What percentage of small businesses have a website?

Are you a small business owner? Do you want to reach more customers and beat the competition?

Then you need a website. 

We’ve already discussed in our previous article why every business absolutely needs to have one in order to grow and succeed. Today, we will go further and look at all the statistics that back up that claim.

Moreover, you’ll learn what everyone is doing to be successful in this dynamic environment.

We’ve gathered all recent small business website statistics, which will answer your burning questions such as what percentage of small businesses have a website and what the key to success is.

Check them out so that you are up to date with the competition in the ever-changing business world.

What percentage of small businesses have a website?

According to latest statistics, out of 30 million businesses in the US, only 64% of small businesses have a website. That’s less than two-thirds.

On one hand, this isn’t surprising, considering the fact that many new business owners don’t know where to start or don’t have enough resources to maintain their own website.

On the other hand, this is worrying since nowadays it’s extremely important to have a good online presence, especially in times of a pandemic when shopping is done online more often than not. Even before COVID-19 knocked on our doors, the trends were highly in favour of ecommerce.

If you look at what percent of small businesses have a website, that leaves 34% which don’t – and this simple fact might lead them to fewer customers and even to failure.

Now, let’s consider the following statistics and see what every business owner and digital marketer can learn from them to improve their marketing strategies.

Game-changing small business website statistics

• 35% of small business owners think their business is too small for a website (Top Digital).

Do you feel that way too?

Well, look at it from another angle – a website will help you expand your business more quickly. It will give you more credibility, make you look professional, help you reach more of your target audience, present your products, collect emails, and much more.

• In fact, 19% of small business owners without a website already believe that their business would grow 25% in 3 years or less with the benefit of a website.

Besides, did you know that consumers actually expect from you to have a web page?

• 8 out of 10 customers are likely to engage with your business if it has a website (Small Business Web).

Most people’s first instinct nowadays is to search for a business online. Consumers feel safe about businesses with professional looking websites. If they can’t find one, they’re more likely to turn to your competitors with a web page.

• Only 11% of small businesses without a website don’t see value in it, while 92% of business owners believe having a website is the most effective digital marketing strategy (Fundera).

Social marketing, as well as email marketing, are highly effective too. However, having a website is crucial if you truly want to succeed. Almost every business owner has realized that now. Just look at all these small business website statistics!

Online customer statistics

• More than 80% of customer to business engagement is happening online.

Incredible! The Internet is now your best friend so take advantage of it.

• 81% of consumers research online before purchasing, and 60% begin with a search engine before heading to a particular website.
• The top 2 channels for customer research are online reviews (55%) and company websites (47%).

These days it’s easier than ever to look up whatever you want online. People like doing their research before buying anything. They take their time to compare products, services and prices. If consumers can’t find the information they need about yours, they’ll probably just go to your competitors and forget about you.

However, with the right SEO, you have a chance of appearing on the first page of search engines and crushing the competition. Put some effort into your website and content and it will certainly pay off by bringing you a higher conversion rate.

• 75% of small business owners believe online marketing is (very) effective for attracting new customers. However, almost half of them spend less than 2 hours per week on marketing efforts.

While most business owners agree on the effectiveness of digital marketing, most don’t spend enough resources on it. If you are able to invest more than them in social media marketing, content marketing and SEO, you’ll easily surpass competitors.

• Most customers (47%) share feedback on the seller’s website, and 92% of all online feedback is positive, with only 2% negative.

Amazing! Just think of how much you can gain if you allow customers to share reviews on your website. Their positive feedback will act as social proof and bring you many new customers who might otherwise be unconvinced and abandon their carts.

But that’s not all. Here are some more mind-blowing small business website statistics to help you focus on the most important aspects right now.

Mobile website statistics

• 58% of online sales’ revenue comes from mobile users (Small Business Web).

More than half of online sales are done via mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

• 68% of consumers who conduct a local search on their smartphones visit a store within 24 hours, and almost 50% make a purchase within a day (Top Digital).
• Average smartphone conversion rates are up 64% compared to desktop conversion rates.

And that’s not surprising – nowadays, people spend much more time on their mobile phones.

• That’s why more than 94% of small business websites are already mobile friendly (Blue Corona).

You should always remember to optimize your website carefully so that it’s mobile friendly and provides good user experience. Otherwise, you risk driving potential customers away for good. Here’s the proof:

• 61% of users are unlikely to return to a site on mobile if they had trouble accessing it, and 40% will visit a competitor’s site instead.

But wait. Think about the web design too:

• 57% of users won’t recommend a business with a poor mobile website design (SWEOR).
• 85% of adults believe a company’s website design should be as good or better when viewed on a mobile device compared to desktop.

Website design statistics

This is worrying:

• 38% of people won’t engage with a website if the content or layout are unattractive. And, naturally, first impressions are 94% design-related.

All these stats clearly show that the design of your web page truly matters. Even if your content is amazing, users won’t get to reading and interacting with it if your overall web design is unattractive. That’s why some companies even hire an agency to take care of the design.

• In fact, 77% of these agencies claim that a bad website user experience is a weakness of their clients that needs fixing ASAP.
• 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a website after a bad experience.

Unfortunately, many brands lose customers because of bad user or customer experience and don’t get a second chance.

• 39% of people will leave a website if images won’t load or take too long to load.

Using visuals is always a good idea but remember to optimize images because if they are too heavy, they’ll only slow down your website and lead to a negative user experience, driving visitors away.

• 47% of people expect your website to load in no more than 2 seconds.

If it takes longer to load, they’ll simply leave and won’t get to see your valuable content. Shockingly, this problem costs retailers $2.6 billion in lost sales each year.

• 75% judge your company’s credibility based on your website design.

This is one more reason you can’t allow your web page to have a poor design. Appearing credible is important, especially for small businesses which can’t afford missing out on potential customers.

• 70% of small business websites don’t have a CTA on their homepage.

That’s a huge mistake! Without a clear call to action, your website visitors don’t know what you want them to do. You’re missing a great opportunity to influence them and convince them to subscribe or buy.

You can read our article with all the top call to action tips here.

To sum up

Now that you’ve seen exactly what percentage of small businesses have a website, together with the rest of these valuable statistics, you know how necessary for every business owner it is to have a web page. If you still don’t own one, it’s high time you added it to your small business’ plan for this year.

Do you want to know how else you can increase lead generation, conversions and sales?

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