Small businesses still aren’t embracing the web
August 21, 2008 by ShannonCherry
Filed under Business
I was shocked to learn from the Dallas Morning News that only 36 percent of all businesses with fewer than 100 employees had a Web presence.
My question is: why not?
According to my very good friend and SEO pro Rebecca Murtagh, more than 91 people in the US use search engines to find you, your products/services before ever picking up the phone or walking into your doors. And 80 percent of people find the business they will buy from on the Internet.
It’s not like it used to be. Domains are cheap. (Sometimes you can get them for 6 bucks.) And if you don’t want to use html, a blog or other content management system, makes it easy to create a site and update it.
And if you’re reading this and don’t have a web presence, can you let me know why?
I have a web presence. But my father’s business does not. He makes headstones. (Yep, cemetery tombstones!!) A web presence just isn’t important to him. Though it’s something I have tried to nudge him toward for years.
Online sales-wise…The product is such a tangible item and typically meant for placement in a cemetery. Not a lot of people go online, order a headstone and then have it shipped to a cemetery for placement. Not to say it isn’t done…but it’s still not mainstream. It’s such a personal and emotional purchase that it’s usually done in person.
But…I think he should still have a web presence for informational purposes at the very least. But then I’m biased. :)
Shannon, I’m not shocked by those numbers at all. I’ve done a lot of research on businesses in smaller communities and find that owners and managers lack awareness of what a website can do for them and how simple it would be to get one up and running with the right help.
This is why I created Blog Evangelists, to raise up ambassadors in communities all over the country and world who can reach out to the business owners in their area and share the good news – that they can have a website without getting into a lot of mumbo jumbo and without having to fork over wads of cash.
You are so on the right track in recommending blogs!