Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:32:44 by Matt Hopkins
We recently commissioned a study to better understand the nature of the search engine market in the UK. With a growing number of companies offering search engine optimisation services, I wanted to know how many of them were actually specialists - offering search engine marketing services only. The results were not surprising, but it is nice to have some concrete numbers.
The researchers analysed the top 300 pages reported by Google for the phrase "search engine optimisation". They then removed duplicates and any non-commercial sites. Each of the remaining 217 sites were analysed for information about their geographical location, the services that they offer, the services that their parent company offers, and so on.
Out of the 217 businesses, only 83% (181) were based in Britain. Interestingly, the largest overseas listings came from Australia and not the USA - which would have been my guess had I been asked.
The main findings were that a mere 19% (34) of businesses in the UK are only offering search engine marketing services. The other companies are offering web design, email marketing, display advertising, hosting, and a number of other services in addition to search.
The researchers then removed the businesses that were clearly one-man bands or independent consultants. The result was this:
"only 12% of companies in the UK who offer SEO services focus exclusively on search"
For me, the impact of this study is that many different companies are listing SEO as one of many of their services - but are they truly capable of delivering the service? Managing and implementing an on-going, effective SEO campaign requires specialist skills and experience. It also requires the internal systems and processes to consistently deliver success for clients... I just don't think you can get this from someone who is providing multiple services to multiple clients.
Matt Hopkins
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