SEO investment ´vital´ to small companies

Small- and medium-sized businesses need to invest in search engine optimisation (SEO) if they are to attract reasonable levels of traffic to their websites, a leading trade body has said.

According to the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), small firms in particular need to use some form of SEO to push themselves further up search engine results pages.

For many companies this involves creating a news page with regularly updated items, in particular featuring keywords potential customers are likely to search for.

However, there are also a range of professional services available which focus on more intricate aspects of site design to boost ratings.

"For many SME businesses, investment in search engine optimisation is vital, and without it most businesses will struggle to generate the traffic needed to justify its creation and maintenance," said David Thorp, CIM director of research and information.

"Although there will always be those who accidentally stumble across your website, if you are looking to attract new customers you need to invest in search engine optimisation to drive customers to your website.

"Whether this is done in-house or through specialist agencies very much depends on the circumstances of the business and the staff skills you have at your disposal," he added.

According to the Federation of Small Business less than a fifth of British SMEs currently do business online.