Reports this week revealed that search advertising spending is steadily increasing in 2009, nearly matching the spending levels from a year ago.

Search marketing agencies such as Search Ignite and Efficient Frontier disclosed data that showed their clients’ spending had increased to between 5 and 10 percent from second quarter results. Year-over-year spending is still down nearly 5 percent, according to Efficient Frontier.

That trend has been witnessed at eZanga, where search spending has increased by 70 percent from last year.

The news brings a great deal of hope to the search marketing industry after the economic recession made an impact in spending over the last year. Reports from eWeekEurope, ClickZ and Advertising Age give some of the details about the recent rise in ad spending and what it could mean for the immediate future of search marketing as a promising fourth quarter begins.