Many marketers still aren't embracing SEO, report finds

The majority of senior-level marketing decision-makers are still not factoring SEO into their budgets, according to the recent Marketing Silos report released by Hotwire, a global public relations agency that specializes in tech.

Even though search engines are a key part of digital advertising and a main way for consumers to find content, marketers feel more comfortable funneling funds into the channels they know and love, explained Rebecca Honeyman, senior vice president and general manager of Hotwire's New York office.

"If you're unsure of a new channel, you tend to go with the tried and tested and what's worked previously, and to me, that would be the reason behind the higher number in more traditional channels," she said, as quoted by Search Engine Watch.

However, Honeyman went on to opine that relying too heavily on other channels rather than investing in SEO may be a mistake.

"By overlooking this channel, you're overlooking a huge portion of your audience," she warned, according to the media outlet.

The five R's of SEO

Marketers eager to get up to speed sooner rather than later may want to consult an article penned for ClickZ by IdealSpot co-founder and CMO Bryan Eisenberg. In it, Eisenberg boils down the basic tenets of SEO to the five R's, asserting that above all else, site content must be:

• Relevant
• Reputation-building
• Remarkable
• Readable
• Able to reach the modern searcher

Eisenberg noted that these elements all tie into the ranking factors Google uses to determine search placement, as outlined in an annual study released by Searchmetrics. The 2015 iteration of the study, released late last month, named strong social network reach and the rise of relevant content as two major aspects affecting search rankings.

Google leads the way in search marketing

So, what about people who do acknowledge the importance of SEO in marketing? Moz recently asked more than 3,600 search marketers about the tools and services they find most useful while navigating the online search marketing industry. With regard to SEO tools in particular, Google Webmaster Tools - now known as Google Search Console - emerged as the most favored, with 87 percent of respondents stating that they used it. Other popular options included Google Keyword Planner, Open Site Explorer, Moz Pro and Screaming Frog.

How much of your marketing budget goes toward SEO? Has it been hard to get marketing decision-makers on board?

Yup and of course it works as well as ever. I mean there still is a Google, there is still a number one in Google for every term you type in, and although some big players have managed to get more presence over the years pushing out some smaller sites, it's also true that some big players from a few years ago have more or less gone. Big name directories, Q/A sites etc have more or less vanished.

I'm finding it takes about the same effort as ever to rank sites, just done in a subtly different way.
Fear is what is stopping people, that and buying into homeopathic methods of the type proposed by Moz.
Moz - expensive and safe.. Ineffective - but safe. Homeopathic SEO.

Less competition for the rest of us,

Is 50% of the marketing budget advised to be invested for SEO?

Scritty said:

Ysome big players have managed to get more presence over the years pushing out some smaller sites, it's also true that some big players from a few years ago have more or less gone.
Less competition for the rest of us,

Click to expand...

So, If there is any hope remaining for small and emerging players to defeat those big players by dominating some highly competitive keywords?

Perhaps the minefield of penguins and pandas and years of bad SEO company experience has made companies invest more in direct engagement?

Perhaps because they consider SEO to be a gamble.

And not every business requires SEO, I mean some niches is way useful from the point of view of offline marketing.