SEO in UK worth over three-quarters of a billion dollars in 2011

The value of the SEO market rose 18% in 2011 to reach $821 million, up from $697 million a year earlier, and $601 million in 2009, according to Econsultancy. That includes agency fees to revise and improve natural and paid SEO, SEO PR, social media optimization for search and SEO staffing investments.

At the same time, SEO practitioners are having to incorporate many more online elements into their realm of responsibility including social, mobile and local search, says Econsultancy senior research analyst Jake Hird, adding "It's a complex landscape, but one that marketers are clearly engaging with."

Google's reign continues in the UK with over 90% of search queries conducted on the search engine which means that any changes made have "significant impact to existing SEO efforts".

"The boundaries of SEO as a digital discipline are blurring. As businesses focus on end goals, the technical distinctions between different digital disciplines become less relevant, with SEO techniques permeating (and being permeated by) other areas of digital marketing," says Econsultancy in a press release.

Tags: digital marketing, Google, search marketing, search trends, UK