As you begin to consider marketing or advertising on-line, you may be contemplating which Internet service is best suited to your business needs and which is going to give you the biggest return on your investment. Marketing services currently available over the Internet today can be found on Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Go Daddy and a variety of other search engines. When considering marketing your business through any of these sites. some things to take into account are: accessibility, products available, how you want to pay for the services rendered and additional user friendly options. Google’s integration of the services they provide has set the bar, as they have most of their products available to users on one, user friendly, login platform. Further, most other available search engines strive to attain the success of Google as it is the most popular search engine today and many company owners have found it a tried and true means to advertise their business. Even our modern day vernacular reflects the success of Google; when someone thinks to look something up on the World Wide Web – they are likely to say ‘Oh, I’ll just Google that!” In addition, approximately 80% of all searches performed on the Internet occur on Google’s search engine. Some of the products that Google has to offer to small businesses include: Google Adwords, a method by which business owners can narrow advertising to their target market. Google Documents, which allows for editing documents between multiple users. Google Calendar, can also be used by multiple users and also has a sync option for some mobile devices. Google mail or a Gmail accounts are also available at no charge. Due to its superior accessibility, products and service readily available and user friendly applications, most people who specialize in search engine marketing would recommend Google.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) refers to advertising by the use of search engines, where ads are placed within the right margin or at the top of the search results page. Depending on how specifically the text content typed in by a person searching is to the content provided on your website or ad, the more likely you are to appear with the first several listings. Further, depending on how much you are willing to pay to advertise on Google or any search engine, your ad could appear at the top or in the right-hand margin.
When comparing on-line ad pricing you can chose from the following options: Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM); where your add will appear one thousand times, to people who use keywords within their search that match the ones found within your website; or a Cost Per Click (CPC) where you will pay for only the clicks people make on to your listing. CPM advertising, for local advertisers will run $0.10 to $3.00 on average while CPC will average anywhere from $.50 to $5.00 for local advertising. Some things to bear in mind when generating your on-line presence and using these services to advertise are:

• Who is my target audience?
• How many people currently search for my type of service day to day?
• What am I willing to spend to attract people to my business?
• Can I attempt to advertise on my own or would it be more advantageous to hire someone who knows more about search engine marking?

In an effort to maximize your business efforts, you may want to consider hiring such a professional.

Reference: Online Networking > Recruiters, Headhunters and HR Professionals: Social Marketing and Social Networking Experts