(title inspired by Kevin Heisler)
The feds seem pretty hesitant to say th "R" word.
But between the sub prime crisis, the credit crunch and plummeting stock markets; you and I both know that it's not a question of "if" a recession going to hit the US but "when?"
Recession is something that the search industry rarely talk about . . . most of us are currently experiencing a period of tremendous boom.
Our biggest constraint to growth is not finding new clients, it's finding and training new SEO's. Where optimizing a site might have cost $350 in the 90's, now we see SEO's charge $350 per hour, some even more.
SEO's won't be impacted by the recession
Whhaaatttt?
If our clients are affected by the recession then we will be too. Client decisions will be made using different criteria and this will impact us. But it won't stop there, the industry as we know it is on the verge of a major shift.
Here's how it's going to play out...
The Good
A recession is going to drive increased demand for SEO.
It's counter intuitive but it's true. When a recession hits companies they respond by reducing costs. The first budgets to be hit are always Marketing and IT (remember the early 00's?).
When Marketing budgets are decreased, executives will make difficult budgetary decisions based on metrics. All of those Clicks, Conversions and Measurable ROI that companies are currently experiencing with Search, is going to way heavy on their decisions. Much heavier than traditional marketing metrics of Impressions and Branding.
When faced with difficult choices, advertisers will shift their budgets to the mediums that they can measure.
When IT budgets are decreased, executives will trim IT budgets. Often this means an increase in outsourcing. The in-house SEO's role will change from being the guy to "do" the work; to being the guy to "manage" the work (or the relationship with the outside vendors).
For the SEO shop, it means an HUGE increase in demand.
The Bad
A recession is going to drive increased competition which in turn will create a skilled labor shortage.
Traditional advertising shops are going to have to replace lost profits. Some will get into Search because the want to take control of the adversing dollars back. If they become the "search experts" they can minimize the growth and steer advertising dollars back to their comfort zone.
Others will have true vision. They will see Search for it's full potential and embrace it. These forward thinking companies will help to grow the search industry.
For some it's a natural fit. For others (lured into the lucrative search market merely as another way to grow) not so much... ergo, Walmart.
Regardless of motivation or sincerity, the result will be the same. An increased demand for experienced SEO Professionals.
Except,
there are no major barriers to entry into SEO.
Anyone can call themselves an SEO and there is no governing body (association) to dispute this. We have no formal accreditation process or certificates.
And this leaves our industry exposed...
The Ugly
Combine an increase in demand + a shortage in supply = a whole lot of bad SEO
What to do?
There are things that we can do as individual companies and there are things that we should do as an industry.
As an individual company we can...
1) Take a look at our reporting.
If metrics are going to be a Key Success Factor in the near future then improving upon your reporting now is crucial. I'm not just talking about putting together a slick power point presentation. I'm talking about becoming an evangelist for reporting.
Insist that your clients use analytics. Insist on defining what a conversion is and then figuring out how to measure it.
As a Professional SEO Firm you MUST be in a position to differentiate yourself from the UGLY SEO.
2) Review our talent acquisition and retention strategies.
Growing talent in-house will be critical. Do you have a apprenticeship program? Note: hiring a bunch of green SEO's is not an apprenticeship program.
What about training? Spending time training others takes time away from actually doing the work. Can your work flows absorb the impact of mentoring on your Senior employees?
Growing in-house can be a huge strain on resources. It's not a tactical decision, it's a strategic investment.
As a cohesive industry we should......
wait a minute, we're not a cohesive industry. but we could be...
SEO's have what it takes to be a cohesive, powerful industry. We support the new guy by mentoring. We help each other out. We brainstorm together when the algorithms appear amiss.
The search industry has the spirit of cohesiveness. We simply lack organization. We are many singular voices.
But this is going to change. Big Business has their toe in the door.
When they come all the way in, they are going to make rampant changes. They'll organize us. We'll get our accreditation, but it will it be designed in Big Business's favor and will probably be designed to keep the little guy out.
The search industry must unite and organize itself because if we don't, someone is going to come along and do it for us.
Jenn, I’ve got to say you’ve hit the nail on the head with this post. You know in between work and the dozens of client priorities, its really nice to see your vision in our blog posts 🙂 — Dev
You may well be right Jenn. So far 2008 has been crazy for us, I’m answering 2-3 new enquiries per day.
Not sure if that is the move to outsource as you suggest or that companies are looking to expand into the Russian market to spread their income sources. Very strange though these last few weeks.
This is pretty interesting post Jenn..^^..hope you’ll post more articles like these in the future..^^
Thanks so much Dev, I really appreciate it!
Nick, recent increases may have something to do with all those great blog posts too??
Internet Marketing Joy – thank you!
“The in-house SEO’s role will change from being the guy to “do” the work; to being the guy to “manage” the work (or the relationship with the outside vendors)…”
I’d hate to think of the day that this happens. There will a lot of people that will be under the hand of someone else that is doing everyone’s thinking?
So, in the mean time.. opportunity for actual expansion and growth of the search processes as they evolve and change will belong to the guy that goes ‘in-house’ for his daily grind, but has to save his actual research and in his living room where in never should have left to begin with..while each days progress is being dictated by management?
Maybe I’m misunderstanding?
Sorry, a lot of misspelling!..
I meant to say “for his living room, where it never should have left to begin with”
Hi Kim, Unfortunately when management is told to reduce FTP’s and the work still has to get done, there’s no choice but to outsource. I totally agree, these situations are sad for everyone involved.
I really appreciate your point of view. Leave it to Kim to take my cold, economic analysis and remind me that FTP’s are people. 🙂
I am with Nick on this one…
We have seen a dramatic increase in leads from business both small and corporate who are looking toward leveraging online branding and search. Maybe based on their assessment of declining sales they are coming to terms with the sliding slope and are trying to dig in and anchor their firms for the uncertain future that is in our midst.
I think the biggest reasons that SEO will continue to grow despite the recession is that 1) the huge marketing budgets of thousands and thousands of large companies are not yet as focused online as they are offline (print media, tv, etc). As this shift continues to take place as it is currently doing, SEO will grow. And 2) search provides a much more trackable ROI than traditional media advertising. And for as many people that want the barriers to entry that you allude to, there are just as many in this industry that don’t. So I don’t see that changing anytime soon. How many SEOs know that SEMPO offers a “certification”? And how many clients really care if you have it? It’s more important to have a proven track record of success for similarly positioned companies.
Thanks for the great post! There’s one thing you may want to fix thought:
Measurable ROI that companies are currently experiencing with Search, is going to way heavy on their decisions. Much heavier than traditional marketing metrics of Impressions and Branding.
I think you mean “weigh heavily”.
Once again, great post!
SEO Catfish, you make a good point about certification. I didn’t know SEMPO offered it. But I do feel that as SEO matures up the product life cycle, certification is coming whether we like it or not. If that’s the case, I’d like it to be on my terms not someone else’s.
Jeffrey, you are right I do have a typo – please excuse and thank you!
Happy holidays to you too. and a belated Christmas wishes..