OK Gang, it seems like the economy has soften to the point where many French cheeses are getting jealous.

 So, I want to take a few minutes totalk about search engine optimization and marketing conditions. Luckily for those of use who make our livings online, we are a bit removed from the terrors  of the credit crunch and the rise in food prices. However, we all see the rise in the cost of goods (especially electronics), and the rise in the cost operations (fuel surcharges are everywhere) and let's face it, online advertising has never been more expensive. Online advertising is still a great value compared to other media, but it has never been more expensive.

But let's look at average search marking costs. While these numbers are for across all verticals (except financial services), but in the 4th Quarter of 2007, the average CPC on Google was $0.75. (In 2004, it was $0.54, so we've seen nearly a 40% increase in three years!) So, jump in the wayback machine with me. It is 2004. You are a webmaster, or internet marketing person for an online business.  You need traffic to survive. And CPC is easy to implement. So you do it. And it works.So, you jump in at $10,000 per month. That gets you ($10,000/$0.54), or 18,518 monthly visitors. Flash forward to 2007, and that same budget would only net you 13,333 visitors. So, where are you going to get those missing >5,000 visitors? Simple: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION.

In a softening economy, where costs are increasing and marketing budgets generate less return, search engine optimization generates arguably better quality traffic than CPC advertising, and there are no direct traffic costs. Google, and all other search engines, provide you with organic traffic at no charge. I am not suggesting that you dump CPC, but as a business that makes money via the internet, there is no more important marketing expenditure that search engine optimization. For many sites, a $10,000 monthly spend in search engine optimization would result in huge increases in traffic, perhaps even exponential rises in traffic, rather than the pure incremental growth of CPC. Search engine optimization is critical to your business. 

Don't get hooked on CPC. Use it as an effective marketing tool, but insure that your website is tweaked, toned, and fully search engine friendly. As costs rise, and margins get squeezed, you can't afford to engage in incremental cost based and campaign based activities. Search engine optimization is an investment in your business that will continue to generate returns. Search engine optimization has never been more important.