Search market increases in 2009

It should come as no surprise that search engine usage is increasing – but perhaps the rate of increase will (come as a surprise that is). comScore figures released this month show that search usage (note: includes search engines and related properties)  increased by 46% in 2009. Google sites were in the order of 58% increase.

That’s significant. How many industries do you know (or work in) that have that kind of increase? Whether you take the numbers as a threat or an opportunity is up to you, but either way you should be acting on them. It’s rare to find a business these days that doesn’t have at least some exposure via the web.

If you are a web developer (or web designer for that matter) SEO should be part of your core skill set (and not left to high priced consultants). Sadly though it tends to get neglected, or even worse, discouraged. On the positive side however, I’m glad to see that SEO questions on stackoverflow.com are increasing, even if some of the answers that get voted up are unhelpful (in my opinion). Part of the problem is that SEO performed on sites is hard to immediately test. If you’ve got a question on javascript you’ll get an answer you can test and know straight away if it solves the problem. But with SEO you’re in the dark for a while until the results start to show (via analytics, rankings, conversions or other metrics). It’s a difficult scenario for analytical types to accept. But with the increased importance of search optimisation (even Bill and Steve are getting it now) it’s a mindset developers need to foster. Start experimenting yourself (here’s some simple seo suggestions) and make a point of learning more (here’s some recommended seo resources).

(via Aaron Wall’s excellent post this morning on Selling Hope to the Hopeless)