2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report - SEO Edition (Excerpt)

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2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition Research and Insights on Managing the Evolving Search and Social Climate for Optimal Results

Lead AuthorJen Doyle, Senior Analyst

ContributorsSergio Balegno, Research Director

Production EditorBrad Bortone, Editorial Production Manager

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MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... ii

Director’s Note ......................................................................................................................... 2

Executive Summary ................................................................................................................ 3 The state of search marketing ............................................................................................................... 4

Chart: Integrating social media into search marketing plans ......................................................... 4 Chart: SEO maturity ....................................................................................................................... 5 Chart: The expected future impact of search innovations .............................................................. 6

Achieving balance of search and social marketing for achieving optimal impact .................................. 7 Chart: The effectiveness of SEO objectives and social media objectives ...................................... 7 Chart: Average target keyword rankings by social media use ....................................................... 8 Chart: Organic conversion rates by social media use .................................................................... 9

Perceptions of SEO ............................................................................................................................ 10 Chart: Perceptions of SEO at budget time ................................................................................... 10

Search and social partnerships ........................................................................................................... 11

Chapter 1: Organic Benchmarks ......................................................................................... 12

Budgeting for SEO ................................................................................................................ 13 Online marketing budgets ................................................................................................................... 13

Chart: Online marketing’s share of the budget ............................................................................ 13 Chart: Online marketing budget allocation ................................................................................... 14

Staffing is the greatest SEO expense ................................................................................................. 15 Chart: SEO budget allocation ...................................................................................................... 15 Chart: SEO budget allocation by organization size ...................................................................... 16 Chart: SEO budget allocation by primary market ......................................................................... 17 Chart: SEO budget allocation by industry sector ......................................................................... 18 Chart: SEO budget allocation by social media use ...................................................................... 19

Increasing SEO budgets ..................................................................................................................... 20 Chart: Expected changes in SEO budgets .................................................................................. 20 Chart: Expected changes in SEO budgets by organization size .................................................. 21 Chart: Expected changes in SEO budgets by primary market ..................................................... 22 Chart: Expected changes in SEO budgets by industry sector ..................................................... 23 Chart: Expected changes in SEO budgets by SEO maturity ....................................................... 24

Investing in SEO ................................................................................................................................. 25 Chart: SEO budgets ..................................................................................................................... 25 Chart: SEO budgets by organization size .................................................................................... 26 Chart: SEO budgets by primary market ....................................................................................... 27 Chart: SEO budgets by industry sector ........................................................................................ 28 Chart: SEO budgets by social media use .................................................................................... 29



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Chart: SEO budgets by SEO maturity .......................................................................................... 30

Target objectives ................................................................................................................... 31 Perceptions on the most effective SEO objectives .............................................................................. 31

Chart: The effectiveness of SEO objectives ................................................................................ 31 Chart: Very effective SEO objectives by organization size .......................................................... 32 Chart: Very effective SEO objectives by primary market ............................................................. 33 Chart: Very effective SEO objectives by industry sector .............................................................. 34 Chart: Very effective SEO objectives by social media use .......................................................... 35 Chart: very effective SEO objectives by SEO maturity ................................................................ 36

Marketer insights: SEO strategy development .................................................................................... 37 B2B marketers share insights on planning an SEO strategy ....................................................... 37 B2C marketers share insights on planning an SEO strategy ....................................................... 41

SEO tactics ............................................................................................................................ 44 Achieving higher rankings ................................................................................................................... 44

Chart: The effectiveness of SEO tactics ...................................................................................... 44 Chart: Very effective SEO tactics by organization size ................................................................ 45 Chart: Very effective SEO tactics by primary market ................................................................... 46 Chart: Very effective SEO tactics by industry sector .................................................................... 47 Chart: Very effective SEO tactics by social media use ................................................................ 48 Chart: Very effective SEO tactics by SEO maturity ...................................................................... 49

Marketer insights: Best SEO tactics .................................................................................................... 50 B2B marketers share insights on the best SEO tactics for achieving higher rankings ................. 50 B2C marketers share insights on the best SEO tactics for achieving higher rankings ................. 54

