Search engines were all the rage online well before the media's breathless coverage of Google's recent IPO. Scrappy companies, in particular, are taking advantage of search
engines' ability to get their names, their brands, in front of the right eyeballs in the least amount of time. But it turns out that the heavyweight companies, at least, aren't
taking advantage of what could be an effective tool of online communications.
A new white paper outlining a study of Fortune 100 Web sites found that just 10% use search engine optimization effectively and that 40% aren't using SEO at all. The study,
conducted with possibly some ulterior motive, by OneupWeb, a Suttons Bay, Mich.-based search engine optimization and marketing firm, found that while the numbers have improved
from 2002 many of these global companies are allowing other companies to eat their lunch online.
"Not many companies know they can influence search results and instead go for the low-hanging fruit in online marketing, like banner ads and traditional affiliate
relationships," said Lisa Wehr, president of OneupWeb. When people access search engines "they stop on the first page and don't go beyond that, and if your company ends up on page
five you don't know what you've missed." In 2004, there were just nine well-optimized sites, compared with 3 in 2002.
OneupWeb expected the number to have grown at least 10 times to more than 30 companies in the last two years.
Put It In Black And White
OneupWeb analyzed the corporate Web sites of the first 100 companies listed on the Fortune 500, and looked for both what it considered ethical and unethical methods of SEO:
Ethical methods include:
- Unique title tags, including primary keywords/phrases relating to the company and its businesses, on pages throughout the site
- Relevant body text, index-able by search engines, containing keywords/ phrases relevant to the company and site
- Unique meta description and meta tags
Unethical Methods include:
- Comment tag keyword-stuffing (or spamming)
- Invisible text and/or image links
- Spamming with non-relevant keywords/phrases to the company and site