28 July 2010 11:37
Small businesses in the UK are not taking advantage of search engine optimisation (SEO), according to a new report.
Analytics SEO found that more than half of the 1,000 SMEs surveyed had negligible, ineffectual levels of SEO, while some had none.
Seventy per cent of firms with fewer than 50 employees had basic or non-existent SEO.
Overall, only two per cent had invested in analytics software to monitor return-on-investment – meaning that more than nine in ten businesses were failing to track responses.
There was a huge disparity between small and large companies, with the average small firm only possessing 408 inbound links.
In comparison, the average UK company has 6,874 inbound links.
Writing in Econsultancy, media expert Graham Charlton commented that companies could be losing out on sales.
"[Small] businesses should be looking to correct this as, implemented well, SEO has the potential to be a very important and cost-effective sales channel.
"Whilst not every company will have the resources or know-how to run an effective campaign, simply getting the basics right, such as ensuring that a site can be indexed and contains relevant content, can make a noticeable difference to search results," he said.
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