Corporate America in SEO Stupor Despite New Numbers
The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization is starting to release preliminary figures out of its upcoming State of the Market survey report. See the Search Insider piece to learn more, particularly how 83% of respondents (so far) say they use search engine optimization compared to 80% who use paid placement (both numbers are up from last year). It’s good that SEMPO is drawing attention to the survey; it deserves high participation.
Yet, when the full results come out, we expect more of the same. Companies prefer to handle SEO in house and SEO spending (despite a likely increase over $642 million last year) will be dwarfed by paid placement that accounted for the bulk of last year’s $5.75 billion total. Of course, when you factor out what Google, Yahoo! and others get, SEO actually edges out what agencies collect or managing PPC.
Regardless, the numbers are quite silly. OK, so participants devote money and time to SEO. Considering the number of websites and businesses in North America, past and future numbers will simply reveal that search has a long way to go. Industry credibility and corporate lethargy will hold back SEO for awhile. Meanwhile, if you get SEO, enjoy your rankings, traffic and conversions. Vast numbers of companies have a lot of catching up to do.
What do you think?
