Small business owners in the West Midlands are being urged to attend a free event which will show them how to make the internet work for their firms.

Web design and search engine optimisation (SEO) are among the topics set to be covered at the breakfast event, which will also provide the region’s businesspeople with valuable networking opportunities.

It takes place at Birmingham’s Radisson Blu on November 3 and is being hosted by support organisation Forum of Private Business.

A seminar on web design and SEO will be provided by the UK’s largest web design and SEO company, Creare.

The opportunity comes after the Forum released new research showing 24 per cent of small businesses in the West Midlands still do not have a website.

Forum spokesman Phil McCabe said: “Our research indicates that there is a higher concentration of small companies in the West Midlands which still don’t have a website than anywhere else in England.

“This is probably due to the region’s high concentration of businesses in the engineering and manufacturing sectors – business owners in these industries often struggle to see the benefit to their firms of having a website.”

To book a place – which includes a complimentary breakfast – visit www.fpb.org or call 0845 6126266.