Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Lead Author
Jen Doyle, Senior Analyst
Contributors
Sergio Balegno, Research Director
Production Editor
Brad Bortone, Editorial Production Manager
All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, faxing, emailing, posting online
or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the Publisher.
i
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... ii
Director’s Note......................................................................................................................... 2
ii
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
iii
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
Chart: Marketer’s opinions on the ROI of search and social media ............................................. 73
Chart: Marketer’s opinions on the ROI of search and social media by organization size............. 74
Chart: Marketer’s opinions on the ROI of search and social media by primary market................ 75
Chart: Marketer’s opinions on the ROI of search and social media by industry sector ................ 76
Chart: Marketer’s opinions on the ROI of search and social media by social media use ............. 77
Chart: Marketer’s opinions on the ROI of search and social media by SEO maturity .................. 78
iv
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
v
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
vi
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
vii
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
Welcome to MarketingSherpa’s 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition.
As planning began on this seventh annual benchmark report, it became clear that the search marketing
landscape had changed dramatically during the past year, much more so than in previous years. It also
became clear that a comprehensive study of all the new terrain that needed to be covered would create an
over‐abundance of valuable research; enough to fill two benchmark reports – literally!
So, for the first time, the Search Marketing Benchmark Report is being published in two separate editions.
This SEO Edition provides all new benchmark research and insights exclusively on the topic of search engine
optimization. The companion PPC Edition focuses exclusively on the topic of paid search marketing. The
goal of each edition is to help you better understand what works in search engine marketing today.
SEO Edition Highlights
Primary research survey providing the collective wisdom of 2,194 search marketers
Benchmarks on organic search challenges, objectives, tactics, metrics and budgets
Innovations in mobile, real time, personalized and video search
Search agencies provide their unique prospective on client SEO programs
An overview of the search engine market from industry leading sources
This benchmark report is filled with useful information including 160 charts and analytical commentary,
hundreds of insights from search marketers and more. Information that is actionable and needed to remain
competitive in a marketing world highly dependent on search results.
As always, we welcome your comments and look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Sergio Balegno
Research Director, MarketingSherpa
@SergioBalegno
2
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Managing the Evolving Search and Social Climate for Optimal Results
It’s truly a tumultuous time for search marketing. Between the growth of social media, the release of search
innovations, as well as search and social partnerships, the current climate is hardly recognizable from its
state just a short time ago. This evolving environment challenges marketers and generates speculation as to
what’s coming next in search engine marketing.
Search engine optimization (SEO) has been an essential component of many successful marketing plans for
more than a decade, but despite the proven ROI capabilities of SEO, there is a surprisingly large percentage
of marketers without formal processes for executing this viable practice. In order to achieve the greatest
benefits from SEO, marketers are pressed to formalize their strategies.
The growing traffic and popularity of social media has even some of the most loyal search engine marketers
questioning the future of search. Rest assured – search engines are still receiving billions of searches per
month. If you cut your SEO efforts now, there are plenty of competitors who would be happy to take your
place in the rankings and capitalize on traffic you could have been garnering for yourself.
The major search engines have responded to social media’s growth by releasing innovative solutions to
improve the end user’s overall search experience, such as real time and personalized search. These, among
other improvements, position search engines for long‐term success and stability. What impact are these
innovations having on search engine marketers, and what impact will they have in the future? These are
just two of the vital questions answered by this report.
The key to success in today’s search engine market is to focus on managing the many changes in the search
and social climate. The 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition provides you with much‐
needed benchmark data on best practices and industry standards, highlighting new tools and resources that
will help you achieve optimal results.
Inside, you’ll also find valuable insights from marketers and agencies who candidly discuss their processes
and challenges, so you can learn directly from their experiences.
As always, we thank you for your interest in our research, and look forward to your feedback and stories of
success.
Regards,
Jen Doyle
Senior Analyst, MarketingSherpa
@JenLDoyle
3
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
THE STATE OF SEARCH MARKETING
If you’re in the business of search engine optimization, you know how quickly things can change. In just the
last few years, dramatic changes have taken place including the emergence and growth of social media,
various search innovations like mobile search and real time search, as well as search partnerships.
First, let’s take a look at social media, and who’s using it with search.
