In terms of USDs, how large is the SEO industry? Annually. I guess it's a bit difficult to measure. Is there any official research on this matter?
I guess you won't find any "official research" apart from guesstimates. My guesstimate is $700 mil. / year
I don't think it's WAY bigger. Unless, of course you count such things as MFAs, affiliates, and own projects that many SEOs have. I only consider paid services of expert (SEO) for website owners.
It's big no doubt much of it fueled by those who willingly pay SEO con-artistes with the hope of being No. 1 on Google for their industry....
Very VERY large it is !! Imagine all those sites out on the web that didnt pay a bit attention to SEO.. all customers.....
How is it even quantifiable? Many other areas, such as affiliate marketing, use SEO or tie into it. Does their value count as well?
Its very hard to determin the SEO industry as a whole, does it include paid or is it stricly organic? does it include a marketing companies total turn over or just that from SEO? To hard to define.
Not sure in terms of money , but during last year I read in a well known marketing ezine, that there are about 60 million of human being generated keywords. So the potential is huge.
Google made 7billion USD out of advertisement revenues alone last year. And advertisement means adsense for google. That surely gives a rough idea how big the thing is.