Integrating search and social media ................................................................................................... 56 Chart: Organizations integrating search and social media are most strategic ............................. 56 Chart: Integrating social media into search campaigns ............................................................... 57 Chart: Integrating social media into search campaigns by organization size ............................... 58 Chart: Integrating social media into search campaigns by primary market .................................. 59 Chart: Integrating social media into search marketing campaigns by industry sector .................. 60 Chart: Integrating social media into search campaigns by SEO maturity .................................... 61 Chart: Goals of integrating social media with SEO ...................................................................... 62 Chart: Goals of integrating social media with SEO by organization size ...................................... 63 Chart: Goals of integrating social media with SEO by primary market ......................................... 64 Chart: Goals of integrating social media with SEO by industry sector ......................................... 65 Chart: Goals of integrating social media with SEO by social media use ...................................... 66 Chart: Goals of integrating social media with SEO by SEO maturity ........................................... 67 Chart: Social media devices utilized for SEO purposes ............................................................... 68 Chart: Social media devices utilized for SEO purposes by organization size .............................. 69 Chart: Social media devices utilized for SEO purposes by primary market ................................. 70 Chart: Social media devices utilized for SEO purposes by industry sector .................................. 71 Chart: Social media devices utilized for SEO purposes by SEO maturity .................................... 72

Search and social ROI ........................................................................................................................ 73



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Chart: Marketer’s opinions on the ROI of search and social media ............................................. 73 Chart: Marketer’s opinions on the ROI of search and social media by organization size ............. 74 Chart: Marketer’s opinions on the ROI of search and social media by primary market ................ 75 Chart: Marketer’s opinions on the ROI of search and social media by industry sector ................ 76 Chart: Marketer’s opinions on the ROI of search and social media by social media use ............. 77 Chart: Marketer’s opinions on the ROI of search and social media by SEO maturity .................. 78

SEO metrics ........................................................................................................................... 79 Typical rankings for target keywords ................................................................................................... 79

Chart: Average target keyword rankings ...................................................................................... 79 Chart: Average target keyword rankings by organization size ..................................................... 80 Chart: Average target keyword rankings by primary market ........................................................ 81 Chart: Average target keyword rankings by industry sector ......................................................... 82 Chart: Average target keyword rankings by social media use ..................................................... 83 Chart: Average target keyword rankings by SEO maturity ........................................................... 84

Inbound traffic generated from organic search .................................................................................... 85 Chart: Inbound traffic from organic search ................................................................................... 85 Chart: Inbound traffic from organic search by organization size .................................................. 86 Chart: Inbound traffic from organic search by primary market ..................................................... 87 Chart: Inbound traffic from organic search by industry sector ...................................................... 88 Chart: Inbound traffic from organic search by social media use .................................................. 89 Chart: Inbound traffic from organic search by SEO maturity ........................................................ 90

Organic lead volume ........................................................................................................................... 91 Chart: SEO serves as a significant lead generation tool .............................................................. 91 Chart: Percent of total leads generated from SEO by organization size ...................................... 92 Chart: Percent of total leads generated from SEO by primary market ......................................... 93 Chart: Percent of total leads generated from SEO by industry sector.......................................... 94 Chart: Percent of total leads generated from SEO by social use ................................................. 95 Chart: Percent of total leads generated from SEO by SEO maturity............................................ 96

Lead quality from organic search ........................................................................................................ 97 Chart: Organic lead quality .......................................................................................................... 97 Chart: Organic lead quality by organization size .......................................................................... 98 Chart: Organic lead quality by primary market ............................................................................. 99 Chart: Organic lead quality by industry sector ........................................................................... 100 Chart: Organic lead quality by social media use ........................................................................ 101 Chart: Organic lead quality by SEO maturity ............................................................................. 102

Organic conversion rates .................................................................................................................. 103 Chart: Defining a conversion ..................................................................................................... 103 Chart: Defining a conversion by organization size ..................................................................... 104 Chart: Defining a conversion by primary market ........................................................................ 105 Chart: Defining a conversion by industry sector ........................................................................ 106 Chart: Defining a conversion by social media use ..................................................................... 107 Chart: Defining a conversion by SEO maturity .......................................................................... 108



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Chart: Organic search conversion rates .................................................................................... 109 Chart: Organic search conversion rates by organization size .................................................... 110 Chart: Organic search conversion rates by primary market ....................................................... 111 Chart: Organic search conversion rates by industry sector ....................................................... 112 Chart: Organic search conversion rates by social media use .................................................... 113 Chart: Organic search conversion rates by conversion definition .............................................. 114

Marketer insights: SEO challenges ................................................................................................... 115 B2B marketers share insights on their greatest challenges with SEO ....................................... 115 B2C marketers share insights on their greatest challenges with SEO ....................................... 119

