A recent report published by Internet Retailer magazine reveals that search engine marketing is a high priority for many web-based retailers.  The study surveyed 245 merchants and found that search engine marketing activities are growing and are driving more than 50% of sales for many of the respondents.

It was also interesting to note that organic search is really starting to take a priority due to the rising cost of pay-per-click.  The majority responded that SEO actually provided a higher conversion rate than PPC as well.

None of this should come as any surprise; we frequently find that some of our online / ecommerce clients are dropping all other types of marketing because search marketing is so effective.  This is never something that we would recommend of course – we’re big believers that search is an effective part of balanced marketing mix (like the vegetables in your diet). 

What is nice, is that each week there seems to be some new report or study that confirms what we have been saying for more than five years – that search engine optimization works.