Exporters fail to rate on the web

By RICHARD WOOD

A survey by web marketing firm First Rate indicates New Zealand exporters are not making their presence felt on the web.

The survey found 20 per cent of exporters, as defined by NZBusiness magazine's top-100 list, did not have a website. Of those that did, 56 per cent were not listed by their company names in the three main web directories surveyed.

Forty per cent of the websites could not be found by their company name in the three main search engines, and little effort is going into populating page tags to assist search engines.

The number of other links to the site is also an issue, 76 per cent of sites having less than 50 links to them.

Tradenz ebusiness project manager Rod McKenzie said many exporters had sites built for them that were difficult to use and maintain.

His group is developing a roadmap for ebusiness for exporters, with an online questionnaire to help people identify how their business fits in the ebusiness spectrum and what to do next.