The economic downturn has made companies very careful about how they distribute their budgets, even with marketing. As the return on each marketing dollar becomes even more important, companies have had to deeply consider value for money. The general public is becoming more and more cynical about traditional marketing techniques, meaning that the value of some forms of marketing is going down.

The number of people who use a search engine whenever they search for a business, instead of traditional forms, had been increasing rapidly in recent years and is well above three-quarters of the population in most countries. This makes a company’s optimisation strategy vital to the success of a business. However, while most marketing budgets are exploring new areas – interactive marketing is on its way up, and is estimated to take up over 20% of business marketing budgets in five years’ time – many companies overlook the need to work SEO into their annual budgets.

The beauty of search engine optimisation is that it is relatively free of tomfoolery. While traditional marketing is all about winning over your audience, search engine optimisation is designed to appeal to search engine algorithms which are ultimately on the consumer’s side. SEO can help you to focus your message to customers, putting them in touch with the information they need quickly and efficiently and ultimately resulting in a better experience.

SEO also has long-term effectiveness. While banner advertising has to stay current to be effective, optimising your site can draw traffic for long periods, particularly when you supplement your keywords through fresh content. A Nielsen report in recent months found that search engine listings drew twice the traffic as banner ads, and well over half of the purchases made through websites originated from customers who found the site through search results.

In tough economic times, seeking advice through SEO Consult makes sound marketing sense, particularly as search engine optimisation is more budget-friendly. It is estimated that SEO currently takes up only 15% of the average marketing budget for a large company, but drives up to three quarters of traffic. Pay-per-click advertising, on the other hand, is slowly declining in effectiveness while remaining costly.

A recent report has shown that other forms of marketing, such as the use of social media networks, is increasing in popularity as an effective marketing tool. Social media marketing can be an invaluable resource to help support your SEO strategy, and the sense of community participation in online social networks can increase your return traffic. Posting to social media sites also allows you to spread your business name throughout the internet, which can help you in linking back to your site.

In a time when every part of a marketing budget has to pull its weight, investing in SEO for your site is a smart move. If your site is not optimised, every search in your service area is a missed opportunity. In an age when consumers become more and more savvy to marketing techniques, who can afford not to reach as many people as possible with each search engine query?

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