Many small businesses in the UK are failing to make the most of their online presence, with 47% of SME websites having either very basic or no SEO work at all.

A recent study - the State of UK Business Websites 2010,  looked at 1,001 SME websites and compared them against a range of SEO criteria.  A correlation between the size of a business and the levels of search engine optimisation was the first point found. It seems larger companies tend to have better optimised sites, while over 70% of companies with less than 50 employees have either very basic levels of optimisation, or none at all.

Amazingly, 12% of all business websites are not indexed in any search engine, which almost defeats the purpose of having a website in the first place. Many of the problems are down to businesses not implementing SEO basics. For instance, 35% of websites did not have unique page titles, and 56% lacked unique page descriptions. These are relatively quick SEO wins for small businesses.

Clearly, there are plenty of small businesses that are yet to see the value of effective SEO, or perhaps lack the knowledge to carry out the basics of site optimisation. These businesses should be looking to correct this as, implemented well, SEO has the potential to be a very important and cost-effective sales tool.

Whilst not every company will have the resources or know-how to run an effective campaign, simply getting the basics right, such as ensuring that a site can be indexed and contains relevant content, can make a noticeable difference to search results.