• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 15, 2015

Google will update its search algorithms next week, sending some large companies back to the drawing board to make their sites more mobile friendly. The kicker: technology moves faster than most companies can manage; many small companies still struggle to build a Web site. 

Small businesses have been slow to adopt digital marketing strategies. Research from Clutch released Wednesday suggests nearly half of small businesses participating in a survey dedicate only 20% or less of their marketing budget to digital marketing.

One-quarter of these businesses do not have a Web site. Of the businesses that said they do not have a Web site, 9% said they have plans to build one in the future, while 10% said that that they are unlikely to build one.

Clutch's report also analyzes budgets. Of those businesses that have a Web site, about one-quarter will increase their spending this year, followed by about 64% who said budgets will remain flat. About 6% said they would either decrease or are uncertain if they will spend at all.

Mobile-friendly Web sites are sparse among small businesses. Of the small businesses with a Web site participating in the survey, 56% said they have a mobile Web site built around responsive design. Some 31% said their Web site is not responsive, and 10% claim they are unlikely to make their Web site responsive in the future.

About 17% admit they have plans to make their Web site responsive in the future.

The findings also analyzed small business with a Web site and/or a mobile app and found the results heavily skewed toward having a Web site. Some 74% of respondents have a Web site, while only 15% have a mobile app. Of the businesses that said they do not have a mobile app, 18% said they have plans to build one in the future, while 40% said are unlikely to build one.

Mobile is top of mind these days for brands, especially as Google prepares to update its mobile search algorithm. There are numerous brands that will feel the fallout from Google's mobile update.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau in the U.K. released an audit naming the top sites that will suffer, such as Nintendo, American Apparel, Ryan Air, Kellogg's U.K., and Dyson, to name a few.

More than half of the top 250 U.K. brands have a mobile app and a mobile site, but there are still several brands that have no mobile presence. Namely 7% of travel, 9% of FMCG, 7% of retail, 6% of social and political organizational, and 5% of tech and telecommunication brands have no mobile presence.