Digital News

The threats and opportunities of an economic downturn for SEO

All we seem to hear on the news these days is an ongoing commentary on the trials and tribulations of the world’s economies. Hardly surprising in light of the international banking crisis and the billions of dollars being pumped into economies to try and stimulate sales and lending.

On the positive side it would appear that the online world and in particular online marketing appears more than resilient to the doom and gloom that seems to be gripping offline business. With online spending representing 17% of total consumer spending, and ecommerce predicted to account for 30%-50% in the next five years the online shopping numbers certainly appear strong.

What are the implications when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation?

Certainly in the current climate dropping advertising and promotion for many companies is not a serious option and it’s quite probable that companies will even shift budgets. Refocusing marketing efforts is now a priority with Internet marketing and SEO a perfect channel – cost effective, targeted, flexible and measurable with trustworthy natural, organic search especially offering important opportunities compared to paid listings.

Now’s the ideal time for organisations to really focus on their online presence, to develop plenty of authoritative content, inbound links and light, tight coding to get them to the top of the search engines.

Selecting the optimum web marketing partner though may prove increasingly difficult, Web guru Bruce Clay identifying a potential issue in that as new home based (so called) SEO specialists emerge onto the market it will be ever more important for prospective clients to identify and hire qualified, experienced experts.

An additional threat might also be that as brick and mortar companies cease to exist through recession so SEO budgets might start to dry up. In light of the projected upturn in online spend and activity it’s quite possible though that the impact of fewer clients existing in the market place might be more than made up for by the additional work commissioned by those that thrive.

Interesting times ahead without a doubt.