The UK search market will grow to almost £600m by the end of 2005 - growth of 70 per cent compared to last year.

E-consultancy believes revenue from search will hit £598m as companies start to see search engine placing as a central part of marketing strategy. Growing broadband use is also pushing growth.

Demand for specialist search services is likely to increase as the market gets more complex thanks to the arrival of MSN and other paid-for-search engines. Local search services will also continue to grow fuelled by interest from smaller businesses. Local searches can bring in businesses which haven’t previously used search services.

Although pay-per-click still accounts for 84 per cent of the market, researchers believe there will be a move back to general search engine optimisation as prices for keywords increase.

A free sample of part of the report is available to download here. ®

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