Search engine optimisation gets results for online businesses, says research

Business and online marketing experts recommend search engine optimisation for accountants, insurance companies, professional services and other commercial firms as a high impact tactic to utilise in the current economic downturn.

With 60% to 80% of traffic to most websites coming directly from search engines, SEO is the quickest way to help push sites into higher positions in the search engine ranking results.

Confirmation that search engine optimisation delivers return on investment is further supported by a new report from Forrester Research showing most marketers - more than 90% - plan to reach target audiences by maintaining budget spend on SEO.

Many marketers are also working to exploit social media with 64% of them building applications for this online arena. At the same time, however, there is some reluctance to adopt other multimedia disciplines such as mobile marketing and online video.

Recession marketing expert Will King, founder of cult shaving brand King of Shaves, says marketing investment during tough times is crucial.

"Do not cut marketing budgets. In the early days of King of Shaves, I had to sell 10% of the company to finance getting the brand out there but, looking back, this was key to our success," he said.

Another expert - Lee Odden from the Online Marketing Blog - pointed out search is one of the best ways to reach people because customers are actively looking for and finding companies, not the other way round.

"With SEO, it isn't a matter of 'Should we?' it's a matter of, 'What's stopping you?," he said.

Search engine optimisation for accountants - banks, retailers, estate agents, or in fact any kind of business in London, Manchester, Chichester or any part of the UK - is proven to generate the kind of marketing and sales success that can elude other promotional methods.