The search engine marketing (SEM) industry is expected to grow double in size to nearly $225 million by 2009-10.

The growth of the search-engine-marketing would be largely driven by a fast increasing Internet user base and the expanding, effective usage of internet marketing techniques. This has been brought about in an extensive report just released by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

According to the report, some three-fourths of about 40 million Internet users now look to avail of search services compared to just 34% in 2004. The popularity of SEM is fast growing in a number of sectors, the report added.

Expert search engine marketers help promote the reach and visibility of a website. They do this by sponsoring links on search engines to include any given website in the search index or just by altering the site’s programming code to ensure a better ranking for it from the search engine. The report suggests that India has a huge potential to be one of the preferred outsourcing destinations for SEM.