Total search engine queries have increased by a whopping 27% over last year’s September statistics. Google is responsible for the highest volume of change, with an increase over 38%, while Ask.com has the highest percentage increase with a gain of 45%, most of this before their user-friendly upgrade.

Yahoo’s improvement of 7% was dwarfed by Microsoft’s gain of 3%, although it must be noted that Live Search stemmed the tide of an 11% year-to-year loss in August, largely due to traffic fostered by Microsoft’s many gimmicks.

So what is there to be down about? Google is reporting quarterly earnings tomorrow, and what sounds better than a 38% year to year increase in search queries? More searches means more exposure for Google’s ad network, and their domestic and worldwide dominance is untouched and is extending to other media.

The problem is that overall marketing spending on search engines is going down because of the economy. While growth of Google’s tools is expanding massively, investment in their services by retail companies is reflecting the overall downturn in the health of the economy.

But so what? This is an across-the-board issue affecting every company that helps market products. The real news, as SAI’s Henry Blodget reports, is that “Despite the drop-off in spend, conversion rates and average order value trends held up throughout 3Q08.”

Search is growing at a ridiculous rate, conversion rates and order value continue to be strong, it’s just that overall marketing investment is going down based on fewer resources available across the board.

Yes, Google is not completely recession-proof, but the statistics show that it’s not because they are failing to get results. The news today is further evidence that investing in search is the best way to maintain a marketing presence during a recession, in spite of companies bailing out as their budgets tighten.

NOTE: As of posting, the comScore stats aren’t available. I will link to them when they are officially released.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 7:52 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.