Chapter 2: SEO Resources ................................................................................................ 121

SEO resources and tools.................................................................................................... 122 Majority of online marketers practicing tactics in house .................................................................... 122

Chart: Online marketing resources ............................................................................................ 122 Chart: Online tactics done in house by organization size .......................................................... 123 Chart: Online tactics done in house by primary market ............................................................. 124 Chart: Online tactics done in house by industry sector .............................................................. 125 Chart: Online tactics done in house by SEO maturity ................................................................ 127

SEO tools you can use ..................................................................................................................... 128 Chart: The effectiveness of SEO tools ....................................................................................... 128 Chart: Very effective SEO tools by organization size ................................................................. 129 Chart: Very effective SEO tools by primary market .................................................................... 130 Chart: Very effective SEO tools by industry sector .................................................................... 131 Chart: Very effective SEO tools by social media use ................................................................. 132 Chart: Very effective SEO tools by SEO maturity ...................................................................... 133

Chapter 3: Search Innovations .......................................................................................... 134

Mobile search ...................................................................................................................... 135 The current impact of mobile search ................................................................................................. 135

Chart: The current impact of mobile search ............................................................................... 135 Chart: Receiving a great impact from mobile search by organization size ................................. 136 Chart: Receiving a great impact from mobile search by primary market .................................... 137 Chart: Receiving a great impact from mobile search by industry sector .................................... 138 Chart: Receiving a great impact from mobile search by social media use ................................. 139

The expected future impact of mobile search ................................................................................... 140 Chart: The expected future impact of mobile search ................................................................. 140 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by mobile search by organization size ....................... 141 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by mobile search by primary market .......................... 142 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by mobile search by industry sector ........................... 143 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by mobile search by social media use ........................ 144 Chart: Mobile media users within age and gender ..................................................................... 145

Real time search .................................................................................................................. 146 The current impact of real time search .............................................................................................. 146



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Chart: The current impact of real time search ............................................................................ 146 Chart: Receiving a great impact from real time search by organization size ............................. 147 Chart: Receiving a great impact from real time search by primary market ................................ 148 Chart: Receiving a great impact from real time search by industry sector ................................. 149 Chart: Receiving a great impact from real time search by social media .................................... 150

The expected future impact of real time search ................................................................................ 151 Chart: The Expected Future Impact of real time search ............................................................ 151 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by real time search by organization size .................... 152 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by real time search by primary market ....................... 153 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by real time search by industry sector ........................ 154 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by real time search by social media use .................... 155

Personalized search ............................................................................................................ 156 The current impact of personalized search ....................................................................................... 156

Chart: The current impact of personalized search ..................................................................... 156 Chart: Receiving a great impact from personalized search by organization size ....................... 157 Chart: Receiving a great impact from personalized search by primary market .......................... 158 Chart: Receiving a great impact from personalized search by industry sector .......................... 159 Chart: Receiving a great impact from personalized search by social media use ....................... 160

The expected future impact of personalized search .......................................................................... 161 Chart: The Expected Future Impact of personalized search ...................................................... 161 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by personalized search by organization size .............. 162 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by personalized search by primary market ................. 163 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by personalized search by industry sector ................. 164 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by personalized search by social media use .............. 165

Video search ........................................................................................................................ 166 The current impact of video search ................................................................................................... 166

Chart: The current impact of video search ................................................................................. 166 Chart: Receiving a great impact from video search by organization size ................................... 167 Chart: Receiving a great impact from video search by primary market ...................................... 168 Chart: Receiving a great impact from video search by industry sector ...................................... 169 Chart: Receiving a great impact from video search by social media use ................................... 170

The expected future impact of video search ..................................................................................... 171 Chart: The expected future impact of video search ................................................................... 171 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by video search by organization size ......................... 172 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by video search by primary market ............................ 173 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by video search by industry sector ............................. 174 Chart: Expecting to be greatly impacted by video search by social media use .......................... 175

Chapter 4: The Search Engine Market .............................................................................. 176

State of the search market ................................................................................................. 177 Google holds their place at the top of the search market .................................................................. 177

Chart: Core search report - share of searches .......................................................................... 177



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Chart: Core search report - volume of searches ........................................................................ 178 Chart: Search engine market share - spend .............................................................................. 179

Bing and Yahoo alliance aims to even the playing field .................................................................... 180 Chart: % Change in total searches by search engine for 2009 .................................................. 180 Chart: % Change in unique searches by search engine for 2009 .............................................. 181 Chart: % Change in searches per search engine user by search engine for 2009 .................... 182

