Companies continue to focus marketing budgets on SEO

The recession is causing companies to continue using marketing efforts that have been proven to work, like search engine optimization (SEO), and are shying away from new forms like video.

The online survey found that more than 80 percent of respondents said they are already using search engine optimization (SEO) with almost 10 percent more saying they plan to use it in the next 12 months.

Meanwhile, new forms of marketing are slowly being adopted with about half of respondents reporting that they are currently using mobile marketing, or plan to implement it in the next year.

But the report shows that a number of companies are turning to the use of social media with 64 percent already using the tool and another 22 percent planning to begin using it in the next 12 months.

These statistics seem to fall in line with an independent survey.According to their findings, although only 26.1 percent of respondents said their marketing budgets are expected to increase in 2009, those who are boosting appear to be funneling most of the money into search engine marketing (SEM).

According to the survey, 49.2 percent of respondents said they plan to increase SEM during the second half of this year while another 44 percent expect no change