We’re excited to announce our new Enhanced Listings option for New Zealand websites – launching today to help drive you targeted traffic from NZS.com.

Promoting your website with an Enhanced Listing is a user friendly and effective means of gaining greater, targeted exposure across the New Zealand web.

An Enhanced Listing gives you a premium spot above free listings in your chosen category for the 50% discounted price of just $9.95+gst a month.

For more information check out the Promote Your Website pages on NZS.com!

We’re working to bring our searches the most information we can from the New Zealand Web, so have linked the main title of our Directory Listings through to the Site Profile page for each website in the results.

You can still click directly to the website by clicking the URL on the right of the Directory Listing Title.

This change will improve the readership of the extended business information NZS.com has available for a growing number of businesses within New Zealand.

Here’s an example of a Site Profile page without business details – http://www.nzs.com/site-profile/tv3.co.nz/ and here’s an example of one with them – http://www.nzs.com/site-profile/avatar.co.nz/.

If you haven’t claimed your website and submitted your business details, now’s a good time!

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.

We’ve updated our look to make NZS.com easier on the eye, and more usable within your screen space.

NZS.com is now in fixed width format, making it viewable without scrolling across on a wider range of computer screens. The NZS.com design team have spent copious hours positioning the content within the directory pages to maximize the use of page space, meaning users get the most information in the clearest format possible upon page entry. This content reformat has also been keyed with a modern new font, increasing text visibility.

The result of this contributes to the overall sleek new look of the NZS.com homepage and all of the other category and feature pages. We’re determined to make New Zealand search the easiest and most efficient for you, enjoy our brand new look!

For the quarter January-March 2008, NZS.com has placed #5 in both the Business and Finance – Business Directories industry, and the Computers and Internet – Search Engines

industry! This status is based on the market share of visits among all New Zealand websites within those industries – so we’re doing pretty well to be in the top five throughout the country in two different categories!

Is your website in the running for a Hitwise

award? All you need to do is register for the awards program (which is free), you don’t need to become a Hitwise Member. It’s a great idea to find out if you rank well amongst your competitors, and strive to upstage them for the next quarter. Stay tuned for NZS.com’s placings in the April-June quarter.

This week we welcome Dean Stirling to the role of Sales Executive. Our latest addition comes with over three years experience in B2B sales in Web and Internet marketing. Dean is passionate about the Internet and the part it has to play in companies growing their business, and is looking forward to working with the many websites within New Zealand to improve traffic to their sites.

Dean is also inspired by the outdoors – he plays golf, wakeboards, cycles, surfs and is now turning his hand to kite surfing. Along with enjoyment of outdoor recreational pursuits, Dean is an avid sports fan, with Formula One a winner and coaching his son’s rugby team a close second.

If you’re looking for a new job, browse our selection of job vacancies in New Zealand.

The first major outing for the search engine industry in New Zealand was attended by companies from within the growing NZ search industry, as well as by many sales and marketing managers looking to get in on the rise of performance-based search advertising around the world.

Big name exhibitors
Exhibitors included Google, SLI-Systems, Netconcepts, FirstRate, Alekemi and SureFire, along with representatives from many big name brands such as Microsoft, Yahoo! and DoubleClick. Dr Grant Ryan from Eurekster was the keynote speaker who kicked off the morning sessions, with heavyweights from the search industry – Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft – completing the morning.

Competition in the NZ search market
New Zealand Google Marketing Manager, Paul Webster, will face a growing challenge in the coming year; Yahoo! Search Marketing head, Willie Pang, was adamant their introduction to the market will increase competition dramatically and help shift some of Google’s majority share (90%) of the search market in New Zealand, to Yahoo!

Liz Fraser, NZ Business Manager for MSN New Zealand, was optimistic about the new role MSN has within the New Zealand search market, announcing that the site is about to be re-launched. Liz stated that in the long-run, Microsoft see the greatest search competition solely between Microsoft and Google; this comment sparked some interest from the attendees, as she was effectively writing off the Yahoo! representative sitting next to her on the panel.

Bebo popular with young New Zealanders
A quick talk from the Australia / New Zealand manager for Bebo showed the level of influence the community site has in the 15 to 24-year-old market in New Zealand – Bebo has more traffic than TradeMe. Bebo’s new media relationship with TVNZ was touted as the first of its kind in the world, allowing Bebo access to 70% of the New Zealand Internet audience.

NZS.com at the Search Engine Room Conference
As NZS.com General Manager, I was a speaker at the conference, discussing the emergence of local directories in the small New Zealand market.

We’re already anticipating next year’s event – which should offer a similarly diverse and dynamic programme combining issues such as search marketing, search engine optimisation, blogging and social search.

• Today’s weather, updated every hour
• Weather forecasts for the next four days
• Weather reports for North and South Island regions, cities and towns
• Information on climate, sunshine hours, rainfall and average temperature

Online, up-to-the-minute weather reports mean you’ll always have the latest information on-hand, whether you’re planning a weekend escape, wondering whether to catch the bus or walk, or just hoping for summer sunshine to arrive. So, get the latest NZ weather reports, now!

So if you like it, love it, or just plain hate it please let us know your thoughts through our Suggestion Box.

The team here have been working hard in the background for a few months to bring the new look and feel to fruition. Along with the cosmetic update, the structure of the site has also had a good re-work, so you’ll find the site faster to load and easier to use across the board.

A special thanks goes to Zane, Greta and Steve who have worked so hard to bring you the next step in NZS.com’s evolution.

We’re all excited by the outlook for NZS.com as we start a new phase of development towards mapping out the entire New Zealand Web. The goal we’re driven by is the aim of providing you with the simplest and quickest way to find the website or content you’re looking for on the New Zealand Web.

If you have any feedback or suggestions about the site, we’d love to hear from you. Let us know what you think through our Suggestion Box.