Here are some highlights:

• The UK market for Search Engine Marketing was worth an estimated £1.41 billion in 2006, according to E-consultancy.
• Shortage of talent continues to be an issue "¦ there are not enough knowledgeable SEO people to go around.
• Growth of Social Media Optimisation and tracking "“ understanding the impact of social media on brand perception and search rankings.
• Before embarking on social media optimisation, it is important to understand the possible return on investment.
• Spending specifically on Paid Search amounted to £1.26 billion in 2006, equivalent to 90% of the total spent on Search Engine Marketing. Paid Search is becoming more like SEO due to importance of landing page quality.
• The landing page quality score introduced by Google means that paid search is increasingly becoming like natural search (search engine optimisation) "It really is bridging the gap between PPC and SEO" .
• Search has become much more granular than just looking at keywords. It is also important to look at demographics, time of day and other factors relating to the searcher's profile."Click profiles will become more valuable."
• Ideally, advertisers should treat Paid Search as a cost of sale rather than allowing budget to dry up to the detriment of the company when there there is still excellent ROI to be made.
• A lot of the SEO companies, such as Spannerworks, are offering social media optimisation services. "Traditional PR people often don't have a clue about online PR."

Step up Clickriver, currently a beta service in the states, which will allow advertisers the opportunity to purchase sponsored ads on Amazon.com. Clickriver displays ads during the complete shopping process, whether it begins with a user search or by browsing a category, right through to a resulting purchase. I’m sure this will raise a few eye browses in the search marketing world.