Businesses located everywhere, especially amongst powerfully developed countries, are searching for better ways to achieve business growth during a recession. How can SEO be achieved effectively during a recession?

Economic Recession

1. What is a Recession?

A recession is so termed as a result of a general slow down in economic activity over a sustained period of time. Governments affected by a recession make use of macroeconomic policies such as increasing money supply and government spending, as well as decreasing taxation in order to counteract the effects of a recession.

2. Causes and Effects

Causes include:

• Currency crisis
• Energy crisis
• War
• Under consumption
• Overproduction
• Financial crisis

Effects include:

• Bankruptcies
• Credit crunches
• Deflation or disinflation
• Foreclosures
• Unemployment

SEO during a Recession

1. Marketing during a Time of Recession

Studies have produced statistics that indicate a drastically cut down marketing strategy budget during a recession period merely paves a downward spiral pathway for further losses in business competitiveness and market share.

By maintaining a healthy advertising investment during a weak economic period, businesses can "capitalise" on other businesses (i.e.: competitors) who may reduce their marketing budget or retrench employees. This can help a company to maintain a set marketing budget without counting their pennies and build market share. By adopting this "it's not personal, it's just business" attitude, marketing during a time of recession may help to keep a company's head above water long enough to find its feet again. Businesses must keep their brand out there where customers can be engaged. Losses where brand awareness and market share are concerned are difficult to remedy when the economy picks up again.

2. The Internet, Marketing Tactics & SEO

Online businesses have the advantage of being able to target their audiences using the web cost effectively, as well as with well thought out, researched techniques. Research is necessary here if return on investment (ROI) is to be high. A change of want and need means a change of search for keywords. This is where good SEO methods come into play. New keyword searches on search engines made by an internet user means a need for new content. Online businesses need to create this for the changing market in order to keep their business from falling short of healthy growth potential.

Why Should You Invest in SEO during a Recession?

The following are a few factors explaining some of the reasons why SEO can be effective during a recession period:

• ROI - research has shown that SEO is largely regarded as the most valuable marketing solution when it comes to ROI and can still prove effective during an uncertain economic period. Marketing online is cost effective. More advertising benefits can be gotten with investing less money than conventional means.
• Catering for a customer brings them back - changing a marketing strategy to effectively appeal to a consumer at this time is likely to retain their interest for the future. Happy customers generally return to a useful website, poor economic time or not. It is, therefore, important to keep optimising a website to accommodate for what they are searching to find.
• Precise tracking methods - web analytics assist with being able to determine where website visitors are located and what they are most searching for. Keywords play a large role here as bounce rates can be measured and what pages attract the most visitors can be assessed. Precise tracking methods enable you to be able to assess the factors that will help to better optimise a website.
• SEO is far cheaper than other offline and online marketing drives.

Approaching SEO during a Recession

SEO marketing can be done in one of two ways:

• In - house - Researching and learning everything that you can regarding SEO techniques can be done without the aid of an SEO consultant or company. Simple things such as content and links used to build a website with regular updates can improve search engine rankings. Using the same domain name for a substantial amount of time, as well as the same theme and tone to a website is a solid foundation on which building its pages can be done effectively.
• Outsourced - requires more money in the budget, but is likely to be well worth it if a reputable company is used. Results are never a guarantee and should never be promised either, but can be earned with successful outcomes using the right methods and techniques. SEO companies will do all the ground work and devise a strategy that will help to grow a business, reaching achievable levels of success. If you can work outsourcing SEO help into your budget, do so. The ROI can very well turn out to be worth your while.

In Conclusion

SEO during a recession is a good idea. Lack of funds doesn't necessarily mean an end to a quality and effective marketing strategy. SEO can still be cost effective and successful even during a poor economic time. There is a vast amount of information available regarding SEO, with knowledge about how it can achieve better optimised websites, growing by the minute. By putting in the efforts to learn about what it will take to better optimise a website, the more rewards can be gained, recession or not.

Further Articles

• Ethical vs. Unethical SEO
• What is Black Hat & White Hat SEO?
• How Do I recognise a Fly by Night SEO Company?
• Warning Signs of Bad SEO Companies
• Optimising your Site for Google
• Optimising your Site for Yahoo