Italy, search engines… what?

Ad Maiora, one of the top European agencies specialized in search engine marketing has just released the results of study on web site visibility of the top 100 Italian ad spenders that invest in traditional media. According to the analysis, almost two out of three sites analyzed are lacking adequate direct links from search engines, with the consequent result of not factoring high in the search engine results. By an original methodology, the study consolidated the optimization, visibility and popularity values, and produced a map of online visibility levels for analysed sites, showing that only 25% have equilibrate values among adopted parameters. Mauro Lupi, Ad Maiora’s President, commented: “We think that this research could represent a motivation to companies investing in traditional advertising to exploit their websites more profitably.”

The study from Ad Maiora highlights the fact Italian top ad spenders don’t believe, or maybe don’t know much, of search engine marketing. Unfortunately my perception is that they aren’t ignoring only search engines, but also the whole Internet as a marketing channel. I’ve already written about it in the past so I don’t want to complain too much. Surely I welcome a research like the one by Ad Maiora which I hope will get the appropriate attention from media planners.
Ad Maiora’s report is available to download here (opens .pdf).