The search engine optimization (SEO) industry has apparently provided a great deal of grist to Google’s mill, as the search giant today announced earnings of $6.7 billion over the last three months of 2009.
TechCrunch reports that these earnings, which worked out to a gain of $6.79 per share of stock, were higher than analysts‘ targets for the company, and that two-thirds ($4.4 billion) of them came directly from Google-owned sites. The bulk of the rest, says the tech news site, were revenue from the company’s AdSense network, while 3 percent came in the form of licensing fees.
Google management, according to the Wall Street Journal, was upbeat on a conference call discussing the results, and stated that the company was "committed to China," despite the very public spat between it and the Chinese government.
Additionally, the Journal writes, CEO Eric Schmidt said that Google would continue to pump money into promising tech fields – TechCrunch said that he specifically cited display – and added that the company had hired 170 net employees during the quarter.
