44% of Small Businesses Still Don’t Have a Web Site!

Wow I can’t believe that! Guess there is a lot of business out there for site designers and SEO management!

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What’s a phone book? LOL

I use google or my iPhone to find everything.

And it’s not hard to create a web site. I created two one page sites this morning on blogspot. Simple capture pages that I’ll cloak and feed into my autoresponder.

There’s really no excuse for someone not to have some sort of web presence either paid or free.

That’s just my opinion.

Tony Logue

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This is very shocking. However, I am sure that within a few months (or at least by the end of the year), we should see a mass rush for the web. In this economy, the web can dramatically increase any business’ customer base and bottom line. And as a web developer, I am glad to know that there is so much work out there.

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In Canada – I read a report that stated 60% of SMB’s do not have web sites.

So in the States – you are doing better than we are!

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Actually I would think that 44% would be somewhat low.

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OMG- this is unbelievable and can not be right. How are these businesses thinking of gaining customers in recession times? Think about it, somebody should tell them about the opportunities online, and what advantage they can get.

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@Ari

“..is why should a business spend money on that? So you can google it and see it and be happy? ”

I disagree – this is from a post I did on the subject;

Perhaps through advertising, a sales call, or even a referral, someone remembers just a basic part about your business. Unfortunately they cannot remember all the details.

They already know you exist.

So that prospective customer deliberately hits the search engines with as much information as they have available.

That could be part of your name,

Maybe with your region or location,

And perhaps with your product or service.

They know you exist! Unfortunately for you, they can’t find you.

http://elliotross.wordpress.com/2008/09/17/the-business-card-web-site/
 
Elliot ROss’s last blog post..On Being The Small Business Tech Manager

Oh, one more thing. You said 78% of them (small businesses) are spending 5% or less on internet advertising, but the article you linked to says 78% of business owners dedicate 10% of their budget to online advertising…Which is correct? I’m confused

I might be someone who disagrees with the proposal to give every small business a website, infact, in many ways, I really want to know why 44% of small businesses will need a website, if you live in a small town, does the fair salon across the road need a website? probably not. Even if you live in a larger center, does Joe’s Hot Chicken Fries shop need a website? probably not, why would he anyway?

In a way, I can see that by saying all small businesses need websites is a way to convince people to use our services, but really, does the business NEED a website, if they think so, is it really worth their money to pay for it?

I personally think that the remaining 44% of businesses that don’t have websites don’t have them for the exact reasons above, but thats just me.

Also, something to note on the comment form.. 7+8 can be rather hard to work out late at night, you’re almost as bad as google’s late night checker ;P

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Those stats are very interesting. Despite how prevalent the web is today, I am astonished at how many people I meet and talk with that don’t understand how to use it beyond searching for something. It doesn’t surprise me that so many small businesses haven’t picked up on this yet. The opportunity is educating these folks on how the investment will impact their business. In my opinion that’s where the disconnect is – they don’t know how to measure the value.

> reveals just why it’s so hard to get small businesses to break their local newspaper/yellow pages advertising habit.

The cited article does not say that. It says

> In other words, while small business people use search engines for nearly every bit of research they do they must think they are the only ones doing it since they don’t work to make their business more visible to searchers. I don’t get that intellectually but I know it’s real. Here are some highlights.
> * 82% of these small business folks use search engines
> * 57% use Yellow Page directories (this one surprised me)

It talks about using YPs to do their research, not their advertising.

As an SEO at one of the few successful YPs that are still in growth mode (Australia), I have a bias but I can understand the romantic notion that “surely everybody uses the web”, therefore every business should have a website.

As SEOs we know that every restaurant in downtown would not rank in the top 30 results in Google simply because there are more than 30 restaurants downtown, but every restaurant does have the chance of a free listing in their local YP. A paid YP listing gives them more space and a better chance to rank in the corresponding IYP.

We also know that many restaurant sites are built badly and will not rank short of a redesign. The last 44% of business owners will include ones who will not have the budget to have an optimised site. They’ll not be happy if they cut their YP spend and their new website gets no traffic.

Some IYPs have managed to optimise their content and so their advertisers (and free listings) get another chance to rank high in Google. In Oz a few adult categories are lawful and can advertise in the YP/IYP — their individual websites have the usual challenge of ranking in a competitive category, but the IYP list of their category ranks in the top 5 thanks to SEO of a large, trusted site.

Some IYPs have cut deals with Google so that the onebox (aka ten pack) is powered partly with their listings, which gives another opportunity to appear at the top of page 1.

Therefore, it isn’t an either/or situation.

I think most of the small business fear that they cannot sell to their small local target market by getting on the Internet that serves the international audience, which is definitely not true. Every business should look towards globalizing their businesses and even if you currently don’t offer your products and services internationally, you might need the relationships that you built on the Internet with international prospects to help in your expansion in the future.

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@Michael – yeah, it’s the study discussed in the post above? Click the last link

@Andy. Novel idea. Thanks.

At 3:54 am, the only thing I’m checking for is my sanity:>)) Great post with lots of opportunities & possibilities.

A great tip to remember for those small business owners with – or without – a website, is to submit your business to Google maps. It’s surprisingly paid off dearly for me over the years…

http://www.google.com/local/add

There’s absolutely NO reason for a business to have zero web presence today…unless you choose to remain isolated.

Totally believable stats. I do searches in my City and can’t find many businesses. I the president of KCNG and have gotten most of my business members online. Most are getting found real easy because of lack of competition. There is lots of work left for web designers and SEO experts.

My son read the comment about the yellow pages and asked me what is the yellow pages. I just started laughing. I went to find him one in the house to show him and I couldn’t find him one.

Wow,

I knew that a lot of business owners don’t really know a lot about the internet but 44% don’t have a website – crazy.

I guess I am in the right business – that shows why my business has increased so much in the last year!

Thanks for the Great Article

Pamela – Artista Design

@Scott

Agreed – but small business is notorious for “not knowing what they don’t know”

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Its not that I run a web design company, nor that Im biased (wel….) but I wouldnt dream of picking up a yellow pages, or any purpose other than to hurl it into a recycling receptacle.

In fact I havent used one of those old contraptions, for at least a decade. You have to turn pages, by hand! Engage the brain in a manual indexing process. That ridiculous clap-trap notion died I thought, back in the old 1900′s, when web site design services were new, most computers still drank petrolium and required an oil change once a year.

Isnt yell getting shot of the paper brick in the states soon, anyway?

This could be a case of number crunching irrelevant data. Without demographics which further defined “small businesses” the 44% figure of those who have not commissioned a web site design is relevant.

For example, the number of under 25 year olds who do not own a car, or are unemployed, might be as high as 80%, if you include babies, kids and teenagers.

There are loads of small businesses who might offer a service to a fixed audience, ie a privately owned Ltd company managing the leasehold on a building. The company doesnt need to have a website designed, as it has no service to offer potential customers, and wouldnt benefit from a website as the income is more or less fixed.

The same applies with websites. I know plenty of people who run their own little part time company, working more or less exclusively for one other company, and they own the little business they run, but dont need a web designer to create them a website to promote their services, as they dont want, or need – any new customers.