Why Companies Are Investing in SEO During the Economic Downturn

There’s no two ways about it - SEO is hot again. In the last 6 weeks, SEOmoz has received a higher than normal volume of requests for consulting. Alongside that, we’ve been getting calls from venture capital firms out of the blue - seven to date - asking either about investments they’re considering in the SEO sphere (and requesting insight) or literally asking whether SEOmoz would like to take more capital to grow (post about that coming soon).

And it’s not just us. The jobs and contracts section of the Marketplace has been humming in November, and anecdotal conversations with other SEO firms tell me there’s quite a bit of business to be had for both in-house and external SEOs. Online sales, according to Paypal, were up 34% this year over last - another sign that web commerce is a safe haven for those in need of ROI. Why? What makes SEO more attractive in a down market? While I can’t say for certain, I’ll enumerate the most common explanations and motivations I’ve heard and perceived: More …..

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