Also known as online marketing or web marketing, Internet Marketing covers many areas including - Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Pay Per Click (PPC), Google AdWords, Social Media Optimisation (SMO) and Social Media Marketing (SMM). Each form of internet marketing requires a different strategy to achieve the best results.
The core focus of SEO is to improve the rankings of a website within the organic results of the search engines, in particular Google, Bing and Yahoo as they collectively control over 90% of the search market. SEO is the process of changing certain elements of a website's content and structure, along with creating inbound links to your site from relevant resources of a high quality.
SEM relates to the paid listings which appear at the top and right hand side of the search engine results pages and are marked as sponsored listings. Each search engine has a different Pay-Per-Click (PPC) program available and each present their own set of unique opportunities outside of search. Google for example allow you to advertise on a vast number of public websites. Bing on the other hand allow you to advertise to users of the xBox and MSN Messenger!
Google AdWords can deliver a very good return on your investment assuming the campaign, or campaigns, have been set up correctly. On the surface it all looks pretty straight forward, set up an ad, add some keywords then simply put some money in the account. In essence that's all there is to it, however a poorly set up campaign will reduce the visibility of your ads while making your cost per click more expensive than it should be.
SMO focuses on increasing the popularity and visibility of a company or brand within popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. In short, this is achieved by increasing the number of followers, fans or connections on these sites and engaging with those users on a regular basis.
Similar to search engine marketing, Social Media Marketing (SMM) differs in that it is paid advertising within social networks, not search engines. In essence they all work the same way although a site like Facebook has much more accurate demographic data available which is perfect for targeting a very specific type of audience.
Google Places listings appear on the first page of search results and are generally shown when a search query matches a product or service that would usually be sourced locally, such as a mechanic or lawn mowing service. While a places listing is not a genuine organic result, they are organised by a similar set of criteria as the organic results are via SEO.
For example, submitting your site to free web directories creates multiple citations of your business' contact details, it's pretty mucht he same as more common link building.
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