According to the findings of a new survey from SinglePlatform, a division of Constant Contact, small businesses may be missing out on a critical opportunity to be found by customers who are looking for products and services online.
Incredibly, 49 percent of local businesses admitted having never updated their online listings.
“Online listings” is defined as everything from search engines and review sites to mobile apps.
“Consumers are using the internet as a discovery engine and the opportunity for a local business to be found by their next great customer continues to grow,” says Wiley Cerilli, vice president and general manager of SinglePlatform. “It is important for small businesses to list their products, services, and menus across the sites that consumers use to make their purchasing decisions. Equally important in today’s mobile world is making sure your online content like websites and digital storefronts can be viewed on mobile devices. As smartphone adoption continues to rise, being a mobile-friendly business is becoming a necessity.”
Other findings from the survey show that:
- 84 percent of small businesses believe that having a website that can easily be viewed on a mobile device is important to their business
- Only 25 percent of small businesses know how to create a mobile optimized web site
- 62 percent of small businesses think it is important to be seen on major mobile apps
- 85 percent of small businesses believe that in the future more people will be looking for their business on mobile sites
- Only 23 percent of small businesses have a good sense of how listings drive traffic to their business
- 50 percent of small businesses have seen listings for their business that are not accurate
- 70 percent of small businesses say they don’t have the time to manage listings on all of the sites that consumers use
If you’re a business owner who is concerned about being discovered, have you committed the cardinal sin of not keeping your information updated on the web?