• SEO Salaries have increased since last year’s SEMPO in-house salary survey.
• 2009 yearly salaries for an individual contributor with 1-3 years relevant experience range from $40,000 to $80,000; senior manager salaries range $70,000 to $120,000; and vice presidents with responsibilities for large SEM campaigns or a team of specialists earn from $160,000 to $250,000.
• The majority of respondents are working to maintain or increase the ROI from search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns with flat or restrained budgets for the remainder of 2009.
• Practitioners also are responsible for a broadening spectrum of online marketing activities including: organic SEO and SEM programs; social media campaigns; email marketing; graphical ad campaigns; paid inclusion programs; vertical search engine targeting; affiliate marketing programs; and shopping engines.

For a summary of the in-house salary survey, visit: http://www.sempo.org/learning_center/research/

Survey Respondent Background

The majority of respondents to the SEMPO 2009 in-house salary survey were in-house managers. From across the U.S. and Canada with a high concentration from California, most work for companies with less than 1,000 employees.

Respondents are paid, on average, between $40,000 and $80,000 annually. Salaries have increased since SEMPO’s previous survey, regardless of how much experience respondents have with in-house search marketing. The majority of respondents receives full benefits, has 401k plans, and is interested in telecommuting options if offered by their employer.

A plurality of respondents only had between 0 and 3 years of experience in search marketing – these responses coming mostly from individual contributors.

SEM budgets are mostly below $50K or above $250K with few in the in-between area. The travel industry was the largest B2C category represented, and the Internet was the largest B2B category represented in this survey.

The highest number of respondents says the primary focus of their role is organic and PPC only; however, this varies depending on the individual’s role in the company. Aside from SEO and PPC, respondents deal mostly with social networking and email marketing campaigns.