Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a tool used to improve the visibility of their websites in search engines. Though companies are setting up their own websites, many of them are unable to derive the profits as there is no proper information regarding their websites in search engines.
According to the dotSEO’s, ‘Naked SEO Report’, which contains survey results on marketers of small businesses and the benchmark study of the top 50 SME websites in UK, show that 60% of the SME marketers are not investing on SEO. This clearly indicates the lack of knowledge and information about the advantages of SEOs among the small business marketers.
Usage of SEO by Small Businesses:
According to the findings of benchmark study, many sites have their basics right, with 76% using tags for headlines on their home page and 64% using meta descriptions.
When these 50 sites were judged on SEO criteria, 48% was the average for all the websites, with 11 companies scoring above 70% and 24 less than 50%.
SME attitudes towards SEO:
The results of the survey were straightly pointing towards the fact that small business owners lack information and knowledge regarding benefits of SEO’s.
- 22% of them did not invest in SEO, as they are not aware of it
- 20%, though aware of SEO, were not willing to allocate budget to it
- 18% preferred paid search instead
- Only 15% believed that SEO is a crucial part in marketing strategy
Plans To Invest in SEO:
For the next 12 months, 11% of SMEs are willing to invest in SEO, 5% plan to reduce their budget for SEO, 22% like to keep their budget unaltered.
Other data collected states that 14% considered SEO a vital part in their business, while 29% have nothing to do with SEO.
Further, 14% planned to hire an SEO agency, while 23% preferred to keep their SEO strategy in-house.
Even the results of reports released by Thomson Local, indicated that 47% of 1001 websites have basic or no SEO at all.