Introduction: With the help of digital marketing, small businesses have been given greateropportunities to compete at a higher level than they previously could, which gives credence tothe term "if a small business can't be found on the internet, it doesn't exist". For small businessesto be competitive and grow, digital marketing is a must.Purpose: The purpose of this work is to investigate how a selection of small businesses utilizedigital marketing with an emphasis on SEM and SEO.Method: The present study is based on the use of qualitative methods to collect data and toprocess it. The qualitative interview approach is used to collect data, and these are conductedwith respondents at a sample of small businesses who have knowledge and insight into thecompany's marketing strategies.Results: The different companies and the respondents who represent them have a largelysimilar view of how digital marketing can be used to create growth. The clearest differencesappear in relation to the companies' financial conditions, where these largely control how muchthey can invest in the various types of marketing alternatives that are available. What is clear,however, is that all the companies work with both SEO and SEM, where it is above all thekeyword analysis that is given great importance to create growth in different ways - eitherthrough pure lead generation or a focus on increased brand awareness.Conclusion: The result in this work is not limited to small businesses. As small businesses ona general level have similar types of constraints, which this work highlighted in terms ofresources - both financial and personnel, insights from the study can highlight examples ofpractical implementations around digital marketing activities that contribute to growth thatother small businesses in other industries can benefit from.