It’s not a good time, is it? Not bread queues and soup kitchens, to be sure, but it is very hard to be optimistic.
Still. it is said that every cloud has a silver lining it seems and for SEO it may be that people are seeing Organic Search in a new light. Compared to other forms of online marketing, SEO is seen as a cheap, effective way of getting the message across. According to recruiters we’ve spoken to recently (and others with less of an axe to grind) demand for good SEO professionals is on the increase. Hooray for our side!
But the loser in this may well be Pay Per Click advertising (not that we expect Google to throw in the towel any time soon). As cheap as a well-run PPC campaign may be, some website managers look at the number of clicks which DON’T end in a sale and think of it as wasted money.
What is only partly appreciated is the link between effective SEO and PPC. In essence, web users are more likely to click on a PPC link — or indeed any brand-related link — if they associate it with good organic search results.
This is because SEO is as much about “Reputation Management” as it is about anything else. That includes quality backlinks — everyone wants to link to the “world’s favourite website”.
In other words, sites that give good attention to organic search can expect other benefits too.
It’s right that SEO is getting more attention, it simply makes sense. But treat it as a FOUNDATION of your whole SEM effort, not all of it.
