In the past companies have changed their name because they were spelled like another, and for the purposes of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) a decision to change the name of a company can avoid highly unnecessary competition on the search engines. Now a town is considering changing its name for this very reason.

The mayor of this town realised that its rich heritage was not enough to pull in the tourists and put this down to the main tool for tourists searching for places of interest being the search engines. The name of this small Normandy town is called Eu and therefore it is no surprise that information on the town in the search engine results pages is buried beneath a long list of European-Union related websites.

As a result, this small town is said to be missing out on a tourism boom in Normandy because people are increasingly depending on the internet for not only tourist information but also for making bookings. When the computers of railway network SNCF decided the town of Eu did not exist the mayor Marie-Françoise Gaouyer decided to take action. She is hoping, via referendum and a parliamentary vote to add extra syllables to the name of the town.

There is opposition to this name change as town inhabitants are proud of EU’s history, however, in a time of increasing dependence on the internet, and the search engines in particular, this case highlights the importance of internet marketing and the difference it can make to the success of a business or even a town.

Posted In:

Search Engine Optimisation