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?

Image from Flickr.

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 for regional 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 spellings in 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.

Find some of the best SEO consultants in New Zealand in the NZS.com directory.

Image from Flickr.

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:

1. movember
2. les mills
3. bmi
4. treasures
5. weight watchers
6. pubmed
7. southern cross
8. sparc
9. depression
10. auckland hospital

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.

More interesting statistics from the world of online search, this time demonstrating clear online search trends as we approach the holiday season. A highlight of many a New Zealand summer is the Kiwi camping holiday - packing the car and heading to the beach, campsite or holiday park with kids, chilly bins and kayaks in tow.

And New Zealand search statistics are showing the popularity of this summer pastime. Reports from Hitwise show that searches relating to the great outdoors have increased significantly in recent weeks. Most of these high ranking search terms are generic (like ‘camping grounds’), but other popular search terms are geographically specific (for instance ‘paihia camping ground’).

Top ten searches relating to camping holidays in New Zealand, for the week ending 8 December, 2007 were:

1. kiwi camping
2. camping grounds
3. camping
4. camping equipment
5. camping gear
6. camping nz
7. camping ground
8. camping sites
9. new zealand camping holidays
10. camping new zealand

So, what can we do with search keyword stats like this? Information on how searchers are finding your website can be used (along with data on what searchers are looking for online) to better tailor your website content and keywords. These statistics also show the power of seasonal search trends (online promotions should take into account the time of year) and region-specific searches (you may not be number one in generic camping term searches, but you could rank highly for a geographically specific search).

And if you’re getting ready to relax over the summer holidays, get sorted for your camping holiday with our directory of New Zealand camping grounds and camping equipment stores.

What are Kiwis searching for online?

Recently released 2007 search stats from Google show clear (and unsurprising) favourites in New Zealand search trends.

Top Google Searches:

1. Bebo
2. TradeMe
3. YouTube
4. Hotmail
5. Gmail

It’s great to have a New Zealand site in the top five searches - and what a phenomenon that NZ online auction site has become. As someone who’s navigated A LOT of the New Zealand Web space, I can tell you there are many copy-cat TradeMe’s out there, although it seems they’re fighting a losing battle on this one.

Other interesting top search results were the rising stars of the search phrase world, as compared to 2006 search statistics.

Fastest Rising Searches:

1. Facebook
2. Rugby World Cup
3. Americas Cup
4. YouTube
5. Cricket World Cup
6. Grabaseat
7. Bebo
8. Kiwisaver
9. Heroes
10. Vector Arena

These results show an intriguing mix of social networking sites (international, but with large New Zealand community bases) and sports events (although all the online searching in the world couldn’t bring these sports trophies home), with a dash of popular culture and concern for our financial security during retirement thrown in.

Earlier this week Eurekster, a New Zealand company working on vertical search engines called ‘Swicki’s’, came out of Beta. Steve Marden (the Eurekster CEO) wrote a blog post on what it means to be out of Beta - it’s a great read on the achievements of a local New Zealand company who have been making waves in the search world globally. The reason for completing the Beta testing phase comes down to having achieved the company’s initial vision to;

Allow anyone to create and maintain a vertical, topically focused search engine.

NZS.com have our own New Zealand Swicki covering all things New Zealand. Having a look over the ‘Hot Searches’ on the New Zealand Swicki is an interesting insight into what’s being searched on in the New Zealand market at any given point in time. Looking at the current Hot Searches turns up a wide range of searches from kids Christmas recipes to job vacancies.

Yesterday the #1 searched phrase on NZS.com was “hoodia.”

It’s always a laugh seeing something turn up as the most searched term in a day when you have absolutely no idea what the term means.

After some quick research it turns out Hoodia (otherwise known as Hoodia Gordonii) is an as yet unproven weight loss appetite suppressant made from a specific cactus-like plant that grows in the Namib Desert (or so Wikipedia tells me).

So who mentioned Hoodia to have New Zealanders searching for it?

If you’re looking for information about businesses or services on the Internet, you may (like 85% of Internet users) start your search off by using a search engine. Search engines are amazing tools that are designed to retrieve and display information.

Getting the results you want
To get the most relevant results from search engines, you need to be quite specific about the ‘keyword search phrase’ you type into the search box. In this example, you have decided to use NZS.com to help you find out where you can buy piano music at a reasonable price. You are based in Christchurch (the city in New Zealand, not the town in England). The words you might choose to include in your search term would then be: “second hand piano music christchurch”.

By being so specific about your search, the search engine can pull up what it considers to the best and most relevant result to answer your query.

Searching for New Zealand Web sites
If you’re interested in searching for a New Zealand service or company, NZS.com itself is a great place to start, but Google is still the world’s favourite search engine and comes in hundreds of different varieties. Google NZ offers the option to search New Zealand Web pages only, so you can start narrowing your search field that way.

Read more about keyword phrases and using them in your search engine marketing campaigns. More on this in another post! Adios!

NZS.com has dedicated a lot of time to finding New Zealand online content. It’s become evident to us that a lot of Kiwi sites are jolly hard to find. We regularly meet people at events etc that hand us their business card with their Web site on it. You take a look and see the site has no Google PageRank. This is generally because their site has no links to it from anywhere on the Web at all!

It’s a real shame to see this, because often they’ve spent thousands of dollars creating a site that looks pretty swish. It’s just marketing money down the drain, and in the end gives the Web a bad rap. I can imagine them saying at some point “We’ve spent a lot of time and money developing this site, but we get nothing much out of it, the Web is a waste of time.”

To stop your Web site being invisible, make sure you get it linked from high profile directories and content sites. What’s the point of having a site if people can’t find you?! Also, if you’re a bit more serious about it, then commit to an ongoing Web site promotion program - for most Web sites this is the key to getting a good return on your investment.