In earlier periods, Internet marketing was described as showing others how to make money on the Internet. The generic description is now almost meaningless, because is it much more involved with many more facets, and processes.
Internet marketing may now refer to getting a website to be more visible on the Internet, and it is essential because there are billions of web pages with which your site will be competing, and there are more pages being added daily.
You can also use some form of Internet marketing to promote a business, product or service, even if there is no existing website. The process is primarily used for getting more visibility. However increasing visibility, may only the beginning as you can also use the process to induce others to take some kind of action.
The process may often be referred to as online marketing, and there may hundreds of different activities or tasks that may be involved in the process. It is not easy to define which part of the process of internet marketing may be most important, as each case may be different, and the priority is often determined, by the objective.
If you wish use online marketing to achieve increased visibility, one of the easiest ways to accomplish this is simple to purchase online ads in high visibility places. This can be relatively expensive, and others may not see it as being necessary as they are several low or no-cost methods to gain more visibility.
Website owners may be focused on achieving higher ranking in the search engines, as it is often described as the free way to get more visitors to visit your website. Employing what is referred to as Search Engine Optimization; the website is positioned to be as close to the top of the list, when certain queries are entered. If done correctly, and according to recommended guidelines, the SEO processes can achieve long lasting results, but the process can be laborious and time consuming, and because there may be millions of competing pages, is not a task that can be done once, as some work is required to maintain the position.
Deciding which task in the internet marketing or online marketing process is more important deserves careful consideration. Building a campaign to increase sales is handled very differently from an online marketing campaign that is designed build brand awareness. Although they can both be handled concurrently, is it best to separate the two processes, so that they can be measured and monitored.
Many website and business owners are of the mistaken belief that Internet marketing may be nothing more than advertising on the Internet. This may true to some extent, but is also misguided. Before the advent of the Internet, marketing was primarily focused on advertising, but because of the ease and rapidity with which data is transferred, online marketing can include methods for monitoring and measuring individual parts of the process, so that it is easy to tell which parts are working and where adjustment is needed.