ll see that intentional misspellings account for a significant proportion of searches online. So, including misspelled keywords can be useful, allowing you to:
Target searches that are commonly misspelled, for instance ‘accomodation’ instead of ‘accommodation’
Get good search engine rankings for profitable popular search terms that have low levels of competition
Capture the market forregional spelling variations, eg. both UK and US spellings of words such as ‘optimisation’ (’optimization’)
Help searchers find what they’re looking for, even if they enter a word incorrectly
But along with these benefits, there are also disadvantages to including misspellings or alternate spellingsin your website copy - the most obvious being that visitors and potential clients will see your website (and therefore your business) as sloppy, careless or… lacking in basic spelling skills. Even worse, you may end up losing your search engine friendly status if you, or your Web designer, try to fool search engines with invisible text or other keyword tricks.
An interesting battle is going on between the world’s major search engines…
You might have noticed that Google dominates online search, but Microsoft has a plan to knock Google from its top spot as Internet search leader. While analysts believe Yahoo will do everything in its power to remain independent, Microsoft is strongly encouraging Yahoo to accept a takeover bid of nearly US$42 billion.
Google controls around 62% of the lucrative global search market and has been strengthening its grip even further in recent times. In comparison, Microsoft and Yahoo combined have just a 16% share in worldwide search. And the sting for Yahoo? They gave Google its first big break in 2000, hiring the G-team to run their search engine.
Following the news, Yahoo shares rose nearly 48% while Microsoft shares fell 6.6% - signaling the stock market’s scepticism over the benefits of a union between the two giants. Google shares fell 8.6% on Friday, but this was in response to a disappointing fourth quarter earnings report, rather than a reaction to news of Microsoft’s bid for online supremacy.
So, what’s in it for Microsoft? The software giant may still the most valuable tech company in the world, but to solidify its position for the future it will need to gain a more level footing in the online world - as the computer user experience becomes increasingly Web based and less software reliant.
After turning down at takeover offer last year, Yahoo faces pressure to accept the latest bid, or risk a continuation of sliding profits and a bleak outlook for 2008.
Our personal health and fitness is one of our biggest concerns, so it’s no surprise that we look online for health information, advice, diagnosis, products, insurance, health shops and pharmacies… but what exactly are we looking for?
According to Hitwise, gatherers of online search data and statistics, the top 10 New Zealand health searches for December 2007 were:
Viewing and analysing search data such as this can be hugely valuable in terms of creating content, targeting Web users and reading the minds of New Zealand searchers. We’ve got a lot of health issues on our minds, covering:
Health fund raising - Taking part in the men’s health event of the year (the month formerly known as November)
Health and fitness - Finding gyms, fitness centres and recreational pursuits
Weight loss - Calculating Body Mass Index and signing up for Weight Watchers
Health care - Sourcing private health care, hospitals and PubMed (an online medical information resource)
Mental health - Depression, an all-too-common symptom of modern living?
Baby nappies - The essential item for newborns and infants!
Not only is this kind of information useful, it’s also changeable throughout the year; in winter, for instance, ‘cold and flu’ searches will be big, as will any hot current events, such as immunization or bird flu. So, keep an eye on search data - it makes for a fascinating insight into the world of search.
When you want to look at launching a full search engine optimisation campaign for your website, it’s a good idea to enlist in the help of a 
You’ll know of course that NZS.com is a New Zealand resource for online content.
If you’ve been looking at SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) keyword suggestions to put the icing on your search engine optimisation cake, you may have come across the idea of incorporating misspelled keywords to capture a slice of the search market.
An interesting battle is going on between the world’s major 
