One of our pet gripes here at GeoReport is the proliferation of state-sponsored websites.
Every time a council, quango or other state body has a new idea, up pops a new website, generally with an expensive taxpayer-funded design.
Even more annoyingly, many of these sites get instant high quality links from their other chums in the state sector.
Councils, tourist boards and all the well-established state-run sites automatically give them high quality links that are, frankly, unearned.
It’s a state sponsored closed shop.
All change?
But with the proposed funding cutbacks in government spending these sites are going to come under financial pressure.
As I see it, this creates three opportunities for private geo domain owners.
- Some state sites will fold, removing some of the competition for some keyword phrases.
- Some sites will decline in importance, as the pension-cushioned state webmasters have less time to spend building and promoting new content.
- Most interestingly of all, some councils and other state bodies will not have the resources to maintain all the information on their current sites and may be keen to outsource some of their content, including possibly entire websites, to the private sector.
It’s a daunting but exciting possibility, fraught with complication and irritating interference.
Over the next few weeks, as the shape of the public sector cuts becomes apparent, I’ll be trying to assess whether this opportunity is graspable and what problems have to be overcome to make a success of it.