Survey reveals why SEO budget is dropping and why marketers are cutting spend
Zazzle Media's second annual State of SEO survey has assessed the value and ROI of SEO, looking at its impact in securing funds or resource.
The data suggested that 60% of marketers find that resource and a shortage of budget are the main reasons they don’t spend more on organic search activity. However, almost a third of surveyed marketers still don’t know how to measure the impact of SEO on their results.
The survey reviewed 70% of in-house marketers and 30% of agency heads from various companies. It called for marketers to develop a better understanding of attribution models, measurement tools, brand value and purpose when it comes to spending more on SEO.
The main reasons cited for marketers struggling to secure investment are competitor awareness, revealing that marketers are too aware of their competitor’s activity, even noting that their branded keywords were being targeted by their competitors.
The report noted that data-led objectives can act as investment enablers as they can easily quantify and measure consumer traffic. They also help marketers prove ROI, by reviewing how marketing practices are improving year on year.
Yet the survey revealed that there is still a lack of understanding around best practices for marketers to use. A quarter of those surveyed called for clearer guidelines on best practice from Google Webmasters, revealing that there is in fact a knowledge and skills gap around SEO.
Zazzle Media’s head of search & strategy, Stuart Shaw, said: “As an industry, we’ve needed to educate, educate, educate - at almost every level of client infrastructure. That challenge still remains, in fact, it probably changes monthly… but now with more noise than ever!
However knowledge has always been power in this industry, keeping up with updates, marketing news and best practice guidelines across Google and Bing can be the difference in the results marketers need to secure that extra budget.”
The results of The State of SEO survey have been turned into an eBook which is available to view here.
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