Running A Website in a Vacuum Sucks

I’ve just finished going through the entire database of my Vancouver Island tourism directory at http://www.Vingo.ca. I made some changes to the ranking criteria and had to ensure everyone’s details were correct to keep things fair and just. The database contains over 650 websites, all based on Vancouver Island, with a tourism, shopping or services theme. Some of the sites have been listed with us as far back as 2007, and strangely enough, some of them look like they haven’t been updated since that time either.

I shouldn’t say I was horrified, but I was certainly surprised to see how few of these websites are incorporating social media into their sites. Of those 650 sites, only 56 of them use Facebook groups or pages and 49 have links to their Twitter accounts. And this is in a tourism-based economy struggling with recession and a strong Canadian dollar. Modern marketers all know that social media is a cheap and easy way to connect and create a dialogue with existing and potential customers.

Another statistic I found surprising was how few of these websites use and maintain a links page, fewer than 40% of the sites I visited were using the tool and fewer still keep that links page current. I realize that blind link trading is no longer effective in the SEO and SEM worlds, however living and working in an online vacuum is not the way to maximize your return on investment. Maintaining relevant link trades and providing your site with some placement and perspective within your local business context is key to success on the World Wide Web