garyp
08-11-2004, 05:48 PM
UK government enters search listing stakes
dmEurope.com
http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=2550
To promote it's new Directgov site the UK Goverment is now bidding on keywords using Google, Overture and Espotting.
From the article:
The move is understood to be the first use of pay-per-click placement to promote an online government service. It apparently lacks any precedent, even in countries like the US and Canada which boast higher take-up of eGovernment services than the UK.
Most of the keywords trialled by the Government reflect the three key groups of citizens - parents, disabled people and motorists - that Directgov is chiefly targetting in its first few months of operation. Searching Google for "pregnancy advice", "carers", "child tax credit" or "driving test", for example, automatically brings up a link highlighting information available on the citizen portal or the DTI's BusinessLink website.
The Government's test campaign will run until mid-October. The eGovernment Unit is currently measuring the cost-effectiveness of particular search terms and says that it wants to avoid competing against its existing free listings.
I'm not sure about this being the first time any government organization in the countries mentioned int the article have bid on search terms. One U.S. organization that already does this is The Library of Congress. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=library+research&btnG=Google+Search)
dmEurope.com
http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=2550
To promote it's new Directgov site the UK Goverment is now bidding on keywords using Google, Overture and Espotting.
From the article:
The move is understood to be the first use of pay-per-click placement to promote an online government service. It apparently lacks any precedent, even in countries like the US and Canada which boast higher take-up of eGovernment services than the UK.
Most of the keywords trialled by the Government reflect the three key groups of citizens - parents, disabled people and motorists - that Directgov is chiefly targetting in its first few months of operation. Searching Google for "pregnancy advice", "carers", "child tax credit" or "driving test", for example, automatically brings up a link highlighting information available on the citizen portal or the DTI's BusinessLink website.
The Government's test campaign will run until mid-October. The eGovernment Unit is currently measuring the cost-effectiveness of particular search terms and says that it wants to avoid competing against its existing free listings.
I'm not sure about this being the first time any government organization in the countries mentioned int the article have bid on search terms. One U.S. organization that already does this is The Library of Congress. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=library+research&btnG=Google+Search)