Pure SEO has released its 2018 New Zealand Internet Search Trends and Insights report, that sheds light on how Kiwis engage with search engines, to inform businesses digital marketing strategies.
Long before Online Republic was the Kiwi success story sold to Australia-based Webjet for $85 million, former StopPress writer Sim Ahmed wrote a piece in 2013 telling the story of how the company’s founder Mike Ballantyne discovered success by moving away from ego-stroking digital campaigns and focusing on the unsexy—but increasingly important—realm of search engine marketing. Today, we revisit this tale.
Google recently changed its search algorithm to punish websites that aren’t mobile-friendly. And with watches, car interfaces and who knows what else becoming internet-enabled, designing and building websites for a future where device size is unknown is paramount, say Sam Judson and Richard Allardice.
Richard Conway, founder of Pure SEO, came to New Zealand from the UK in 2008, and could not get any work because most employers won’t hire without any New Zealand experience. Those who were willing to give him jobs wanted to pay him peanuts.
Google seems to be making a habit of making us get all emotional. In a recent effort in India, it told the story of how search can bring about a touching reunion, now it’s showcasing a French boffin’s labour of aircraft love.
Google New Zealand’s latest financial statement to the government shows the search giant paid $165,000 to the tax man in 2012.
When we spoke with Google’s country manager Tony Keusgen last year, he was openly beating the white coat marketing drum and said the New Zealand industry had a long way to go when it came to properly embracing evidence-based marketing. And he seems to have found an ally in that crusade in Vivaki, which has signed up for one of the biggest YouTube inventory deals in the company’s history on the back of a research project that looked at the prevalence of dual screening in New Zealand.
A year ago Google New Zealand consisted of three people who would fly back and forth from Sydney to manage sales over here. Now there’s about a dozen sales staff working in Auckland.
Facebook’s new Graph Search hasn’t rolled out to all of the social network’s one billion users yet, but a new meme shows the privacy horrors that awaits us when it does.
New Zealanders really enjoy a catchy tune mixed with a bit of schadenfreude, a fact demonstrated by the most searched for ad on Google this year.
Search giant Google has released the results of its 2012 top search trends, including the most searched for terms in New Zealand this year.
Interactive ad revenue figures have been steadily heading upwards over the past few years in New Zealand and in the latest round of figures, the sector hit its highest ever level, with total advertising spend in Q3, 2012 of $94 million, an increase of three percent from the last quarter and an increase of five percent year-on-year. But, as you’d expect in such a rapidly developing industry, there are still a few issues to contend with, including a fall in display advertising, the use of ad blocking software and discussions around the appropriate methodology for collecting revenue data.
While New Zealand’s international awards hauls have earned it a reputation as a hotbed of advertising creativity, Google’s New Zealand country manager Tony Keusgen believes we’ve got a lot of work to do when it comes to digital marketing and he is on a mision to get Kiwi marketers using data to inform their decisions. So how important is search? How can YouTube being harnessed? And are Kiwi marketers prepared for the brewing mobile storm?
As a trade publication, there’s not much more we can add to the comprehensive media coverage of the earthquake being offered by New Zealand’s television, radio and print/online media outfits (Vicki Anderson’s take on events is particularly vivid). Obviously, industry issues are the least of everybody’s concerns when there have been so many fatalities in Christchurch and our families, friends and colleagues are going through utter hell, so first and foremost the thoughts of everyone here—and the thoughts of the industry as a whole—are with our embattled countryfolk. But the fact that TV3 and Stuff bid for Google search terms around the earthquake does raise some interesting ethical issues, particularly when the practice is frowned upon overseas. Judging by the comments on the story, some felt it was reprehensible, some felt it was kosher because the information was relevant and some even felt we were giving favourable treatment to TVNZ and nzherald.co.nz. But as of this morning, Tower was the only remaining advertiser on Google search and Stuff and TV3 had removed their paid listings, which seems to be an acknowledgment from the companies or their media agencies that doing so in the first place was bad form.
When it comes to increasing eyeballs, natural disasters are, rather perversely, usually good news for media owners. But where does the line get drawn? Is it acceptable for TV3 and Stuff to bid for search terms around the Christchurch earthquake? When TVNZ has committed to commercial free broadcasts from 6pm through to 12pm tomorrow and promised to make good on any campaigns impacted by the event and Google has set up a people finder (although it also benefits from the search purchasing), it seems awfully cynical to try and benefit from the disaster. As one media insider says, “this is not a time to increase traffic through to a website through paid means”.
With more and more visitors to New Zealand researching online—and with the Rugby World Cup just around the corner—there is a big opportunity for increased business across a range of different sectors. So how do you move up the search chain and tap into that demand? First Rate’s Grant Osbourne offers a few digital tips for tourist operators and, by extension, other small business owners and marketers who are hoping to enhance their online presence.
There are many online marketing tactics you can employ to drive traffic to your website or brand profile, but you can’t underestimate the importance of keywords.
Search marketing agency First Rate, the first Google Analytics accredited company in New Zealand, has been appointed as the exclusive licensee in New Zealand and Australia of the search engine marketing (SEM) technology SearchIgnite.
In this week’s edition of eBuzz from the Media Counsel: The arrival of real-time Google search means whatever the twittering classes are saying about you or your company now has the potential to make it on to the front page.