Search Marketing for your business website: stand out from the crowd

A recent survey of UK small businesses by Microsoft and research company Vanson Bourne revealed that 33% thought search marketing was too complicated, 44% thought search marketing was too time consuming, and 55% thought it too expensive.

The report estimated that as a result, UK small businesses could be wasting some £3 billion on websites that cannot be found in search engine results.

So, having spent hard earned money on website development, many companies are failing to capitalise on this investment, even where they are aware of the need for continuous promotion and have some knowledge about how to go about it.

Unfortunately, it is not enough to build a business website in the hope that customers will simply stumble across it. There are billions of web pages on the web and each one needs to hold its own for specific content or else its presence needs to be advertised in some way.

All UK small businesses should therefore ask:

• are we currently using PPC search marketing?
• Is our business website optimised and visible in search engine results pages?

If your answers to either or both questions are “no”, then the research suggests you are not alone. But, will your customers ever find you?

Small businesses can gain competitive advantage by building search marketing, website optimisation and other online marketing methods into their overall marketing strategy.

Some 76% of the businesses surveyed that invest in search marketing do report an increase in sales. If done well, marketing through online channels also compares very favourably in terms of cost, return on investment and responsiveness with using traditional offline marketing.

For expert advice and to find out more about how search marketing and website optimisation can help you make the most of your business website, please contact the Web Marketing Workshop now.

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