So here we are, one quarter down and recession to go. Recession has become an unfortunate but popular topic in 2008. Some people follow strict definitions of what qualifies technically as a recession while others speak purely from opinion–or maybe they are speaking from the pinch they are feeling in their wallets. For most, they could care less what you call it; labels don’t make the impact they are feeling any better or any less painful.

Let’s face it, we’re experiencing more than “interesting” economic times, especially those with a marketing responsibility in-house and at agencies. To tap in to the stream of marketing-savvy collective wisdom online, we reached out to our network with a top internet marketing tactics poll for the next 6 months. Over 400 business marketers responded, making this the most popular poll Online Marketing Blog has run to-date.

By: toprankblog http://www.toprankblog.com

Recession ‘a good opportunity to increase SEO spend’

Small to medium-sized firms may benefit from increased spending on marketing techniques such as search engine optimisation (SEO) during the credit crunch, according to an industry expert.

Times of economic downturn mean that firms should seek to stand out from the competition, said Daniel Robinson of Vizcom Design.

He asserted that the best way to do this is to maintain a healthy marketing budget in an effort to retain business and potentially grow.

“Now is not the time for businesses to reduce their marketing budget and particularly their expenditure on search engine optimisation because research suggests that 75 per cent of businesses use search engines in order to find their suppliers,” Mr Robinson said.

He added that for many firms, SEO may offer a better return on investment than pay-per-click advertising and explained that budgeting for this kind of marketing is more cost effective than other types of advertising.

Writing for E-consultancy, Kevin Gibbons, director of search for SEOptimise, asserted that British supermarkets could do more to improve their sites.

He suggested that adding more keywords - such as ’supermarket’ - in homepage title tags could be one way to accomplish this.