The power of SEO should not be underestimated.

Google had a recent re-shuffle of results; thought to be an impact of Google de-valuing the worth of “paid for back-links”.
This is a good step in our eyes; links which are paid for should not have an impact on “natural results”.

The effect of this reshuffle on 2 of the UK’s most valuable internet properties; MoneySupermarket.com and Confused.com has been nothing short of catastrophic.

Moneysupermarket was due for a stock floatation valuing £1billion – this has been severely hit by the Google re-shuffle with its listings for keywords such as “loans” & “Car insurance” moving from the top 10 to 50+. While this appears to be a temporary glitch as they have resurfaced to the top, the financial impact of the down time has been massive.

Confused.com seems to have had a similar problem with an added issue of duplicate content (confused.co.uk). All this coming just as they were due to sell for £700million. While Moneysupermarket seem to have recovered, Confused.com has not with its listings moving out of the top 50 results and staying put.

The moral of the story has to be: Ignore the value of good SEO at your peril. SEO is not just about getting results today or this month but about sustained and ethical results which last.

More good news for the UK Search Engine Marketing Industry

Online ad spend grew more than any other UK advertising channel in 2006, according to a report released by the Advertising Association.

Online spend was up by 50%, in excess of £2bn, and now constitutes 10.6% of the entire market.

In contrast, press was down by 2.7% to 43.7% (£8.4bn) and TV was down by 4.7% to 24.1% (£4.6bn).

Elsewhere, outdoor advertising now makes up 5.7% of the market, having risen by 4%, with radio making up 2.8% and cinema 1%.

Not related to our usual news but I hope this helps.

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