An analysis of the websites of 115 Advantage agents found only 12% scored well when it came to search engine optimisation.

According to Click with Technology (CWT), which carried out the analysis, the majority of the independent agents’ websites did not appear at all in searches with Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Head of marketing and search Dan Caplin said agents need to improve their keyword rich content, indexed pages and get more links to their sites.

Only 35% had enough links pointing to their domain to maximise their search engine optimisation and only 49% scored well when CWT looked at indexed pages.

“Most users only look on the first page of a Google or Yahoo search,” explained Caplin. “Some don’t even look beyond the first one to five, so it’s so important for websites to have good search engine performance.”

He said not enough of the agents’ websites had clear contact information.

“Just a simple phone number wasn’t appearing on many members sites. It needs to be a big, prominent telephone number, not hidden away.”

Websites scored better when judged for their content, with 82% of homepages having a clear purpose.

But only 29% of websites did a good job of displaying offers and pricing.

Caplin named the websites of Air Viceroy and ATP as good examples among Advantage members.

Looking at all criteria �" content, design and appearance, usability, web-user interaction, e-commerce and search engine performance �" Advantage agents scored 63% overall.

By Bev Fearis