CHART: INTEGRATING SOCIAL MEDIA INTO SEARCH MARKETING PLANS
Q. Does your organization integrate social media into your search engine marketing plan?
No
36%
Yes
64%
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
If you’re not currently integrating social media into your search engine marketing plan, you are officially in
the minority. The fact that more than 60% of our respondents indicated they were practicing this impactful
tactic is a representation of social media’s recognized potential.
Topping our list of companies using this tactic were those with less than 100 employees, likely because they
are more agile than their larger counterparts and thus able to more quickly make decisions and changes to
their campaigns.
Integrating social and search was also a popular tactic for companies with mixed primary markets, targeting
both businesses and consumers (B2B and B2C).
In short, if you haven’t started to integrate social and search tactics, it’s time to get on board. After all, your
direct competitors could very well be ahead of you. This report includes benchmark data that demonstrates
the benefits of integrating social media into your SEO campaign.
4
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
CHART: SEO MATURITY
Q. Please select the statement below that best describes the process your organization uses to perform
search engine optimization (SEO) practices.
We have no
process for
performing this
20%
We have a formal
process we
routinely perform
34%
We have an
informal process
we randomly
perform
46%
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
What’s truly shocking is the fact that more than half of the marketers who participated in this study either
had no formal process for performing SEO, or an informal process that was randomly performed. SEO has
been around for more than a decade and has clearly demonstrated proven ROI capabilities over that time,
yet many companies are still behind the game with their processes.
In order to gain the maximum benefit from SEO, it is necessary for marketers to challenge themselves and
formalize their processes for practicing this impactful tactic. In this report, we will demonstrate the value of
taking a more formalized approach to SEO.
5
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
CHART: THE EXPECTED FUTURE IMPACT OF SEARCH INNOVATIONS
Q. How do you think the following search innovations will impact your business in the next 1–5 years?
Will have a great impact on our business Will somewhat impact our business
Will have no impact on our business
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
With a number of search engine innovations being released, it’s only natural for marketers to speculate on
what role these new additions will play in the future of SEO. It’s not surprising that personalized search tops
the list. Because personalized search causes different search engine users to receive different results, it’s
possible that personalized search may have a negative impact on some organization’s SEO efforts by
decreasing their exposure and this has created much speculation among the SEO community.
Another recent addition, real time search, is also expected to have a significant impact. As the popularity of
using social media for marketing purposes grows, so will expectations of this search innovation’s impact.
Of all the segments surveyed organizations that integrate social media into their search campaigns had the
greatest expectations on the impact of all innovations above. This could be due to the fact that this group of
marketers is generally more ahead of the curve and well educated in the most recent developments in both
search and social media.
In this report, we will take a closer look at each of these search innovations, alongside their current – and
anticipated future – impacts on a number of these specific segments.
6
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
ACHIEVING BALANCE OF SEARCH AND SOCIAL MARKETING FOR ACHIEVING OPTIMAL IMPACT
CHART: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SEO OBJECTIVES AND SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES
Q. In your experience, how effective has search engine optimization (SEO) and social media been at
accomplishing these marketing objectives for your organization?
Very Effective Social Media Objectives Very Effective SEO Objectives
Increase brand or 37%
product awareness 42%
Improve brand or 37%
product reputation 29%
Improve public 36%
relations 27%
33%
Increase website traffic
57%
Increase lead 18%
generation 35%
Increase offline sales 10%
revenue 17%
Increase online sales 9%
revenue 26%
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
SEO is clearly perceived as being the more effective tactic for increasing bottom line, and commonly‐
measured objectives like increased website traffic, lead generation, offline sales revenue and online sales
revenue. Social media is believed to be the more effective tactic for objectives that are new to
measurement, like improved brand or product reputation and public relations. Many marketers think these
objectives are still difficult to measure, but with the growth of social monitoring tools it is now possible to
define brand reputation and reach.
Currently, social media is not widely perceived as being very effective for lead generation or increasing sales
revenue, and search is not seen as very effective in improving public relations or reputation. Marketers who
balance search and social may be doing so because they believe the pair make a good combination toward
achieving objectives where using just one of the tactics is not as effective.
7
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
CHART: AVERAGE TARGET KEYWORD RANKINGS BY SOCIAL MEDIA USE
Q. What is your organization’s typical organic ranking for the majority of your currently targeted key terms?
Non‐Social Media Users Social Media Users
35%
Positions 1 ‐ 3
34%
31%
Positions 4 ‐ 6
35%
18%
Positions 7 ‐ 11
13%
10%
Page 2 of search results
11%
Greater than page 2 of 6%
search results 8%
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
For the chart above, as well as for the entirety of this report, we’re defining “non‐social media users” as
marketers who do not currently integrate social media into their search campaigns and “social media users”
as those who do. When we asked organizations what their goals were for integrating social with search,
69% of respondents indicated they wanted to use social media to help improve their current search engine
rankings.
