While many companies are simply cutting marketing budgets to survive the credit crunch, others are re-evaluating their marketing budgets and moving more spend into SEO and smarter web design strategies, and here’s why:

1. SEO is a proven sales generator

When it comes time to analysing marketing budgets to determine which channel has the best ROI, SEO is consistently one of the top performers, and the sales are also easy to track. A smart web design strategy that incorporates SEO, SEM and other search-related tactics is a sure fire way to generate sales by targeting today’s “always online” consumers.

2. There’s never been a better time to invest in SEO

Over the last six years SEO has gone from being an ambiguous marketing channel to becoming the most integral and important part of a company’s web design strategy. In the past SEO has merely popped up in marketing meetings as something to be investigated later, nowadays it’s the one channel everyone is interested in developing and improving. SEO has finally matured to the point where everyone, even the local coffee shop, can run a successful SEO strategy. The channel is proven and has been perfected to the point where web design agencies can guarantee results, which means there has never been a better time for companies to incorporate SEO in their web design strategies.

3. People are still searching, even more so

Even during an economic downturn, people will still use the Internet to search. Despite sales dropping and overall conversion rates slipping, there hasn’t been a drop in search traffic; in fact some companies have noticed huge increases. With less money to spend on entertainment and broadband penetration reaching all time highs, consumers are flocking to the Internet in droves. The number of average searches per user is also increasingly steadily every year. The message from consumers is clear, search is king.