Search and social partnerships ......................................................................................................... 183 Chart: Total unique visits to search engines and social sites for 2009 - 2010 ........................... 183

Chapter 5: Agency Perspectives ....................................................................................... 184

SEO benchmarks ................................................................................................................. 185 Client’s increasing SEO budgets ....................................................................................................... 185

Chart: Expected changes in SEO budgets, Agency VS Client ................................................... 185 Chart: Expected changes in client SEO budgets by organization size....................................... 186

Agency perspectives on the most effective SEO tactics ................................................................... 187 Chart: The effectiveness of SEO tactics – agency perspective ................................................. 187

Agency insights: Greatest SEO challenges ...................................................................................... 188 Agencies share insights on their greatest SEO challenges ....................................................... 188

Appendix .............................................................................................................................. 191 Appendix 1 - Glossary ....................................................................................................................... 191

Appendix 2 — Demographic Data for 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Survey .......................... 200 Chart: Organization size of survey respondents ........................................................................ 200 Chart: Organization type of survey respondents ........................................................................ 201 Chart: Primary target audience of survey respondents .............................................................. 202 Chart: Industry sector of survey respondents ............................................................................ 203

Appendix 3 - Research Partners and Other Data Sources Referenced ............................................ 204

Research partners ............................................................................................................................ 204

Referenced resources ....................................................................................................................... 205

About MarketingSherpa LLC ............................................................................................................. 207



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DIRECTOR’S NOTE

Welcome to MarketingSherpa’s 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition.

As planning began on this seventh annual benchmark report, it became clear that the search marketing landscape had changed dramatically during the past year, much more so than in previous years. It also became clear that a comprehensive study of all the new terrain that needed to be covered would create an over‐abundance of valuable research; enough to fill two benchmark reports – literally!

So, for the first time, the Search Marketing Benchmark Report is being published in two separate editions. This SEO Edition provides all new benchmark research and insights exclusively on the topic of search engine optimization. The companion PPC Edition focuses exclusively on the topic of paid search marketing. The goal of each edition is to help you better understand what works in search engine marketing today.

SEO Edition Highlights

Primary research survey providing the collective wisdom of 2,194 search marketers Benchmarks on organic search challenges, objectives, tactics, metrics and budgets Innovations in mobile, real time, personalized and video search Search agencies provide their unique prospective on client SEO programs An overview of the search engine market from industry leading sources

This benchmark report is filled with useful information including 160 charts and analytical commentary, hundreds of insights from search marketers and more. Information that is actionable and needed to remain competitive in a marketing world highly dependent on search results.

As always, we welcome your comments and look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Sergio Balegno Research Director, MarketingSherpa @SergioBalegno





EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Managing the Evolving Search and Social Climate for Optimal Results

It’s truly a tumultuous time for search marketing. Between the growth of social media, the release of search innovations, as well as search and social partnerships, the current climate is hardly recognizable from its state just a short time ago. This evolving environment challenges marketers and generates speculation as to what’s coming next in search engine marketing.

Search engine optimization (SEO) has been an essential component of many successful marketing plans for more than a decade, but despite the proven ROI capabilities of SEO, there is a surprisingly large percentage of marketers without formal processes for executing this viable practice. In order to achieve the greatest benefits from SEO, marketers are pressed to formalize their strategies.

The growing traffic and popularity of social media has even some of the most loyal search engine marketers questioning the future of search. Rest assured – search engines are still receiving billions of searches per month. If you cut your SEO efforts now, there are plenty of competitors who would be happy to take your place in the rankings and capitalize on traffic you could have been garnering for yourself.

The major search engines have responded to social media’s growth by releasing innovative solutions to improve the end user’s overall search experience, such as real time and personalized search. These, among other improvements, position search engines for long‐term success and stability. What impact are these innovations having on search engine marketers, and what impact will they have in the future? These are just two of the vital questions answered by this report.

The key to success in today’s search engine market is to focus on managing the many changes in the search and social climate. The 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition provides you with much‐needed benchmark data on best practices and industry standards, highlighting new tools and resources that will help you achieve optimal results.

Inside, you’ll also find valuable insights from marketers and agencies who candidly discuss their processes and challenges, so you can learn directly from their experiences.

As always, we thank you for your interest in our research, and look forward to your feedback and stories of success.