As you can see, there isn’t a drastic difference in the average target keyword rankings between these
groups. Social media users performed slightly better in positions 4‐6, and had fewer companies ranked in
positions 7‐11, so social media was able to marginally help them, but the results are otherwise comparable.
Social media does have the potential to do more than slightly improve search campaigns as represented
above. Since this practice is just in its beginning stages, there’s no telling how efficient the execution has
been, or the length of time the practice has been used by respondents. Social media is undoubtedly an
effective tool in generating new inbound links and a wealth of search engine friendly content – two
essential components of any SEO plan.
Social media can impact your search campaigns in more ways than one. See our next chart to learn more.
8
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
CHART: ORGANIC CONVERSION RATES BY SOCIAL MEDIA USE
Q. What is your organization’s conversion rate for organic traffic?
Social Media Users Non‐Social Media Users
27%
17%
Organic search traffic
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
Notice that the conversion rates of social media users is significantly greater than non‐social media users. It
is possible that social media users are seeing a greater improvement in this metric than they did with
ranking because it can take time for a website’s search ranking to improve, where the effects social media
has on conversion rates may take less time to have an impact.
There’s no doubt that social media can be an effective tactic in improving brand or product reputation and
public relations. It’s likely that an improved public profile would result in a higher conversion rate. If a
search engine user already recognizes and has heard positive things about a brand that shows up in their
search results, they are more likely to click through and convert on their website.
Companies that participate in social media already know that their social content is being indexed by search
engines. Now, when a consumer conducts a search, they are presented with social networking profiles,
images, videos, slide presentations and customer reviews. Delivering a variety of content will allow a brand
to have more appeal to different audiences who prefer multiple forms of media.
Since social media generates an increased number of listings received by a participating brand on search
results pages, their competition gets “pushed down” to lower rankings. This establishes the participating
brand as the key player for the search engine user’s query. This could also increase organic clickthrough and
conversion rates.
9
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
PERCEPTIONS OF SEO
CHART: PERCEPTIONS OF SEO AT BUDGET TIME
Q. Which statement best describes how search engine optimization (SEO) is perceived by your organization
at budget time?
The value of SEO is
unknown and
something we do
only as time
permits. Why
invest more? SEO is a promising
13% tactic and will
eventually produce
SEO is basically ROI. Let's increase
free. Let's keep it budget but do it
that way. conservatively.
20% 43%
SEO is producing
measurable ROI.
Let's increase
budget liberally for
continuous
improvement.
24%
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
Perceptions of SEO are considerably positive at budget time. Of our respondents, 67% indicated they would
increase their SEO investments either liberally or conservatively. Over time, SEO has earned a reputation for
being a promising tactic and producing measurable ROI.
It’s not surprising that the two groups of respondents most likely to liberally increase SEO budgets were our
social media users and our most mature SEO marketers with formal processes. These groups are likely to
have the most expertise in SEO and thus, are more likely to receive the greatest benefits from this practice.
In this report, we’ll take a deeper look into marketer’s decisions regarding SEO budgets, including budget
amount, allocation and expected changes in SEO budgets.
10
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com
MarketingSherpa 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
SEARCH AND SOCIAL PARTNERSHIPS
The search engine market has undergone significant changes in the past year. For many years, Google has
dominated the space; however, the partnership of Bing and Yahoo! aims to make the search market a race
of two competing key players.
Social media’s popularity growth has forced search engines to act more quickly. In the past, it could take
days – or even months – for search engines to index new content on the Web. When social media began
offering search capabilities that displayed results as they were being published, search engines knew they
had to react. This reaction resulted in real time search, which is now available on Google, Yahoo! and Bing.
These partnerships are increasing the power of search engines and delivering more relevant, up‐to‐date
and complete results than ever before. The delivery of improved search engine experiences, as a result of
search and social partnerships, will solidify search’s place in the marketing mix for many years to come.
11
© Copyright 2000–2010 MarketingSherpa LLC. It is forbidden to copy this report in any manner.
For permissions contact service@sherpastore.com. For more copies, visit http://www.SherpaStore.com