\u201cSmall business is the backbone of our economy\u201d\u2014almost no US president has gone a term without reciting this phrase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number of small businesses is steadily growing over the years, reaching its peak in 2021 (no official 2022 data yet). As of 2021, the US has 32.5 million small businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So we used our keyword and more particularly search volume intel to explore some trends of interest within the realm of small business and:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
See whether Americans\u2019 interest in small business ventures has seen some YoY shifts and whether it\u2019s subject to any patterns;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Armed with data we pulled from our clients\u2019 sites (insights taken from various Alien Road tools), we also managed to track some general success patterns. We analyzed everything from their traffic growth trends to organic and social media performance over time\u2014all to see which small business categories manage to do better online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To pinpoint some general trends around starting a new business, we looked at search volume for various searches that feature this desire\u2014from \u201chow to start a business\u201d to \u201copen business\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It seems, however, that the inclination to start a new venture is subject to strong \u2018seasonality\u2019\u2014the majority of the searches occur in January and March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only exception here was in July 2020, when interest in opening up a business skyrocketed off the typical season\u2014and this can be linked to what\u2019s now called the pandemic effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The user interest growth pattern is consistent with what we saw above, but the pace of growth is much faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From 2018 to 2022, the number of searches for all things related to starting a small business spiked by 76%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you can see, the actual growth in the number of small businesses and interest in starting them has indeed increased over the years. So Google searches often pre-empt the actual leap into the world of entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While general interest in starting a small business is spiking, its distribution is not even as some businesses get more traction than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Capitalizing on hobbies is also popular\u2014starting an Etsy business looks attractive to almost one-fifth of all the searchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Queries related to \u201cstarting a boutique\u201d have always had the largest share of all small business related searches, but the rest of the top three kept changing over time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vending machines appear to be gaining the biggest traction, as the category broke into the second spot of most-searched small businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The table below shows which small business types saw the biggest growth in Google searches related to starting a new venture:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stats across regions, however, can vary a lot, so we took a more granular look at the most popular small business categories within each US state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cEtsy, cleaning, boutique\u201d triad is present\u2014fully or partially\u2014across each state\u2019s top 3. There are some exceptions, though:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In exactly half the states, coffee shops also make it into the top 3 most searched small business categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Starting a business means that you\u2019ll face a lot of challenges and concerns. And what does that imply?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s why search volume stats can reveal what really matters to Americans when they are thinking of opening a small business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Half of all the small business related searches have to do with the financial side of things\u2014from grants to loans, people research any help they can get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, searches surrounding the financial side of running a small business saw the biggest increase in interest over the past 4 years:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSmall business stimulus\u201d and \u201csmall business grants Ohio\u201d keywords saw a 2,500% and 2,000% increase in searches, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second-biggest concern for potential entrepreneurs is administration. Small business accountants or accounting software have witnessed growth in interest\u2014we see a triple-digit increase here as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We took a closer look at marketing-related searches to evaluate whether small businesses are all that interested in researching ways to promote their brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cmarketing ideas for small business\u201d keyword\u2014the most searched term within the category\u2014gets around 1,200 monthly searches. This is much lower than all the administrative and operations-related terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But interest in all things small business marketing appears to be growing over the years. Keyword stats indicate that small business owners try to embrace all the up-and-coming trends:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This might imply that more and more small businesses are now getting concerned about their digital presence, looking up ways to manage their online visibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While fewer people now want to open an online business\u2014ever since the pandemic started to slow down, the searches have fallen\u2014having a solid online presence is an absolute must, regardless of how small the business is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, if you\u2019re one of those 34,000 (monthly search volume) folks Googling \u201csmall business ideas\u201d, the insights below can help you make a more informed decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We took a look at our clients\u2019 domains (280+ websites), making sure to only consider small businesses (<200 employees). Then, with the help of a few Alien Road tools, we checked the 2018-2022 dynamics of their traffic, keyword, and social media performance\u2014all to see which small businesses actually have what it takes to build a strong online visibility and have a successful digital strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the sites belonging to small businesses were in the positive traffic territory. The average traffic growth across the board was 2900%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This means that over the past 4 years, most of the websites within our client list managed to expand their visitor base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This growth trend can either point to user interest and demand patterns, or to the fact that these sites generally invest more in their online visibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking at the number of keywords small business sites rank for can reveal whether traffic growth has to do with a successful organic search strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, we\u2019ve explored which small business site categories have the largest share of high-ranking organic keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you can see, the top 10 list here doesn\u2019t coincide with that of the fastest-growing site categories by traffic, which means that ranking for a high number of keywords might not directly lead to traffic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we look at overall patterns across site categories, on average, small business domains we analyzed have the top organic rankings for approximately 8,000 keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Organic search might not be responsible for positive traffic dynamics, so we also wanted to unwrap how things are going for small businesses on the social media front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While it\u2019s individual small businesses and their teams that are behind the successes, we can still track some category-specific patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When analyzing social media trends for small businesses, you\u2019d expect to see the same leisure and entertainment brands getting the biggest audience growth numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Facebook, it\u2019s Higher Education and Building Materials accounts that have seen whopping audience growth rates over the past 4 years\u2014we\u2019re talking percentage increases in the thousands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, this could have to do with a greater social media activity across these accounts. Let\u2019s take a look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As per our findings, as of 2022, Online Media accounts have the highest posting frequency on both Twitter and Facebook. However, this doesn\u2019t seem to have given their audience growth a push.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consumer Goods accounts have had the biggest increase in posting frequency on both Twitter and Facebook. Once again, this change hasn\u2019t resulted in notable social media audience expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Facebook, 60% of the categories we analyzed reduced the number of their posts by an average of 50%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Twitter, these numbers are even higher: around 75% of the small business categories started publishing 65% (on average) fewer posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may think that it\u2019s all because organic strategies aren\u2019t working so well on either Facebook or Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can see that engagement stats are consistent with audience growth across both social media networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This might imply that the social media audience spike of some small business categories can\u2019t simply be tied to their advertising efforts. Or, they manage to pull off social media campaigns that bring a very targeted and relevant audience that stays and engages with their content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are curious and impatient to launch a new small venture, we hope this study helped to assess the digital landscape of all things small business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The competition is ramping up as more and more people get curious about opening up a small business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More and more small businesses are getting savvy about online marketing\u2014interest in marketing services is on the rise, and so is the expertise as some manage to see their traffic grow tenfold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the market has space for everyone, only you have to know how to go about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If small business is the backbone of the US economy, the right marketing strategy is the backbone of your small business\u2019 success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cSmall business is the backbone of our economy\u201d\u2014almost no US president has gone a term without reciting this phrase. The number of small businesses is steadily growing over the years, reaching its peak in 2021 (no official 2022 data yet). As of 2021, the US has 32.5 million small businesses. So we used our keyword […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32189,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31946\/revisions\/32189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alienroad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}