Why SMEs are ignoring SEO

Having done quite a lot of work with SMEs in the search sector I would add a couple of other reasons to this list.  

1. A lot of SMEs do not have the budget to, or are not willing to, invest in something for long term benefits. Most SMEs need/want to see returns on anything they spend within a short space of time and in most cases, SEO doesnt it this need.

2. Another would be expertise.  Contrary to the figure you present, 85% of SME websites I see have been built with no consideration for SEO which means a large part of what needs doing is one site changes.  The SME rarely has the expertise to make the changes and the person who built the site is either no longer around, or wants to charge a silly amount to make changes.

To these SMEs the easiest, and quickest solution is to invest in PPC where they know they will get some business and everything is a little more immediate.

Good post, personaly I think an introduction to SEO should be part of all marketing cources these days as it is far too important to ignore. More people are shopping online and see Google as their direct line to the internet.

Using PPC is an option but it is also a false economy and many people are starting to ignore PPC listings as they learn to spot paid advertising so this leaves organic SEO as the only viable option for maximum ROI

Many SMEs think that SEO is some sort of data entry / ad posting about their company which they can do on their own. When they approach SEO firms, they still have this mindset. So, even if they realize the potential of SEO, most projects dont take off because quality SEO services cost money over a period of time which they dont want to invest. SEM always look better to them as they can start seeing results and activity immediately without any long-term financial commitments.

"SEO strategy either completely or totally in-house." - Did you not mean 'partially', or a word to that effect?

Interesting article. However, lack of investment in SEO may also be down to a shrewd understanding of their market, not simply a lack of awareness and knowledge. While most businesses need a web site, not all will find search-generated traffic a useful source of business (and don't necessarily need to try it to make an accurate guess at this). For SMEs in a small, niche sector, strongly local, or with non-online or strongly referral-based customer behaviours, it may be far more cost-effective to invest in other marketing channels. 

I agree that greater knowledge of the options is always a good thing for any business leader, and the survey does suggest there is room for education and improvement. But I wouldn't necessarily conclude that failure to invest in one area of marketing means a failure of judgement or expertise. 

I agree web designers are the problem here in a lot of cases as they do not keep up with the SEO and web marketing industry. They think that a few meta tags on a page will be good enough, you end up with dupe titles on every page which can see you having a penalty in Google before you start. We are teaching our developers here at Freetimers to utilize proper SEO techniques, at least the basics, including an XML sitemap so when the site is complete at least this will have a chance to get listed with all pages in Google.

I think that a number of comments have alluded to this.  But I just wanted to see if I might be able to add clarity.  Handling the emarketing function for an SME myself, what is abundantly clear to me is that long term planning and long term strategy is much further down the totem pole than quick results.  

Small businesses often feel like online marketing mix is a matter of "either-or" and justifiably so given that they often are only able to staff a fraction of the people that larger companies can staff and likewise have much smaller budgets.

So given the choice of putting all of their eggs into the basket that they feel has a probability to produce immediate results versus putting them in multiple baskets that may yield higher ROI but spread over a much longer time span is a difficult proposition.  After all, many SME's are forced to operate under such challenging circumstances that their futures are not as bankable as larger companies.

Marketing managers at SME's are aware of this and probably don't push as hard to diversify their marketing plans when they encounter resistance from the CFO or owners because they know that if things go too slow for the ownership's tastes they may find themselves out of a job-even if the ROI trajectory appears to be upward sloping!

Very nice information. Thanks for this.

It's a pity because I suspect many are sold full SEO services where local search would likely be more appropriate. Getting businesses on to Google Maps and Google Places should not be expensive and should provide a more immediate, measurable benefit. 

Another point might be this. Why should they bother? SEO is often an arms race. Unless they have very good fire power to foot it with corporates many will never see any benefit regardless of the quality of what is being delivered.

I have dealt with a fair number of SME's over the past years and unfortunately their view/knowledge of the online marketing is either very very dusty or completely ignorant.

And to be fair, the (SEO) industry has not been clear for years about what is SEO and what is SEM, what iit includes, how to complement offline marketing and advertising...

Benin is somewhat right by saying "Small businesses often feel like online marketing mix is a matter of "either-or" but I 'd say they are wrong and unless they are shown and educated on the right waysto progress towards some effective SEO showing some ROI, it might stay that way.

I agree with Joanna Pieters.  This article makes some great points, but the survey seems to include all types of SME, without reference to concerns which may make SEM low-priority or irrelevant to them.

In my presentations to CEO groups within the US, I've met, for example:

- businesses who are so niched that they know all of their potential customers, and the market knows of them

- businesses who do all or almost all of their work for government agencies, so marketing is a very different ballgame

- businesses who don't want to be found by the general public due to security concerns - either their work is classified, or their operations might invite protests or attacks (one of my recent groups included a company which provides animal testing for drug development)

In my experience, search engine traffic can also produce widely differing qualities of visitors, depending on the products or services being offered.  I've never found it especially helpful for professional service firms (content marketing is much more powerful for folks selling expertise), but it's great for selling yo-yo's!

These businesses should be looking to correct this as, implemented well, SEO has the potential to be a very important and cost-effective sales channel. Also, competitors that have invested time or money in SEO may be gaining an advantage.

very good information Title is so nice!
Why SMEs are ignoring SEO/?

A lot of SME's also think Social Media isn't for them, not just SEO, it's part of the education