In the last ten years marketing via the internet has been going from strength to strength, as it’s evolved, also the way we do business has changed and that of the “business worlds” view of the Internet plus its possibilities for marketing and sales. The view of the consumer has also changed, as confidence has grown annually in the virtual world platform we all know as the internet.Our appetites’ as consumers for more and more information makes it easier for businesses and companies to soft sell through subliminal advertising or more blatant targeted ad campaigns. So, what’s it all about? And what do many of the modern web marketing terms mean? Plus what internet marketing techniques can be used for the majority of businesses on a daily or monthly basis? If you are new to the world of the internet with regards promoting your business online, or you are keen to understand more about it all, here we will explore the basics of SEO and SEM, which are modern ways to promote your business as an internet marketing technique.Probably the most banded about internet marketing term used currently is “Search Engine Optimization” (or “SEO” as it’s know in the marketing trade). Though this can mean and also be many things, normally it’s a term used for a way to tweak and/or change either page copy and / or “Meta info” or Key Words in the coding your website (usually this can be adjusted or changed by your web designer who manages your website), but in reality this is just the tip of the iceberg. SEO is generally used (& desired) to attract and raise your page ranking (or score) and search listings in searches carried out with the major search engines, predominately Google and in turn this can bring extra internet user traffic to your website, which is the ultimate goal.There are other methods of SEO that can be deployed to assist in gaining much welcomed net user traffic to your company’s website. There is also a dark side to SEO that you will need to be aware of & it’s referred to as “Black Hat SEO”. This is where the SEO operative uses cheats or techniques that are less desirable by the search engine companies like Google and could lead to your website URL being blocked or non-listed in search ranking results, which will ultimately have a negative effect on your business.Search Engine Marketing (or SEM) is another term widely referred to these days by many internet marketing companies; in essence it’s aimed towards using means and techniques to use contextual terms or phrases to achieve more relevancy regarding search engine searches and their rankings. This often achieved by link building which is used widely, not just sharing reciprocal links but also using networking or web directory websites, although many are free, but the better ones tend to be paid for links.The best advice is, if you are not sure or new to this area of marketing; find a reputable and reliable Direct Response Advertising company to take care of the SEO, SEM and the general Internet Marketing needs for your business. Agree a budget with them and make sure you receive a monthly report and breakdown of the search results performance for the Internet marketing campaign for your website, so you can track the results.