Back in March of this year E-consultancy got together with Neutralize (*\*) to start a major research project on how businesses use search engine marketing.

Over the coming weeks as we approach the end of the year Search Engine War will be reflecting on some of the highlights from the UK Search Engine Marketing report 2007. This report was conducted in March this year and now the end of 2007 is coming it would be an excellent time to discuss some of the finer points.

The objective of this research was to explore how businesses use Search Engine Marketing, with the focus on paid and organic search.

The first part of this report hits home straight away, it shows you that the percentage of the SEO services that are being used are:

In March Online PR optimisation, Competitor research and Linking campaigns were the least used and the most planned to be using in the future. Over the past few months the industry has evolved at a  rapid rate. Linking generations have moved away from paid text links to the upcoming youth of Facebook and Myspace that are cruising through universities across the country. Because of the immense growth of social networking/media in the past year,  increasing demands from clients and employers has forced us to create new techniques and strategies. 

Now, seven months after the report was completed social media is an important part of SEO projects and looking to increase this further as the industry evolves. What would we see now if we redid the report? I expect much more 'Using Now' responses to Online PR optimisation, Competitor research and Linking campaigns.

In the next installment of the UK Search Engine Marketing Report 2007 I will be looking into how companies plan on spending their hard earned money! This includes budget increases for certain areas of the industry and where it is believed companies will be spending less and less money.