The North American search marketing industry is projected to grow by 14% in 2010 and reach $16.6 Billion, according to a newly release report called “The SEMPO State of Search Report 2010″, published by Econsultancy The full report costs $299, but for a sneak preview, visit here. We’ve posted before about SEO stats, but this newest report just adds more fuel to the SEO budget argument.
Other key highlights important to the search marketing space, in particular SEO include:
- In 2010, companies expect to spend 43% more on SEO than they spent in 2009 — the big question is where is this extra spend going? To be competitive, it should go towards strong link building and ongoing SEO site analysis
- Social media marketing budgets are still small in comparison to SEO & PPC spend — so spend wisely and don’t get sucked into the social media craze!
- 90% of respondents actively engage in search engine optimization — which has remained steady since 2007. See bullet point #1 — it’s about to get much more competitive! Are you ready and are you investing the in the right SEO opportunities?
- 31% of companies are spending $25,000 – $150,000+ per year on SEO
- 17% of companies are spending $150,000 to $3,000,000+ per year on SEO
- The Top 3 objectives companies have for SEO are (based on #1 priorities & in order of importance) — nothing new here, but consider that generating leads & selling products/services is a function of ranking well for mid-tail and long-tail keywords; not exclusively the top 3 keywords in your industry. Smart marketers rule the day.
- #1 – Generate Leads (34%)
- #2 – Drive traffic to website (32%)
- #3 – Sell products, services, or content directly online (26%)
- 67% of Companies have at least two (2) people responsible for search marketing — this is very interesting to say the least. If your company doesn’t want to carry the overhead of another employee OR needs to increase productivity per employee, you really need to do yourself a favor and check our our SEO technology (SEOtool) — it’s proving to be an invaluable “employee” for objective SEO analysis and ongoing QA on a site-wide basis for in-house marketers.
Without question, the SEO industry continues to experience fast growth as more and more advertisers pull marketing budgets from print advertising and other traditional vehicles which just can’t compete from both a scale, visibility, monetization and measurability perspective. SEO is hear to stay — granted the landscape will keep shifting —- but companies who spend wisely and in the right SEO strategies WILL be successful. Contact us to learn more about how dominant our clients have become in their own natural search competitive landscapes and in what ways we can accelerate your business objectives.
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