While more and more people are utilizing search engines every month, comScore reported Google’s number of sponsored clicks have flattened out recently, which led Google’s stock to tumble as much as 8% in trading today.

This information is adding fuel to the fire that suggests Google is not recession-proof. As shoppers are more wary about spending their money, Google’s ads are not being clicked on and this is not good news for their ad business.

Here’s the click growth over the last few months, courtesty of Silicon Alley Insider:

October: 37%
November: 27%
December: 12%
January: Flat

Going from 37% growth to no growth is very significant, especially in such a short period of time.

Many analysts are remaining bullish on Google for a variety of reasons. Some believe comScore’s numbers aren’t entirely accurate and that the pluses for Google outweigh any minuses.

However, as we stated before, searches are up at Google, but people are not clicking on their ads as much. This is why a semantic web optimization program can be important as people click on ads less and less, they rely on organic search results to point them in the direction they want to go.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 3:24 pmand is filed under Search Engine Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.