The problem with New Zealand Trade & Enterprise and their “Website Workshops”…
Now, before I get started on this topic, I want to acknowledge the person running this website workshop and state she does her job well. If you are looking at an increase in traffic, speak to her and she’ll sort you out.
The issues I have are a couple of rungs up the ladder from the event facilitator, probably at the NZTE Auckland office, but I’m waiting to hear back from an email I sent there, expressing my concern.
What I wrote today, to NZTE
Hi Megan,
I rang the Auckland NZTE phone number and was given your name and email to send feedback to regarding the BIZNorth workshops that are being held in Whangarei.
While this may appear to be a pitch for my services, I’d like to state clearly that it is not, and its genuine feedback from a concerned onlooker. I have no interest gaining any work from NZTE on this matter.
The problem:
INCREASING TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE WORKSHOP
Fully funded through BIZNorth by
New Zealand Trade & Enterprise* Search Engines (SEO ranking)
* Listing on directories ie which ones, how to list, what to say, what to pay, measures to ensure these listings are working
* The value of participating in Online forums
* Online Newsletters - those that work, those that don’t
* Creating your own business “Blog” - do they add value to your business?
* Links - how important are they, and how to use them in your Website
* Online text advertising, ie Adwords and other pay per click (PPC) programmes - benefits and flawsI simply don’t understand why resources are being spent on targeting bad websites, not to make them better - but to get more people to them. The problem is, if your web presence is sub standard, it will always be sub standard, having more people knowing your site is sub standard doesn’t really help.
I’m taking a wild guess and assuming a % of the BIZnorth attendees are people who have had little or no increase in business through their $500 sites and are wondering why. They want more traffic, more people means more business right? Well, not exactly.
Another % will be people considering getting a website, and will be able to take their learned information their web agency and teach them a thing or two about online marketing.
Is that not flawed?
If NZTE want to increase sales/bookings/industry via the web, they should look at who are building the sites, and explain why its wrong to do what the majority of them are doing. Small workshops for people who build websites, spreading awareness of the responsibility they have in the ‘big picture’.
I know because I have been there, entering the marketplace quite unknowing to the crap I was producing. If NZTE had targeted me as a startup then, (simply by picking up the yellow pages to see who’s there this year vs last year) my progression would have been much faster, and my company would have grown quicker etcetera.
Subjects like ‘how to make a site friendly to people with disabilities’ should be taught to up and coming industry players, simple do’s and don’ts way over and above “get more people to your site by xyz”.
Methods of SEO become out of date quickly, they can easily become detrimental to your results in some search engines. People with disabilities and older technologies are not going anywhere, increasing awareness to those markets can result in an easy 5 - 20% rise in traffic to any site’s products or services.
Thanks for your time,
Iain
I’m awaiting a response and I’ll post here, if I get one.
