SuperYachtTimes.com consolidates position as the leading superyacht website

At SuperYachtTimes.com, we don't tend to blow our own trumpet that much, we let our statistics, quality publication, and personal relationships do the talking, however an article recently published on a competing website, claiming to be the world’s leading superyacht and lifestyle website, has forced me to openly respond and set the record straight. In addition, I will share my views on publishing articles on superyachts and their owners, running a database of yachts, and the reasons behind it.

We are not opposed to people claiming to be the best or the biggest, but if you do so, you better make sure you are indeed exactly that - the best or the biggest. I don’t mind admitting I know less about lifestyle websites and their traffic, but I do happen to know something about superyacht media websites. Gathering other websites’ statistics is not difficult, and anyone wanting to know ours simply has to ask, but for now I can proudly say:

“SuperYachtTimes.com was, is, and will remain the world's leading superyacht website.” 

I'm sure about the “was” and “is”, and the “will” comes from my confidence in our product, team, clients, friends and readers. I won’t reveal too much about the future of SYT, as I am not a big fan of launching new ideas right before the boat show season – I prefer surprises – but do stay tuned… Back to the traffic on SuperYachtTimes.com. During the first six months of 2011, our website was visited 1,200,000 times from 225 different countries. SuperYachtTimes.com outranks their main competitors, with over 50% more indexed pages in Google, and has reached a high Alexa score of 83,101, outranking the closest competitor by 50,000 positions.

To confirm the highly targeted readership of SuperYachtTimes.com, two leading yacht brokers confirmed the sale of a 30m+ and a 40m+ yacht to clients who found these brokers directly through SYT. In addition, several charter brokers have successfully sold charters as a result of being on SYT.

Although we have a small team, our passion, market insight and good contacts allow us to provide the superyacht industry with instant, reliable and accurate information. It’s not only the quantity which makes SYT a preferred destination for many people in the superyacht industry, but also the quality. Maarten and myself both have a huge passion for superyachts, and we both started identifying yachts at a very young age. Between the two of us, we have visited over 700 superyachts worldwide, and cruised as guests on dozens of them. As a result we know them all by name, and we know on a personal level the companies and people behind the yachts.

Yacht Databases / Market Intelligence 

These days every website wants to have a yacht database; be it a media website, brokers website or any other website. The problem is not creating the database, seeing how we run a public database which anyone can copy, something which is not uncommon. However, too often these people have no idea how to run and maintain such a database, which over time will only lead to duplicate entries, wrong names, wrong specifications, wrong prices, etc. Potential owners entering our industry will only end up confused and misinformed. At SYT we consider it of the utmost importance that the information is correct, while certain others only use yacht profiling to drive traffic to their website.

Providing Market Intelligence on the Superyacht Industry, which includes running a public database on your website, is not about driving traffic to your website, but providing the industry, owners and potential owners with professional insight into our industry. Running a database involves professionally monitoring the superyacht industry 24/7.

'Sensation-seeking' Articles 

Another trend in the online community is the publication of what we like to label as 'sensation-seeking articles' and the use of keywords as such. It’s very easy to write about yacht owners, celebrity guests, excessive toys, on-board parties… oh and don’t forget to mention the missile defence system. These topics will surely be a hit with the international gossip press and the link back to your website will boost your traffic. Well it’s not all about traffic - my 14 year old niece likes reading about Johnny Depp and Brad Pit, however she is unlikely to influence the purchase or charter of a superyacht or product. Furthermore, it seems some people just don’t care about the picture painted regarding the superyacht industry and their owners. We also view discretion and professionalism as paramount.

This industry is not about sensation-seeking; it’s about passion, beautiful objects, and technologically advanced products, providing jobs to 100,000’s of people worldwide. Our competing friends at TYR Group recently launched this campaign, www.welovesuperyachts.com, which will hopefully help to give this industry a positive face.

Professionalism is what the superyacht industry needs in every sector, which also includes the media and their reporting.

In conclusion, I welcome online competition; it helps open up the superyacht industry to the idea of using the internet more and more. And on a personal level, I have good friends working for competing websites, and there is plenty of room for multiple quality websites, just as there is plenty of room for different yacht designers, brokers, shipyards, etc. However, I urge the superyacht industry to not only judge a website on its looks, but more importantly on how it’s run, and who runs it.

Merijn
[email protected]

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