Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are the two phrases that we hear about the most when discussing the Internet with prospective clients.

Having a website is fine, but what if nobody can find it? With millions of new websites appearing almost daily, it's important to ensure people can find you.

Why bother with SEO?

If we're honest, we don't believe everyone should. If you don't need your website to be on the front page of Google for relevant search terms, then there is absolutely no need for you to waste your money on search engine optimisation. If your website is already well visited and you're making money directly from Internet users, then spending money on SEO is simply throwing money away.

But there again, if you don't need customers from the Internet, why bother with a website at all?

A website is a great way to publicise your products or services to a wide audience. As the number of web users increases and more people visit the web before making purchasing choices, you may find that you can double, triple or even quadruple your sales by having an effective and optimised website and search engine marketing campaign.

Isn't it expensive?

Yes and no. You can certainly get lots of marketing companies to offer you cheap sign-up deals to their 'guaranteed placement service'. But it would be a waste because good web marketing costs.

Traditional advertising is now losing out to the Internet as more companies move their budgets (Source: Tech Crunch). Yet some companies will offer you web marketing for a hundred pounds a month. What sort of TV advert would you expect for £100? And what response would you expect?