Half of small business owners are failing to submit their company website to search engines making it virtually impossible for them to attract browsing internet users.
Such is the conclusion of a new study that claims small firms are turning their back on more than £19 billion a year – the amount consumers spent online in 2005.
Even if companies do submit their website to the likes of Google, Yahoo! or MSN, there is no guarantee consumers will find their online presence, says the study by Fasthosts, the IT provider.
It claims that the majority of consumers, around 66 per cent, only ever browse the first two pages of search results when looking for a keyword, product or company name.
Combined with poor submission rates, these two findings suggest most small businesses may never be discovered online, ‘resulting in loss of revenue on a daily basis,’ the study said.
It added that while a massive 89 per cent of consumers see Google as their search engine of choice, around a third of respondents admitted they ignore the on-screen sponsored links.
Displayed on the left hand side of Google’s results page, the sponsored links were oblivious to exactly 30 per cent of online shoppers.
As a result, Fasthosts said online businesses must take the necessary steps to ensure a high listing that appears within the natural search results.
“In 2006, no business can afford to be invisible online, yet too many SMEs are,” said chief executive Andrew Michael, who found just 49 per cent of firms have submitted their business website for search engine listing.
“I was amazed to see that small to mid-sized enterprises are not considering how much they personally use search engines when it comes to the importance of ranking for their own company. If you are not listed on Google, your web site might as well not be online,” he added.
The study showed Google is the most popular search engine, followed in order by Yahoo!, Ask Jeeves and MSN.
Mar 3, 2006
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