The main website categories are:

1. generating web-based sales
2. generating offline sales
3. leaving contact information so you can get in touch with the person
4. creating market awareness
5. generating informative or entertaining content
6. influencing people’s thinking

SEO = Search Engine Optimization
SEM = Search Engine Marketing

SEO is the organic listing of the results you get when you search for a certain phrase. Some 80% of the people using the internet tend to prefer to click on these listings in stead of the sponsored links above or at the right hand page of the website.
SEO is pretty cheap, but of course there is a downside … it takes a lot of patience to get to the top!!

SEM on the other hand can be fast!! This is the sponsored or paid listing of the results you get when you search for a certain phrase. Tools like Google Adwords for example can be up and running in like 5 minutes, but they do tend to need constant attention and could turn out to be pretty expensive.
You could argue that the marketing research could take up quit some time, but it’ll still be faster than SEO, and a lot more expensive!

When you look up a phrase in a search engine like Google, you can distinguish 3 kinds of listings from the result you get:

1. The results on top of the page
2. The results on the right hand side of the page
3. The rest of the results

The first 2 are called Paid or Sponsored listings. More accurately, they are pay-per-click listings, or in short PPC. Every time you, me or anyone clicks on these links, the owner of the website pays for it.

The 3rd one are called the organic listing. Everyone’s website can be included in it and to get a high ranking, knowing some SEO could come in handy

I’ll discuss that one later.