Searching for New Customers in the Recession? - eMarketer

"As marketers better understand the purpose of Website optimization in their overall campaigns, compared with the other three types of search marketing, SEO spending will grow at a higher yearly rate.

“Customers are going to search engines because they are looking for better deals,” says Mr. Hallerman. “And marketers are going to search engines because that’s where the customers are.”"

A research report indicates a new and growing interest in SEO activity on the web.

The article has an interesting chart showing how much money is spent on different types of web marketing. In 2008, expenditures on paid search marketing are about 7 times what is spent on SEO. By 2013, the author expects that ratio to drop to just over 5 to one.

Looking at it in a different light, expenditures on paid marketing will be about 1.8 times the 2008 amounts, while expenditures on SEO will be 2.5 times the 2008 amounts.

His explanation for the faster growth in SEO? As he says in the quote above, better value and "...that’s where the customers are."

What this means to us is that the environment we are working in on the web will be come more and more competitive, making it all the more important that we stay on top of what works in the field!

Click on the title at the top to see the article.