In 2016, companies spent $65 billion on SEO services—tripling what was predicted would be spent in 2008. According to SEO expert Russ Cuthrell, CEO of Michigan-based Spyder Byte Media, with $79-80 billion now projected for SEO spending in 2020, SEO has transitioned from an added-value enhancement to a mandatory budgeted expense for every business that relies on the internet for all or a portion of their sales, marketing, and advertising—regardless of size, industry or markets.
“Ten years ago, when web developers first began understanding and utilizing SEO strategies, offering clients SEO services gave them a competitive edge. Today and going forward, SEO is as fundamental to a company’s online profitability as a domain name and a website,” Cuthrell said, in a news release. “Over the past decade, delivering search engine results—in the form of driving traffic to websites and converting leads to customers—is a much more dimensional, technical process.”
Cuthrell further cautions that unlike domain registration or web design, SEO evolves at an accelerated pace—becoming more technically sophisticated almost monthly, which imposes additional challenges to web developers already under pressure to keep up with their clients’ demands for top search engine results.
These challenges faced by SEO experts will continue for the foreseeable future and translate to additional fixed costs for companies that rely upon digital marketing
According to a recent survey, 90 percent of these companies have come to accept SEO as a cost of doing business. The rise in customer demand coupled with the increased need for continuous research and specializations by SEO professionals explain how and why SEO is positioned to capture the largest portion of the Marketing and IT service market sector by the early 2020s.
