Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the process of choosing targeted keywords that are relevant to your site. By using these keywords we are able to drive targeted traffic to your site in an attempt to increase web site rankings. Optimization of a website that will give the search engines a pipe line to your targeted keywords. There are many areas of internet optimization that the search engines consider. A couple of the most important ones are content. This should be 60% to 70% content compared to code. Most websites usually run 20% or less which does not impress the search engine that is looking for content.
Another area is keyword inclusion. This takes into account the amount and placement of the keywords in the text. If this is way off then all the work you have done is for nothing. Then we have linking with other sites. This is an ongoing job that takes months to build so you will achieve your goals. This is the hardest part of optimization because it is so time consuming. The last of the main parts out of thousands of pieces and what I consider the most important is designing for the handicapped. It is only right that they have access to your website and all sites on the internet. This shows your commitment to doing things right and after all it is the law.
Search Engine Marketing or SEM are marketing ventures taken to help increase your presence on the internet. While this is normally thought of as just a pay per click endeavor, my belief is this also takes in web site optimization as well as any ad campaign a business is persuing. An Internet Consultant is usually the one that oversees both SEO and SEM. That can be confusing to some but by putting their jobs into one category you can see that they take care of your web presence and wear many hats.
Internet Marketing will mean different things to different people depending on how they are looking at your website, or even what they have read on the web. An Internet Marketing Consultant is an individual that will look at a site and make suggestions on how to improve the traffic to your business. This is also known as site promotion and provides a business many ways to increase traffic and sales to their site. I considered myself a search engine expert and refused to get into Internet Marketing. After all it was not my level of learning and way over my head. It was just one thing I could not understand. Then one day while reading an article on the internet about search engine marketing I went into shock and had to read that article 4 more times. Come to find out that the area I was afraid to get into because I considered myself having a lack of education for it I realized that was exactly what I had been doing for over a year. That is why I now combine SEO and SEM under one category.
One last thing I want to speak out on before I finish is search engine submissions. Some companies are charging $150 to $300 per year for monthly submissions to search engines. The truth of the matter one you submit to a search engine you are listed on them as long as your domain is active. It doesn't make sense to me to keep submitting to search engines that you are already listed on. It doesn't give you any higher rankings and I can not see any advantage to it. This is something that you can do for free and if you have any doubts about it send me your URL and I will submit it for you free. I can submit to all of the major search engines world wide in about 2 minutes. I encourage you to take advantage of this and save your hard earned money to take your spouse or that special person in your life out for dinner. After all sometimes that is more important than a search engine submission payment that is not needed.