Wednesday, June 19, 2013

News
Local Businesses Say Yes To URLs
One big difference between business brackets? A website.
By Kirsten Swann


ANCHORAGE – In the age of technology, a recent Web.com survey made a startling claim: Roughly 40 percent of small business owners don’t yet use a website.

The survey measured mobile marketing strategies among 500 business owners: More than 82 million consumers nationwide used a smartphone last year, and nearly three quarters of small businesses surveyed said that demographic played a huge role in their plans for growth. Despite the plans, though, only 60 percent said their company actually had a website.

The number represents a slight increase from 2008, when a Barlow Research survey of 680 small businesses showed less than half maintained a website. It was one of the major differences between small firms and their larger counterparts – nearly 85 percent of businesses earning between $10-$500 million annually kept a website.

In an informal poll of Alaska small business owners, the majority said they operated a website of some kind, from a Facebook page to a full-fledged site with mobile capabilities. Only one entrepreneur, a daycare owner from Kenai, said they operated their business sans web presence.

“Although I would like to have a website, I do not,” Tammy Christin posted to Facebook Monday from her mobile phone.