There is no question that search engines have a huge impact on the behavior of consumers and the way that consumers search for things before making a purchase. Before the internet, consumers would scour the yellow pages in order to find contact information they needed.

Even though word of mouth is still playing a huge role in the purchasing decision, consumers are now using search engines to get more information about the products they are interested in prior to making a purchase. They will compare the prices, look at the features and read reviews all online prior to setting foot in a store. If you have not yet invested in search engine marketing (SEM) efforts, chances are you are missing out on a large number of potential customers. (more…)

There are many ways to define internet marketing. Unfortunately, so many people keep mentioning the phrase “internet marketing” that it has become confusing. It has reached a point where spam-based systems are lumped together with very ethical and value-driven systems. The reality of effective internet marketing is that whatever you do, you must build credibility. Whatever you do in internet marketing implementations and strategies, you have to build authority and the best way to do all these is, of course, to build an effective brand. This is how you can separate internet marketing companies that actually know what they’re doing with internet marketing companies that are actually just using tired, worn-out and outright spammy techniques. I’m sorry to break this to you, but if you’re going to use spam-based techniques, in this day and age, chances are, Google will penalize you. Even if you are not relying on search engine traffic, the use of non-spam-based techniques will only end up with you wasting time, effort and energy instead of getting great results. (more…)