French town concerned by SEO performance

The mayor of Eu is considering adding syllables to the name of the Normandy town for reasons to do with search engine optimisation (SEO).

Marie-Francoise Gaouyer aims to boost the town's internet presence after tourism officials in the region suggested Eu misses out on visitors because its name gets hidden in online search engines, reports the Times.

Potential tourists are passing it by because the town gets moved down the pecking order by links to European Union-based websites and language-orientated portals.

"We must adapt to modernity, especially in the context of the internet," Mayor Gaouyer told French publication ParisNormandie.

Eu made only €7,700 (£6,800) in hotel visitor taxes in 2008, despite earlier predictions closer to €24,000, she added.

Tips on SEO were recently given at the Search Engine Strategies London conference.

Marketers looking to break into Google News can place images within articles to boost their prominence in search listings, according to SEOptimise.