Two thirds of Irish businesses update their web content on a weekly basis and realise the importance of keeping web content fresh and up to date.
According to a survey of organisations ranging from SMEs to large public sector bodies, 65pc of firms rate their sites as either important or very important to their business.
The results from the survey, commissioned by content management firm Webtrade and carried out by PAN Research, indicate that many firms believe an online presence has become very important in today’s business environment.
The report says web marketing poses a challenge for many Irish businesses. Companies are only now beginning to pay attention to strategies such as search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine advertising (SEA).
While SEO can improve the volume and quality of traffic to a website, 40pc of the companies surveyed were unaware of the benefits of SEO.
Some 65pc of companies surveyed use a web statistics tool that analyses site activity and provides information on visitors to a site.
“The website has become a very important marketing tool and information resource for organisations,” says Patrick Bates, managing director of Webtrade.
“Keeping website content relevant and up to date creates a reason for existing customers to return to the website and for new customers it provides a fresh view of what your organisation does.”
In terms of SEO and SEA, Bates said that for a lot of companies, being found on search engines like Google and Yahoo! is vitally important to the return on investment they can yield from their website.
“SEA can be an expensive option, so it is vital that companies use a content management system that allows them to optimise every page on their website to improve their natural ranking as much as possible,” Bates added.
By John Kennedy
