55% of Search Marketers Plan to Increase SEO Budget

The UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report 2009

The 71-page report, covering Search Engine Optimisation, Paid Search and Social Media Marketing, is based on an online survey of nearly 900 respondents in February and March 2009.

Highlights include:

• 55% of UK search marketers plan to increase their SEO spending this year.
• 45% plan to increase their paid search budgets
• For paid search, 43% report that ROI has increased compared to 15% who say that it has decreased.
  
• 49% plan to include Twitter in their marketing efforts–up from 3% last year–and 65% are including Facebook.
• In the social media arena, Facebook continues to dominate, with 65% of companies currently using the social networking site as part of their marketing strategy. 49% of companies are now using Twitter.
• 48% are seeing an increase in ROI from their SEO campaigns (compared to 6% that have seen a decline) and for paid search, 43% have seen an increase (versus 15% that have seen a decline).