Audit urges local firms to better utilise SEO

Thomson Local has teamed up with Analytics SEO to publish an audit of small business websites, which revealed a worrying lack of search engine optimisation (SEO).

According to the audit, almost half of the 1,000 websites analysed were found to have either very basic SEO or in the worst cases absolutely none.

Analytics SEO set out 30 criteria as key signals of SEO quality and fed them into its SEO software, which was able to automatically and simultaneously audit all 1,000 sites.

The areas that stood out most were that more than 70 per cent of companies with less than 50 employees had almost no SEO on their sites, while 74 per cent had absolutely no website analytics software to track website visits.

'Local businesses need to wake up to the fact that investing in better quality websites with original content can bring them new customers more quickly, and ensuring that the website they build is search-engine friendly is essential in today's market,' said Jill Pringle, marketing director at Thomson Local.

Laurence O'Toole, managing director of Analytics SEO, added: 'Companies need to adopt a new approach to their online presence.

'They have to ensure that their sites are built according to well-established industry guidelines and fully optimised for search engines.

'Even if a company does not have a transactional website, the adverse effect on sales of a poor website could be substantial.

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