July 06, 2010
Chart

New Chart: The Allocation of SEO Budgets

SUMMARY: How are small, medium and large organizations allocating SEO budgets differently? In this week’s chart, you'll learn what portion of SEO budgets various SEO expenses are taking for small, medium and large organizations, in regards to staff salaries, agency expenses, analytics programs and purchasing inbound links.
By Jen Doyle, Senior Analyst

SEO Budget Allocation by Organization Size

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Since many organizations execute SEO in-house, the greatest related investment is staff salaries. Between keyword research, content development, code optimization, link building and social media integration, SEO requires a great deal of man-hours. Depending on the size of an organizations' website, executing efficient SEO can easily require a number of full-time employees.

Large organizations tend to have greater financial resources than small- and medium-sized organizations, and as such, this group is more likely to invest in an SEO agency as well as a paid analytics solution.

Small organizations with less than 100 employees may have a greater need to execute SEO on a reduced budget and are thus more likely to take this practice in-house. Many marketers in small organizations wear multiple hats and take on many marketing roles, which can make it difficult to determine their true cost of SEO.

The in-house SEO Specialist may very well also be the Email Marketing Specialist, PPC Specialist, Direct Mail Specialist, Public Relations Specialist, Trade Show Specialist, etc. Taking SEO in-house with one employee responsible for multiple marketing roles is very common. The in-house cost of SEO to an organization like this would be 1/6 that of a full-time employee.

For additional research data and insights about search marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from MarketingSherpa’s 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report -- SEO Edition.

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