Good web hosting 'a must' for online business success

Small businesses looking to expand their operations through the internet must have a solid web hosting and search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy in place to successfully do so.

This is according to Jerry Thompson of BT Business, who wrote in a column for Startups.co.uk that businesses need to be aware that it is not enough to simply build a good-looking site and hope that attracts customers.

He highlighted findings from a recent BT Business survey suggesting that 13 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK rate their own sites as being 'very poor'.

One in 3,000 sites were found to use keywords, while 42 per cent contained bad pages that had invalid or broken links.

"[SMEs] have to adopt coherent web hosting and SEO strategies that maximise a website's full potential and make it easier for consumers to find," Mr Thompson remarked.

According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, UK firms spent £3.3 billion on online marketing strategies last year.

Written by Dipika Patel