“SEO Is The Top Small Biz Online Marketing Tactic” – Intuit

Last Friday, Allison Mnookin, VP Small Business for Intuit, presented results of a small business survey at the Kelsey Group’s Interactive Local Media conference. The presentation was full of interesting stats but the one that really stood out was that about 20% of those surveyed claimed that SEO was by far their “most effective” online marketing tactic. Only about 5% said that online advertising was most effective.

While I am pretty sure that this extraordinary claim is the result of misunderstanding on some of the respondents’ parts – I am sure some think that “search engine optimization” means buying ads on search engines – I am also sure that the concept of SEO is getting more and more mainstream each day. At the conference I had discussions with several companies that are targeting small businesses to sell them online advertising and they all felt like SEO was becoming part of their customers’ vocabulary.

Of course 59% said business cards were the most effective form of marketing so we SEO junkies still have some work to do.

Here are some more stats that I jotted down from Allison’s presentation:

6MM small businesses start up every year in the U.S.

95% of all small businesses who don’t have a website say they want one. The top reasons to get a site are:
1. Allows customers to get info in off-hours: 46%

1. Awareness: 45%

2. Increase sales: 39%

3. Legitimize the business: 30%

Reasons why a business does not have a website:
1. “Our target is so small why do we need the world-wide-web to find them?”
2. “I don’t know what is involved and need to find someone to do it for me”
3. “I don’t want to be held hostage by a web developer”
4. “It’s like having a 2nd store in a language I don’t speak”

I’ll post my notes from Jason Calacanis’ interview with Peter Krazilovsky tomorrow.