What Is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization

This is a common question that most people, especially those who are either new or not familiar with online marketing, might be asking. SEO stands for search engine optimization. In layman's language, it is the process of capturing traffic from the search engines, such as Google listings. Through this read, I am going to give you facts about the SEO business, current market status of SEO as well as the future projections in this field.

The Major SEO Players

Like any other industry in the world, the online SEO business has its players. This includes SEO local tools providers such as small digital agencies, SEO freelancers and web-designers among others.

Returns for SEO Players

The major reason as to why people get into business is to profit and expand their economic status. In the field of SEO business, the rates of returns are promising. This is because a recent research on SEO returns for a period of 12 months shows that at least all the players had something to take home. However, the returns are varying depending on a players' hard work and skills in the field. For example, according to this research, 34% of the interviewed SEO s said they received an amount less than $30,000 while another group of respondents, 17% said they received returns that were above $500,000.

From the above statistics, it is evident that the size of an organization played a role in the determination of the amount of returns received. It beats logic for one to expect a large organization to receive low amounts of returns and vice versa. In addition, the presence of part-time SEO s as well as the entry of newbies into the market could have let to the low rates of turnover due to low operation capacity. However, it is hard to predict the course the SEO market is likely to take due to lack of clear shift in SEO earnings since the year 2011. However, the demand for local SEO services seems to be growing day in day out and this is attracting more players, thereby tightening the competition among SEO service providers.

The Emerging Issues with the Current SEO Returns

With the above distribution of returns, several questions emerge. This includes the following:

• From the statistics, a large percentage of SEO s receive a low income, something that suggests low pricing of SEO services.

• It is also possible that small and medium businesses do not understand the value of SEO services provided to them.

• The low SEO income earners, those who received less than $30,000 annual returns, are also being doubted if they can provide quality services while earning that low.

• It is also unknown if most SEO s will still be in operation if their income remains static.

The Current SEO s Income Per Customer

Just like the annual SEO returns, SEO income per customer also varies. This is because there are those clients who would pay less than $100 a month, while others will pay more than $5000 a month. This variation in income per client can be attributed to the type of services provided as well as the depth of services. The size of business a client is seeking SEO services for also play a role in determining the amount to be charged. For example, small businesses are charged less simply because their requirements are much smaller than compared to large multi-location franchise businesses.

Research also shows that some SEO service providers operate on high volume basis. Such SEO s provide simple SEO services at very low monthly rates. As a result, such SEO service providers end up having a high customer churn with a large dedicated network of sales team.

Similarly, some SEO service providers provide services that are more comprehensive in a much more professional manner customized according to the client, thereby leading to a low number of clients.

Due to the above statistics, it therefore becomes essential for any SEO service provider in the current market to operate in a manner that matches his/her setup.

Handling Capacity of the Modern SEO s

Currently, SEO s are handling more clients as compared to the previous years. Statistics show that about 40% of the SEO s in the market handle at least 11 clients, while 23% of SEO s handle at least 21 clients. Such large numbers of clients to handle lead to more audits to be done, lots of tasks, research, reports and even more calls from the clients to be attended to. The high numbers of clients also demand a high level of efficiency so that the clients can be assured of quality services.

Market Structure for Most SEO s

SEO s have been using several marketing techniques to promote their businesses. Offline marketing channels such as word of mouth has been cited by most SEO s as the most effective marketing technique. This can be attributed to the trust level, business reputation as well as relationships build during the offline campaigns.

Alongside offline marketing, SEO s also practice online marketing, such as the use of LinkedIn and social media. However, most SEO s have cited LinkedIn as the best option as compared to the social networks because it is better placed for lead generation and networking.

Services Offered by SEO s

Majority of the SEO players offer onsite optimization, with 91% of the SEO s practicing this. Google+ optimization has also a good number of SEO s practicing it, as 86% claimed to be offering this service to their clients. For affiliate marketing, only a small percentage (11%) of SEO s are offering this service to their clients.

Other services offered by SEO s:

• Content creation/optimization

• Link building

• Citation building

• Social media marketing

• Website development

• PPC

• Mobile site development

• Video marketing and mobile marketing.

The most demanded service by SEO clients is onsite marketing, while the least demanded service is affiliate marketing. The other services are somehow averagely demanded. However, most small and medium businesses do not understand the opportunities that video and mobile marketing can unlock to them and therefore tend not to use these services. SEO s therefore need to educate their clients on these marketing channels so that they can go for them.

When asked about the online SEO services SEO s feel are effective, 82% of them said that the General search is the most effective for generating leads. Local search appears to be the second best after 62% of the respondents in an SEO survey voted in its favor. PPC is the 3rd with 53% while social media is the 4th with 26%. Daily deals appear to be an appealing to most SEO s because only 1% voted in favor of it.

Tedious SEO Tasks

55% of the current SEO s in the market find link building to be the most tedious and time-consuming work. Others, though 15% only believe that content writing is the most tedious and time-consuming task among all the tasks they do. It therefore emerges that to the 55% who find link building tedious, this task is also boring to them.

Future Projections

This is an outline of what we expect in the near future as far as SEO business is of concern.

Expansion of SEO Businesses

Compared to the previous years, SEO businesses has been growing and expanding steadily. Most SEO s (about 93%) are not only optimistic about expanding their businesses, but are also expecting to grow their business. In what seems to be a determined move to grow their businesses, most SEO s (82%) are willing to recruit more staff members to realize their desired levels of growth.

The social media is also expected to grow and be more effective even than the local directories. This is because most SEO s believe that social media can perform better because of recommendations from friends. Mobile usage is also expected to grow further and become relevant for local businesses.

Upsurge of Confidence in SEO Business

Unlike other businesses, the SEO business is showing a positive growth of confidence among the players. Despite this being a dynamic and innovative industry, most SEO s are still willing to recruit more staff to help drive their businesses ahead. 84% of the sampled SEO s in the SEO research are also optimistic that the SEO business is going to be more profitable starting this year 2013.

Confidence is also running high that if the SEO players increase the understanding of SEO/social among the business owners they serve in the future, they will not only increase the business owners' rate of investment, but also make them transfer their marketing budgets from other channels to the digital channels.

Ajay Prasad is the Founder and President of MS Web Team, a leading Internet strategy, marketing and development firm. Ajay guides small and medium size businesses in designing their online strategy, marketing and development campaigns for maximum impact. Ajay focuses on a client's products and services and their target market's needs to achieve the best possible results.