Gaining and Maintaining an Internet Presence

Considering that the number of internet users is more than 1.4 billion, and 85 percent of that population has used the internet to make a purchase, it's not surprising how much advertising revenue is moving from traditional radio, print and television to this modern advertising medium.

Through the internet a small home-based business can quickly set up shop and compete across the globe. And, as revenue originating from the Web continues to escalate, all businesses from entrepreneurs to corporations need an internet presence to operate and grow.

The US Internet alone is expected to be 50 times larger in 2015 than it was in 2006. 50 TIMES! That doesn't mean, however, that you have the next seven years to get a solid internet presence. That presence is needed now.

In the travel business, for example, it's projected that 60 percent of bookings will be generated from the internet in 2008. If you are in the travel business, that's a percentage you just cannot afford to ignore.

But you can no longer simply create a website, put it online and expect it to be found. You need a professionally designed site with plenty of relevant content, research for optimal keywords and pages optimized for those keywords, submission to directories and building of back links, management of pay per click campaigns... It's no wonder so many companies turn to full service search engine optimizers to handle the job for them.

In addition to helping you find your niche online and reach your targeted market, full service internet marketing companies can also assist in obtaining your domain name, designing the site, hosting and maintaining it _ everything you need to gain and maintain a presence in the fastest growing retail sector.

Regardless of whether you handle the search engine marketing or contract it out, work towards a strong online presence. The internet is the place to be advertising today and in the future, and you don't want to get left behind.

Regardless of whether you're going for full search engine marketing or simply adding SEO yourself, your first step is to determine who your targeted audience is, what people you want to bring to your website, and what keywords those people will use when searching for the product or service you are offering.

For instance, if you are an SEO company, your first thought for a keyword might be "SEO" or "SEO company." When doing a Google search for "SEO," I found almost 256 million results. "SEO company" brings 1.89 million. Attempting to reach the first page of those results any time soon would be difficult, nearly impossible for a new website. So what about using "search engine optimization company"? That should return a smaller number of search results, wouldn't you think? Nope. That one brought 13.7 million results. You then might add your city, such as "seo company houston." That cuts the number of search results down to 764K, which is still a high number, considering you have a new site you want to get on that first page or two of results. So, you try "seo company in houston texas". Surely that would yield a smaller number, and it does. Try different key phrases until you find the best targeted keywords with the right balance of high search volume and low competition. Wordtracker and Google Adwords can help in your search for the best keywords.

Finding the best targeted keywords for your website is just the beginning in the SEO process. Your website is then optimized for those keywords, which means adding keyword enriched titles, meta tags, H1s, alt tags, etc. Once your SEO set up is complete, a link building campaign begins, which is an important part of search engine optimization, and your website is listed with major directories such as DMOZ. You should also use video, blogs, press releases, social networking sites _ everything available to boost your search engine marketing campaign.

Optimizing and marketing a website is a lengthy process involving lots of work, but the end result can mean driving valuable, targeted traffic to your website as your Internet presence grows.