So people are finally starting to accept that we are in a recession and as a result this has had an interesting effect on the Internet marketing community.  Many businesses look to cut their outgoings when times are tough but it would seem that this trend is changing as Google has announced a huge gain.  This means that many online retailers have been increasing their spending on Pay Per Click advertising as well as their search engine optimisation.  

This to me makes perfect sense, if the number of people looking to buy your product decreases then you should look to capture the majority of those people.  This can be easily done combining SEO with PPC.  The reason this works is because some search engine users like the sponsored PPC advertising while others prefer the organic listings.  Therefore if you are at the top of the organic SERPs and have a good PPC position then you are more likely to capture the people looking for the product and now you just have to convince them to buy.

The other side of the coin are the businesses that look to either decrease their PPC and SEO marketing budgets or to cut the work out completely.  This makes no sense to me as good SEO work will deliver potential customers straight to your door and if you can’t sell your product or service once they arrive at your site then the problem must lie elsewhere.  It could be that your site is suffering from a lack of usability, it could be the website design that is putting people off or your product, service or sales staff are not up to standard.

Either way some businesses may be able to ride out the storm by simply tightening the purse strings and making cuts but many will meet a sad and untimely end.  It is always the pro active businesses that make increases rather than making cuts that survive to become bigger and better companies while their competition get left behind.