14 Apr Paid Search and SEO are Marketing Saviors for the Downturn
41.9% of retailers say paid search advertising has been outperforming all other forms of marketing since the recession began last September. This means that interest in firms that specialize in pay-per-click (PPC) and other forms of paid search advertising have been in high demand. Anyone can sign up for a Google AdWords account, but not very many know how to use it effectively with optimized keywords, or even if Google AdWords is even the solution to the particular paid search needs of your business.
Paid search is also highly scalable. Budgets can be scaled back immediately if needed, where advertising through more traditional mediums entails signing expensive and binding contracts. This scalability alone makes paid search the preferred solution for most online and offline businesses.
Despite the success of paid search, only 24.2% plan to increase spending on paid search while 45.9% plan to keep it about the same. These retailers have recognized the importance of search engine optimization and are using the downturn to spend the time necessary on optimizing their sites naturally.
55.3% of businesses surveyed plan to increase spending on search engine optimization to achieve better natural search results. If looked at as a strategy, PPC campaigns are short-term solutions to boost the popularity and visibility of your website. SEO campaigns involve long term solutions to bring more visitors to your site organically through excellent content and an easily navigable site structure, among other things. The downturn is an excellent time to consider SEO, since it usually involves time-consuming one-time projects such as redesigning the site for easier navigibility, adding social media platforms, stripping out redundant code, and creating rich and in-depth content.
Social media marketing is rearing its head as a serious contender in the online world. Early adopters of Twitter and other social media technologies and methods are reporting success with the medium. As a result, over 30% of surveyed retailers are looking at developing a social media strategy. One only needs to look to the example of Whole Foods and Woot and how they have monetized Twitter to get excited about the possibilities in this medium alone.
1-Stop Marketing Solutions has the benefit of being involved in the world of SEO and the internet in general for years. While our experience is highly sought after right now, we are happy to help out new clients anytime. Contact us for a free consultation on what your SEO roadmap should look like and join the other half of the business world that has decided to invest in SEO, PPC and social media marketing.
All survey numbers used are from an Internet Retailer Survey, the statistics from which are available here.