According to a recent article in the Bangor (Maine) Daily News, 53% of businesses in the United States do not have websites, yet, 97% of consumers look online for products and services. By simply looking
at the numbers, there is a tremendous opportunity available for businesses to not only have a web presence, but to expand their market exponentially and find better/more qualified job seekers.
One of the reasons that so few small businesses have websites is the owners are pre-occupied (so they think) with running the business, doing sales, handling issues, interviewing applicants, accounting, etc… and they don’t invest the time/money in creating a strong web presence for their business. In the modern world of the Internet, there are far fewer geographical boundaries which have traditionally limited business opportunity. For example, if you ran a company 30 years ago, you may have considered moving operations to a larger city to get more exposure, better branding, increased foot traffic, access to more labor, etc… These days, due to technology like the Internet, there is now a push to reverse the trend and leave the large metropolitan areas and return back to smaller areas. And more people realize they can grow their businesses with programs like search engine optimization and still maintain a higher quality of life by living in a desired area of their choice.
Our labor force realizes this too. Businesses with strong web presences have better access to people seeking work as their websites not only can show the latest job postings—they can also offer resume upload capability. By automating much of the hiring process, business owners may not have to hire human resources personnel for routing procedures (such as the application process) and this lowers operating costs—and increases profitability.
In summary, businesses should invest more time and resources in their web presence to grow market share, have better access to the labor market and help maintain a higher quality of life by not being forced to operate (and live) into a particular geographical market.
About the Author: Rhett DeMille, the owner of PalmettoSoft, is a leading search engine optimization consultant located in the Charlotte NC and Charleston SC areas.
