Main components of web advertising are -
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
3. Social Media Optimization (SMO)
Search Engine Optimization is basically getting a site ranked among top positions in Search Engine Results Page (SERPS), it is also called natural search because in this a rank cant be achieved even if you pay millions of dollars. A website has to be optimized as per search engine algorithms so that it can fight with other sites & come among top results.
Search Engine Marketing is getting a site ranked in right hand side of search results through adwords or (YSM in yahoo) this is paid method here top rank can be gained by paying highest bid amount for top rank, if you search for online shopping in google you will see text ads on right side. Here Google charge for every click, it varies from 5 cent to 100 Dollar per click.
Social Media Optimization is promoting a site in social networks, community development & developing personal contacts with customers & spreading word of mouth publicity through blog, social network sites like facebook, myspace, linkedin, twitter, orkut, social bookmaring sites like digg, delicious etc. Web is called personal now due to this interactive feature brought up by web 2.0.
Advantages of online marketing over traditional marketing -
1. You can track your visitors/customers through web analytics softwares like google analytics, clicktracks etc. So that you know the exact ROI of your spend & can optimize your campaign/keywords/advertising anytime.
[ It isn't creative unless it sells :) ].
2. Its pull based advertising, unlike traditional advertising which is push based. i.e. you get qualified visitors who are looking for services/products offered by you, so you dont need to shout & convince them to come to you.
