Web Marketing 101: The importance of White Hat SEO

PART 1: Search Engine Marketing and Banner Campaignsn Despite the recent upsurge the popularity and use of web retail and online business to business sales and services, many web businesses are not aware of or underestimate the importance of using Search Engine Optimization as a means to improve their online visibility.nn Search Engine Marketing has been around as long as search engines themselves have been around. The first use of the search engine as a marketing platform came with the time-purchase of key words. In this article we shall discuss traditional internet marketing methods.nnnSEMnnnKeywords & Pay Per ClicknnWeb business purchase keywords from a search engine host like Google or Yahoo (any keyword relevant to the particular web business or their niche market). When a web surfer searches for these keywords, the search results show the sponsored links on the very top; this is effective in the sense that many researches and surveys show that more than 65% of visitors use the top most links first. The websites of the web businesses who are 'renting' these keywords are amongst these sponsored links. Below this shorter list is the much longer main list of search results which are called the genuine search results. Surveys show that at least 60% searchers use the genuine links found on the first page of search results to find what they require. Most users in the current climate do not trust sponsored links or believe that they would have to register or make a payment on these sponsoring websites to get the information they need. While there are variations in the types of keyword marketing, these are all generally considered Pay Per Click campaigns.nn Often, popular keywords are expensive and their prices are further driven up by the fact that they are up for bidding. Normally, businesses have to pay the search engine every time a visitor uses their sponsored link, and some of these rates are astronomically high. Where it comes to genuine results, users are more trusting.n nn Website Marketingnnn Paid Links & Bannersnn Web businesses also use paid links in order to improve online visibility. Businesses place their links on popular websites (major news, sports, entertainment, social-media, educational and employment websites etc). These links are often in the form of hyperlinked keywords or even placed within informative content. The payment methodology differs from website to website, where some require advertising web-businesses to pay per click, other place links for a specified time period.nIn banner campaigns, colorful flash/ graphics advertisements are placed on prominent on-page locations and a similar payment strategy applies. Banner campaigns are most commonly seen all over the internet and are found usually on the right hand column of web pages all kinds of websites.nnBanners, PPC links or paid links are useful as part of a short term strategy to improve visibility for a website but are often too cost intensive to maintain.