Social Signals Increasingly Important to SEO

84% of search marketers say social signals such as likes, tweets, and Google +1s will be either more important (53%) or much more important (31%) to their SEO this year as compared to 2011, according to [download page] a BrightEdge survey released in January 2012. The remaining 16% say they will pay the same attention to these signals this year, meaning that that none of the search marketers surveyed believe these social signals will decrease in importance for them this year.
98% of the respondents said that social media matters to their organization’s marketing strategy. The integration of social media and SEO has been important to social media marketers too: last year, 71% of marketers using social media said they planned to increase their use of SEO in the near future, according to a report from SocialMedia Examiner.

SEM Tech Spend to Rise

72% of the BrightEdge survey respondents plan to increase their spending on search engine marketing technology this year compared to 2011, with a further 26% planning to maintain their current levels. The vast majority (90%) said they will focus on comparing and optimizing ROI from organic and paid search this year.

Majority Want More Global Support

Data from the “2012 Search Marketers Survey” indicates that 36% of respondents believe it will be more important to have a marketing solution that can provide global support this year as opposed to 2011. A further 19% say it will be much more important to have that support, while 42% see no change from last year. Just 3% say global support will be less important for them this year.
Overall, 72% of the respondents target global audiences.

Collaboration, Infrastructure Seen Significant

One-quarter of the search marketers surveyed believe that coordinating and managing tasks in digital marketing projects this year will be much more important that in 2011, with an additional 47% saying that it will be more important.
Along with this focus on collaboration tools, roughly one-third see enterprise-grade infrastructure as much more important to their organization this year, and about one-half say it will be more important. According to BrightEdge insight, companies are becoming savvy about cloud applications and expect the same capabilities as the larger vendors offer. Just 3% of the respondents say that enterprise-grade infrastructure will decline in importance this year.
About the Data: The BrightEdge data is based on responses from 360 brands and direct customers across retail, technology, financial services, hospitality, agencies and more.
Source: www.marketingcharts.com