Posted on Aug 28th, 2022.

A new report from SEMRush reveals searches related to small businesses, particularly ‘opening’ a small business, are on the rise.

The report details the business categories and specific search queries gaining traction and offers insight into what areas of marketing businesses are investing in.

Data in the report is based on the keyword and search volume intel collected by SEMRush.

After analyzing the traffic growth trends to organic search performance over time, SEMRush shares which small business categories manage to do better online.

Here are some key highlights from the report.

Search Trends Around Opening A Business.

Looking at search volume for various searches that indicate an intent to open a business, the report finds:

Over the past four years, the number of “open business” searches has grown by 21%.
The majority of “open business” searches occur in January and March.
From 2018 to 2022, the number of searches for all things related to starting a small business spiked by 76%.

Most Popular Small Business Categories

While general interest in starting a small business is spiking, search volume indicates aspiring business owners are looking to open boutiques:

Almost one-fifth of all entrepreneurs-to-be want to open a boutique. Starting an Etsy business looks attractive to almost one-fifth of all the searchers.

Vending machines appear to be gaining the biggest traction, as the category broke into the second spot of most-searched small businesses.

Analyzing search trends across regions, the report finds:

The “Etsy, cleaning, boutique” triad is present—fully or partially—across each state’s top 3.
In exactly half the states, coffee shops also make it into the top 3 most searched small business categories.
Montana and Vermont searchers also consider delivery services as a potential undertaking.

Most Frequent ‘Small Business’ Related Searches

Half of all the top small business-related searches are related to financing. Here are the top queries, ordered by average monthly searches:

Small business loans
Small business grants
Small business administration
Small business ideas
How to start a small business
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Small Business Searches Related To Marketing

Keyword stats indicate small business owners try to embrace all the up-and-coming trends:

Searches for digital marketing services surged by 1,500% (especially fast during the pandemic).
Interest in creating short videos for small businesses grew by 420%.
600% more people were looking up free text message marketing in 2022 than in 2018.
Small Business Site Categories With the Highest Traffic Growth
The report finds the average traffic growth for small businesses across the board was 2900%.

SEMRush states:

“This means that over the past 4 years, most of the websites within our client list managed to expand their visitor base.”

Top 10 Small Business Site Categories By Share of High-Ranking Organic Keywords

The report explores which small business site categories have the largest share of high-ranking organic keywords. Here are the categories listed in order, followed by the median number of organic keywords where the domain ranks in the top 10:

Publishing: 45,581
Online Media: 10,116
Veterinary: 9,379
Entertainment: 6,627
Consumer Services: 3,518
Consumer Goods: 3,339
Building Materials: 2,957
Music: 2,593
Human Resources: 2,145
Food & Beverages: 1,839

What’s interesting to note here is how the top 10 categories by high-ranking keywords don’t line up with the fastest-growing site categories by traffic. SEMRush suggests this could mean ranking for a high number of keywords might not directly lead to traffic growth.

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