Small businesses unhappy with their online presence

Small businesses are struggling to win over customers through their online strategies, according a report claims.

According to a survey conducted by Basekit, only one in six small businesses think that they have a website that they can be proud of. One in ten of those surveyed said their websites look out of date, while another 11 percent believe that their presence online is either poor or embarrassing.

Recognising that their websites are not up to scratch, a quarter of those surveyed said that they are green with envy at the websites of competitors, because they find it tough to keep their websites up to date and appealing to customers. They admit they “struggle” to keep pace with technological changes.

Some of the key problems for small businesses is maintaining customer facing ecommerce, mobile websites, and making sure their services rank well through search engine optimisation. Just a quarter of those surveyed said they are able to process their transactions online, and under 10 percent acknowledged their mobile strategies are non-existent.

The majority of those surveyed said that the top of their wish list was to have a better designed website, followed by the ability to change the content themselves. Others were looking for cheaper hosting, better analytics, and better technical support.

BaseKit founder Simon Best said that small enterprises understand that their websites act as a “window to the world”, but so many”feel poorly served by what they’ve created for themselves online”.

“Three quarters of the small businesses we spoke to admit having a well-designed and functioning site is important for their reputation,” Best said, “as well as critical to drumming up new leads”.