Regards,

Jen Doyle Senior Analyst, MarketingSherpa @JenLDoyle





THE STATE OF SEARCH MARKETING If you’re in the business of search engine optimization, you know how quickly things can change. In just the last few years, dramatic changes have taken place including the emergence and growth of social media, various search innovations like mobile search and real time search, as well as search partnerships.

First, let’s take a look at social media, and who’s using it with search.

CHART: INTEGRATING SOCIAL MEDIA INTO SEARCH MARKETING PLANS Q. Does your organization integrate social media into your search engine marketing plan?

If you’re not currently integrating social media into your search engine marketing plan, you are officially in the minority. The fact that more than 60% of our respondents indicated they were practicing this impactful tactic is a representation of social media’s recognized potential.

Topping our list of companies using this tactic were those with less than 100 employees, likely because they are more agile than their larger counterparts and thus able to more quickly make decisions and changes to their campaigns.

Integrating social and search was also a popular tactic for companies with mixed primary markets, targeting both businesses and consumers (B2B and B2C).

In short, if you haven’t started to integrate social and search tactics, it’s time to get on board. After all, your direct competitors could very well be ahead of you. This report includes benchmark data that demonstrates the benefits of integrating social media into your SEO campaign.

Yes64%

No36%

Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194





CHART: SEO MATURITY Q. Please select the statement below that best describes the process your organization uses to perform search engine optimization (SEO) practices.

What’s truly shocking is the fact that more than half of the marketers who participated in this study either had no formal process for performing SEO, or an informal process that was randomly performed. SEO has been around for more than a decade and has clearly demonstrated proven ROI capabilities over that time, yet many companies are still behind the game with their processes.

In order to gain the maximum benefit from SEO, it is necessary for marketers to challenge themselves and formalize their processes for practicing this impactful tactic. In this report, we will demonstrate the value of taking a more formalized approach to SEO.

We have a formal process we

routinely perform34%

We have an informal process we randomly perform46%

We have no process for

performing this20%






CHART: THE EXPECTED FUTURE IMPACT OF SEARCH INNOVATIONS Q. How do you think the following search innovations will impact your business in the next 1–5 years?

With a number of search engine innovations being released, it’s only natural for marketers to speculate on what role these new additions will play in the future of SEO. It’s not surprising that personalized search tops the list. Because personalized search causes different search engine users to receive different results, it’s possible that personalized search may have a negative impact on some organization’s SEO efforts by decreasing their exposure and this has created much speculation among the SEO community.

Another recent addition, real time search, is also expected to have a significant impact. As the popularity of using social media for marketing purposes grows, so will expectations of this search innovation’s impact.

Of all the segments surveyed organizations that integrate social media into their search campaigns had the greatest expectations on the impact of all innovations above. This could be due to the fact that this group of marketers is generally more ahead of the curve and well educated in the most recent developments in both search and social media.

In this report, we will take a closer look at each of these search innovations, alongside their current – and anticipated future – impacts on a number of these specific segments.

24%

26%

33%

33%

47%

47%

56%

57%

29%

28%

10%

11%

Mobile search

Video search

Real time search

Personalized search

Will have a great impact on our business Will somewhat impact our business

Will have no impact on our business






ACHIEVING BALANCE OF SEARCH AND SOCIAL MARKETING FOR ACHIEVING OPTIMAL IMPACT

CHART: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SEO OBJECTIVES AND SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES Q. In your experience, how effective has search engine optimization (SEO) and social media been at accomplishing these marketing objectives for your organization?

SEO is clearly perceived as being the more effective tactic for increasing bottom line, and commonly‐measured objectives like increased website traffic, lead generation, offline sales revenue and online sales revenue. Social media is believed to be the more effective tactic for objectives that are new to measurement, like improved brand or product reputation and public relations. Many marketers think these objectives are still difficult to measure, but with the growth of social monitoring tools it is now possible to define brand reputation and reach.

Currently, social media is not widely perceived as being very effective for lead generation or increasing sales revenue, and search is not seen as very effective in improving public relations or reputation. Marketers who balance search and social may be doing so because they believe the pair make a good combination toward achieving objectives where using just one of the tactics is not as effective.

26%

17%

35%

57%

27%

29%

42%

9%

10%

18%

33%

36%

37%

37%

Increase online sales revenue

Increase offline sales revenue

Increase lead generation

Increase website traffic

Improve public relations

Improve brand or product reputation

Increase brand or product awareness

Very Effective Social Media Objectives Very Effective SEO Objectives






CHART: AVERAGE TARGET KEYWORD RANKINGS BY SOCIAL MEDIA USE Q. What is your organization’s typical organic ranking for the majority of your currently targeted key terms?

