SEO and the ROI Debacle

In its 2005 report, "Define What's Valued Online," the CMO Council focused on business technology who view the "Internet as their primary resource for purchasing decisions." Nearly 70% indicated that search engines and directories are the first place they look when going online to research technology products, services and solutions.

According to Interland's "Spring 2005 Business Barometer" two thirds of business executives said their websites either drive sales directly or were responsible for influencing purchases made offline.

Marketers plan to boost their search engine marketing spending 8% during the next year, according to a 2006 JupiterResearch report, "Benchmarking to Drive Effective Search Engine Marketing."

About 56% of industrial and manufacturing executives also planned to increase their online marketing spending in 2006, according to GlobalSpec's new "Marketing Trends Survey."

In the survey, 37% of respondents said they would spend 21% to 35% of their 2006 marketing budgets online.

Search engine marketing rated fairly high (52%) as a preferred marketing channel for the industrial and manufacturing marketing professionals and managers (online directories and websites led the way at 64%).

MarketingSherpa research reflected in the 2006 "Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide" indicates that small business technology firms spend 58% of their marketing budget online on activities like search engine marketing. However, the largest companies spend only 7% of their marketing budgets online.

Read excerpts from this SEO study online:

• Summary
• Introduction
• Measurement Failings
• Making an Educated Decision About Seo
• Working Against ROI
• Failure May Not Be Seo
• 10 Ways SEO Firms Waste Money
• Protecting Against The Wrong Move
• ROI Trends
• SEO Worthiness and Readiness
• B2B Interest
• Consumer Search Behavior
• One-Time Effort Myth
• It's All About ROI
• SEO and ROI Conclusion