Nowadays, most people are online, so small businesses will thrive better when they have their own websites. But because of tough competition, having a website isn’t enough — it should be optimized for search engines too for the following reasons:
Small Business Website Facts
1) Google is still the market leader.
Google gets 81% of the global desktop search traffic, which means many people use it as their primary search engine.
2) Searches jumpstart the buying process.
As many as 89% of customers begin the buyer’s journey with search queries, and 80% of them look only at top results.
3) Local business are subject to research.
Around 80% of people look up a business (including local ones) online before even visiting its physical store.
4) Search engines are stronger than social media.
Search results provide thrice as much traffic than posts on social media.
Unfortunately, small businesses are not taking advantage of these facts, as the following numbers indicate:
- Only 17% of small businesses invest in search engine optimization (SEO) and 25% in online marketing.
- Around 71% of small business don’t hire experts; instead, they do their own online marketing, which is not as effective.
- Almost half of small business websites (around 44%) don’t have a responsive website.
Don’t let your small business get left behind. Learn more about SEO for small business websites from this infographic from Milkwhale.