For the chart above, as well as for the entirety of this report, we’re defining “non‐social media users” as marketers who do not currently integrate social media into their search campaigns and “social media users” as those who do. When we asked organizations what their goals were for integrating social with search, 69% of respondents indicated they wanted to use social media to help improve their current search engine rankings.

As you can see, there isn’t a drastic difference in the average target keyword rankings between these groups. Social media users performed slightly better in positions 4‐6, and had fewer companies ranked in positions 7‐11, so social media was able to marginally help them, but the results are otherwise comparable.

Social media does have the potential to do more than slightly improve search campaigns as represented above. Since this practice is just in its beginning stages, there’s no telling how efficient the execution has been, or the length of time the practice has been used by respondents. Social media is undoubtedly an effective tool in generating new inbound links and a wealth of search engine friendly content – two essential components of any SEO plan.

Social media can impact your search campaigns in more ways than one. See our next chart to learn more.

8%

11%

13%

35%

34%

6%

10%

18%

31%

35%

Greater than page 2 of search results

Page 2 of search results

Positions 7 ‐ 11

Positions 4 ‐ 6

Positions 1 ‐ 3

Non‐Social Media Users Social Media Users






CHART: ORGANIC CONVERSION RATES BY SOCIAL MEDIA USE Q. What is your organization’s conversion rate for organic traffic?

Notice that the conversion rates of social media users is significantly greater than non‐social media users. It is possible that social media users are seeing a greater improvement in this metric than they did with ranking because it can take time for a website’s search ranking to improve, where the effects social media has on conversion rates may take less time to have an impact.

There’s no doubt that social media can be an effective tactic in improving brand or product reputation and public relations. It’s likely that an improved public profile would result in a higher conversion rate. If a search engine user already recognizes and has heard positive things about a brand that shows up in their search results, they are more likely to click through and convert on their website.

Companies that participate in social media already know that their social content is being indexed by search engines. Now, when a consumer conducts a search, they are presented with social networking profiles, images, videos, slide presentations and customer reviews. Delivering a variety of content will allow a brand to have more appeal to different audiences who prefer multiple forms of media.

Since social media generates an increased number of listings received by a participating brand on search results pages, their competition gets “pushed down” to lower rankings. This establishes the participating brand as the key player for the search engine user’s query. This could also increase organic clickthrough and conversion rates.

27%

17%

Organic search traffic

Social Media Users Non‐Social Media Users






PERCEPTIONS OF SEO

CHART: PERCEPTIONS OF SEO AT BUDGET TIME Q. Which statement best describes how search engine optimization (SEO) is perceived by your organization at budget time?

Perceptions of SEO are considerably positive at budget time. Of our respondents, 67% indicated they would increase their SEO investments either liberally or conservatively. Over time, SEO has earned a reputation for being a promising tactic and producing measurable ROI.

It’s not surprising that the two groups of respondents most likely to liberally increase SEO budgets were our social media users and our most mature SEO marketers with formal processes. These groups are likely to have the most expertise in SEO and thus, are more likely to receive the greatest benefits from this practice.

In this report, we’ll take a deeper look into marketer’s decisions regarding SEO budgets, including budget amount, allocation and expected changes in SEO budgets.

SEO is a promising tactic and will

eventually produce ROI. Let's increase budget but do it conservatively.

43%

SEO is producing measurable ROI. Let's increase

budget liberally for continuous

improvement.24%

SEO is basically free. Let's keep it

that way.20%

The value of SEO is unknown and

something we do only as time permits. Why invest more?

13%






SEARCH AND SOCIAL PARTNERSHIPS The search engine market has undergone significant changes in the past year. For many years, Google has dominated the space; however, the partnership of Bing and Yahoo! aims to make the search market a race of two competing key players.

Social media’s popularity growth has forced search engines to act more quickly. In the past, it could take days – or even months – for search engines to index new content on the Web. When social media began offering search capabilities that displayed results as they were being published, search engines knew they had to react. This reaction resulted in real time search, which is now available on Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

These partnerships are increasing the power of search engines and delivering more relevant, up‐to‐date and complete results than ever before. The delivery of improved search engine experiences, as a result of search and social partnerships, will solidify search’s place in the marketing mix for many years to come.


2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report - SEO Edition (Excerpt)

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