How Search Engine Marketing Is Helping SMEs Beat The Recession

By Daniel Mcskelly, Bronco Internet

The financial markets are in chaos and unemployment figures in the UK are predicted to hit the two million mark by Christmas: It’s no longer a question of “if” we have a recession but “how bad?”. Yet one sector continues to show phenomenal growth, and tens of thousands of UK SMEs are coming along for the ride.

That field is Search Engine Marketing (SEM), which has outpaced growth in traditional media such as newspaper, radio & TV ads by a factor of seven in recent years.* The reasons are two-fold: barrier to...

...entry is low (you can test the waters of SEM for under £100), and it allows even smaller companies to dominate their market in a cost effective fashion.

SEM is a hybrid of two fields: Search Engine Optimisation (getting websites to the top of natural search results) and Pay-Per-Click advertising (the “sponsored links” you see above and to the right of search results in Google et al). They’re known as SEO & PPC respectively (Search Marketers love acronyms).

This staggering growth is due to the fact SEM delivers on the promise many business owners have heard but few have actually seen come true: owning a website can revolutionise your business. Many companies have invested heavily in their web presence on the strength of this promise without understanding the other half of the equation — your website will only make you money if your customers can find it.

That’s where SEM comes in, and even in the current economic climate where marketing budgets are one of the first expenses to be cut, the field is thriving. The fact is that businesses don’t cut marketing spend entirely, they just look for much more bang for their buck in times like... continued on page two >

 

 

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