Search marketing software company SEMRush has raised $40 million to grow its operations, which marks the company’s first-ever round of funding.
SEMRush will use some of the funding to expand beyond US-based search engines to support platforms owned by Amazon.com and Baidu.
In addition, SEMRush plans to acquire companies which produce software that can be integrated into the SEMRush platform.
The Wall Street Journal broke the news this afternoon, which is fairly notable in its own right. It’s not every day that third-party search tools get written about in the WSJ.
The Journal had favorable things to say about search marketing in general, stating:
”For all the talk about publishers and marketers gaming the Facebook news feed algorithm, jockeying for position in search results is an even bigger priority…
The investment in SEMrush comes as search is becoming increasingly important to marketers and publishers alike.”
The WSJ also notes that Google now accounts for over 50% of referral traffic sent to publishers, compared to 27% from Facebook which is the second-largest referrer. When it comes to digital advertising, Google and Facebook control a combined 56% of the US market.
