British SMEs underutilize Internet

Despite reports predicting the U.K. to be Europe’s most lucrative online market by 2011, many SMEs still don’t understand the power of the Internet and some aren’t even connected.

by Helen Leggatt

Around two-thirds of small businesses in the U.K., in particular those with 10 employees or less, function with no Internet access. If things don’t change the U.K. will continue to fall behind its European neighbours.

"Not having a website, even a basic site which describes your business and provides contact details, is a serious omission as the first thing people do now is compare services and products online before buying,” said Chris Stening, managing director of UK Online who, in conjunction with the Institute of Directors, recently developed a pocketbook guide to the power of the Internet especially for SMEs.

Furthermore, it seems those U.K. SMEs who do have websites aren’t investing in search marketing, ensuring their online offerings go unnoticed. Recent research by Microsoft adCenter found that 62 percent of Britain’s 2.79 million SMEs with an online presence aren’t investing in search marketing activity.

"A well-known website can allow a small business to compete on an equal footing with larger competitors, but only if the site can be found by potential customers," said Peter Scargill, IT chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses.

"Having an online presence is something that more and more small businesses are using to drive growth in the future, but they will be wasting their money if they do not make people aware of it."

So, why aren’t British small businesses embracing search marketing? adCenter’s research discovered that 44 percent think search marketing is too time consuming, 56 percent believe it will be too expensive and 33 percent think it too complicated.