And the Survey Says….Search Engine Marketing is Key for Online Business
5/1/2010 at 10:00 am by
If you’re thinking it’s time to take a closer look at search engine marketing, you’ll probably find the results of a new Internet Retailer magazine survey particularly interesting. The survey suggests that search engine marketing is a valuable business analysis tool, and should probably be considered a top priority for business looking for customers online.
Twenty-eight percent of the merchants contacted for the study said more than a quarter of their traffic comes from paid search ads. On top of that, about half said that more than a quarter of their traffic is based on natural search.
Those numbers may be pretty good, but the distribution of traffic isn’t always even. Udayan Bose of the SEM firm NetElixir called 2009 “a peculiar year for search engine marketing.” He said that “the first two quarters were exceptionally slow,” things picked up in the fall, and “the holiday season was very strong.”
If your business want to sell goods online, Internet Retailer says, search engine marketing is “one of internet retailing’s fundamentals.” About 40 percent of respondents said more than half of their online marketing budgets went to SEM. Not surprisingly, the survey also found that Google dominates the search landscape.
Google this week announced a significant change to be aware of if you’re already involved with marketing through the site. The company’s Advertising Professionals program will soon be replaced by a new Google AdWords Certification program.





