The SEO industry is growing fast

In recent years, the SEO industry has experienced significant growth. 20% per year is the figure most commonly mentioned, but I’m not sure it will stop there. My impression is that we’re facing extreme growth in the coming years as well, and that’s what’s driving all the acquisitions.

There have been a number of acquisitions and mergers in the SEO industry in recent years, and I’ve been saying for even longer that this would happen. Traditionally, it’s more common to start looking for competitors to acquire when it becomes difficult to grow further, but my impression is that this is more of a reflection of our new era in SEO. It’s not a lack of growth that’s driving the acquisitions, but rather the fear of falling behind. To mention a few sales/acquisitions/mergers that have taken place in recent years:

• Brath, where we ourselves sold the majority to LRF Media.
• Pineberry sells to Nova Consulting Group.
• WGP is sold, for the second time in a short period, to Spiltan.

What’s happening in SEO?

It’s not declining growth that’s driving mergers and acquisitions. The industry continues to grow rapidly, and the pandemic seems to have, after an initial setback, provided even more fuel to the fire. As has happened many times before, it’s not SEO or SEM that takes the hit when marketing budgets shrink; it’s actually the opposite. Money is being shifted from expensive TV and print to channels that cost less and deliver clear, measurable results. If you have SEO or SEM that’s working, these channels also often result in a direct boost to the cash register — you don’t cut the only channels that generate sales, even in times of declining revenue.

Moreover, much of the sales have shifted online. We can clearly see in Google Ads that prices in many verticals are skyrocketing. This is, of course, due to more players pumping more money into the system, and more businesses fighting for the same visitors. The same is true for SEO, and combined with Google making major changes in the form of Core Updates and Page Experience Updates throughout the year, many websites now have a technical debt to pay off. There’s a lot of work for skilled SEO specialists here.

Will it end?

Will this end now that the world has reopened? Personally, I’m doubtful about that. It’s rare for anyone to move their budget from Google to newspapers or TV; maybe they do both, but no one shuts off search once they’ve started. Google is a faucet that continuously brings in new customers, and no one turns it off to go back to a much more uncertain investment.

My view is that we are still just in the starting blocks in our industry and that it won’t always be Google as the only channel. Those of us who work internationally with SEO and SEM know that things look a bit different in other countries than in Sweden, and even here, where Google has nearly 100% of the market, you can sometimes get really good profitability on Bing.