State of the Search Engine Marketing Industry, 2008: Survey Results

Dec 10, 2008 - 10:16 am 1 by
Filed Under Search News

SEM Insights posts results of a survey that included 254 SEM professionals on all levels. Who are our SEM colleagues? How many years of experience do they have? What is their job title and income?

After tallying all the results, it seems that the majority of respondents have the following in common: * They have beginner knowledge of SEO (1-2 years) - 19% * Their title is best represented as "search director" - 19% * Most are making less than $50k/year - 35% * The majority's highest level of education is Bachelor's Degree - 48% * Most feel that title tag is the the most important SEO element - 51% * Most believe that the biggest challenge facing SEOs today from a sales perspective is lack of mainstream knowledge - 41% * Most believe that the biggest challenge facing SEOs today from a deliverables perspective is undefined expectations - 46%

And there's more. The survey is divided into other categories, including SEO at work, search conferences (83% think it's important to attend them!), SEM and Affiliate Marketing, and the future of SEM. I wouldn't do the survey justice by reposting all the results, so I've given you just a small amount of what you can see if you hop on over to the survey results.

The one question I have which I pose in the Sphinn discussion is: why are there so many beginner level SEOs? Do they end up moving to other careers after 1-2 years? (Or is SEO just such a new field that they are just learning about it and are still in the beginning stages?)

Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.

 

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