According to research from Webvisible and Nielsen reported on MarketingCharts.com, local search is becoming increasingly important and search engines and e-newsletters are growing rapidly as local search tools, while all traditional media are declining. More than 60% of small business owners use the Internet to locate product. Yet the same survey found that just 44% of small business had a web site and of those, owners spent less than 10% of their marketing budgets online. Which all begs the question, “Huh?”

While web sites do require constant care and feeding, they are also the only salesperson your company has that is willing to work 24/7/365. I certainly can’t speak for the business community at large, but I think that anyone/anything that sells 24 hours a day is worthy of a decent investment. There are few marketing activities that can generate ROI like a good web site.

Among business owners, 51% believe both the quality and ability of their site to acquire new customers is only “fair” or “poor.” And only 9% are satisfied with their online marketing efforts. Yet most are spending 10% or less of their marketing budget on their web site. Again, Huh?

The old saying, “It takes money to make money” didn’t become an old saying by accident. It became one because it’s true. But it’s true only to the degree that it takes some money, not necessarily tons of money.

By using a professional to design your site and continuously updating it with SEO content, even the smallest of businesses can generate decent online results. And online advertising, on a CPM basis, is far cheaper than any newspaper, yellow pages or regional magazine. Working with an experience media buyer can help target viewing audiences with high precision. And pay-per-click programs can be the cheapest advertising on the planet.

Business owners need to remember their own behaviors when it comes to online search, and apply those lessions to their own web sites. As companies realize the cost of expansive supply chains, local search and local buying are going to continue to increase in importance. Think about how you are working with your vendors, how you found them, and what criteria were used to evaluate them. Apply those same principles to how you market your own web site.

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