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A Digital Health Check survey finds SMEs are failing to make the most of their digital opportunities.
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Small business given fail mark for websites, social media
01 February 2023
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Small business is flunking its digital presence and failing to make the most of the advantages it can offer, according to Navii, an outcome of Australia’s Federal Government’s Small Business Digital Taskforce.
The Navii Digital Health Check survey, which quizzed 602 SMEs between August and December last year, gave small business a failure mark of just 32 per cent for its website, SEO and social media practices.
Only slightly better, the average business scored just 43 per cent on website basics such as a clickable phone number or displaying key information such as opening hours and a business address.
Navii – the Empowering Business to Go Digital program – is a government-backed, independent community of small business owners, industry and digital experts striving to help SMEs use digital tools to operate more efficiently.
Its Digital Health Check which found that small to medium-sized enterprises were drastically underperforming when it came to their digital presence.
For example, SMEs only scored 18 per cent for Facebook activity compared with best practice markers such as “posted a minimum of two posts per week”, and “received at least five recommendations in the past two months”.
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Its Instagram performance was only marginally better at 25 per cent, with the assessment checking for signals of health including “listing your account as a business account”, “using Instagram Highlights”, and “using hashtags on every post”.
On an assessment of search engine operations, SMEs scored an average of just 22 per cent for Google My Business and local search and 30 per cent for search engine optimisation (SEO). The SEO assessment examined simple best practices such as having a content-rich website, being indexed in Google, and ensuring your homepage meta title and description comply with Google’s recommendations.
Navii co-founder and CEO Liz Ward said the results showed there was still a lot of work required for SMEs to achieve a healthy digital presence.
“Across the board, the SMEs we surveyed were under delivering across their website, social media, and search engine scores and therefore missing out on opportunities for better exposure and engagement with their target markets,” she said.
“The good news is that in many cases, making a fix can be simple – and the rewards can be huge.
“Now is the perfect time to reassess your digital health and take the steps required to meet the needs of your digitally savvy customer.”
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