Search Marketing: What Should We Be Doing In 2011?
Posted by Aleesha Tully on Wed, Apr 27, 2011
In a recent survey and reportcarried out by Econsultancy, some interesting facts were revealed about the state of search marketing in 2011.
In short, the survey found that the search marketing industry has matured, is robust and is evolving in steps rather than leaps. The majority of findings by the survey showed that marketers are now reaping the benefits of experience.
So, what are search marketers doing?
The results show that Google is still dominant in the search-marketing sector. Most marketers seem to be still investing in the old reliables – the fundamentals of search, but are experimenting in new areas. Costs have risen for use of Google, but marketers are seeing improvements over their 2010 use of the search engine. And certainly they don’t seem to be finding the merging of Yahoo and Bing to be a big threat to Google’s dominance, either. There has however been an encroachment into Google’s territory by social networking alternatives. A lot of search marketers have said they are now using Pay-Per-Click in social spaces such as Facebook.
What’s The Budget?
Search marketing budgets are still on the rise according to the report. Most of the budget goes into SEO and PPC- half of those surveyed have reported an increase in their budget, and a third have kept their budget the same. Any cuts that have been made have gone to display advertising, but these are in the minority.
What Are Search Marketers Thinking?
The issues of Google’s algorithm changes have come up a lot in the report. The changes seem to be a huge concern to search marketers. There have been many alterations to search algorithms such as Google’s Panda update, which means that search marketers have now had to adapt and change their formula. However, a great search marketer can use this new formula to their advantage with a bit of practice and can reap huge benefits from it. The changes are more beneficial than anything else, and will help to stamp out the “content farm” idea that is so present around the web these days.
Search and Social Media
Most marketers are interested in social media’s relationship with search. 50% of them have reported that social media has impacted their SEM, but only 29% so far have merged parts of their search and social strategies.
These findings are certainly food for thought in terms of being a search marketer. It is clear the marketers have to evolve and adapt to new technologies to stay ahead of the game. Are you using the most adaptable search marketing provider out there?
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