Mossel Bay Tourism's website hits top 10%

The exercise employs an algorithm that, according to the company's website, “uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, including search engine data, website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others”.

Marketing working effectively

“This is excellent news for our members, because it means that our marketing is working positively in their favour,” said Mossel Bay Tourism's Marcia Holm.

“One of the most significant metrics that came out of the exercise was that the site's Google Page Rank has advanced to five, from its position at four only three months ago,” said Mossel Bay Tourism's webmaster, Laurence Tuck.

“Climbing the Google Page Rank ladder is one of the most difficult tasks for any website, and Mossel Bay's one-page advance represents a 10 percent improvement in search effectiveness.”

Significant amount of advertising online

Holm said that these high scores were particularly gratifying in light of the fact that Mossel Bay Tourism had moved a significant portion of its advertising budget into online marketing.

“We've recognised that, with our limited funding, we can't hope to make much of a splash in print, but that the incredible reach and penetration of the online environment offers almost untold opportunities for talking to our markets,” she said.

“In the last three years we've made a point of working to keep our site on the cutting edge, and in this time we've rebuilt it twice in order to ensure that it's as effective as possible.

“Besides the obvious languages - English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa - it now has pages in various foreign languages; it can be easily read on mobile phones; and it boasts video, blog and comment capabilities, which means that users can interact with us in a meaningful way.