SEO Is Now Worth $65 Billion

When the idea of search engine optimisation was first floated, it’s unlikely that anyone could have predicted it would become the juggernaut it is today. An interesting and optional service perhaps, but not the kind of thing that would literally determine the fate of about 90% of all web businesses.But here we are in 2016 and contrary to popular belief, SEO is neither dead nor dying. Quite to the contrary in fact, as according to the results of a recent study by Borrell Associates, total spending on SEO alone this year on a global basis will hit a record-high of $65 billion. That’s $65 billion…in a single year…just to appeal to the major search engines.It’s a pretty astonishing figure to say the least and one that flies in the faces of those predicting SEO’s demise long before now. Instead, global spending on SEO has increased a massive 300% since 2008, with the majority of analysts having predicted even more titanic growth going forward.How titanic? Well, enough to see global spending on SEO hit $72 billion in 2018, increasing further to $79 billion by the end of the current decade.Which begs the all-important question – what’s fuelling this perpetual growth? Or more importantly, how can we be sure that SEO will continue remaining so relevant that we’re willing to spend ridiculous sums of money on getting it right?SEO Growth FactorsAs far as the world’s leading marketing gurus and analysts are concerned, SEO is going to continue its growth and development indefinitely. And when presented the with the big question – as in why – they tend to flag up the same answers more often than not, which include:

• The fact that search volumes are in a state of perpetual acceleration year after year and this is something that isn’t going to change anytime soon. Not only is the world more reliant on search engines than ever before, but we’re slowly but surely adopting more and more technology that likewise is plumbed directly into search engines.
• There’s also the fact that total internet user numbers on a global basis are accelerating all the time – in turn leading to more demand for and reliance on search engines. Much of the developed world still has a long way to go when it comes to internet adoption, but sooner or later it will be open to everyone on Earth…as too will search engines.
• Decreasing impact and value when it comes to traditional advertising is also having a knock-on effect on the power and influence of search engines. Research suggests that the overwhelming majority of consumers already read way more into the info they find online than the marketing spiel sent their way by TV, newspapers, magazines and so on.
• Last but not least, SEO spending can only increase going forward when considering how increasingly sophisticated the whole subject is becoming. It’s no longer that kind of job most businesses have the time or knowledge to hash out manually – paying for professional intervention being the only realistic option.