Government departments spend £6m on search engines
Four government departments spent almost £6m ensuring their websites appeared on search engine results pages in the last two financial years, according to newly released figures.
The Department of Health was the biggest spender on search engine optimisation, as the technique is called, running up a bill of £4.4m in "paid search" fees.
It said the money was spent supporting campaigns on smoking and the flu pandemic.
Organisations can pay search engines to ensure their websites appear at the top of users' searches. They are often charged for each person who accesses their sites via the link.
The Department for Communities and Local Government spent over £750,000 promoting campaign websites including those for Home Information Packs, Eco Towns and Energy Performance Certificates.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change spent more than £309,000 last year. The Department of the environment, food and rural affairs (Defra) spent almost £500,000.
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
I am not suprised. Do they not realise that being the government and the only source of such information they are not in competition and therefore will be the top of the search engine within a matter of weeks due to the traffic and the use of proper government names. eg. .gov.uk
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the retards that run much of the governemnt just spend money.
Q. Do we need hundreds of full time nurses or first page rank / sponsored links on google for a few weeks before the organic links get the site there anyway.
A. Obviously not.