SEM comprises of various methods, such as search engine optimisation (SEO), paid listings, contextual advertising, and other search engine related services that increase the site’s visibility as well as attract more traffic to it.

Therefore, the main functions of SEM include:

1. Search engine optimisation: As abovementioned, SEO is one of the methods of SEM that seeks to improve the position of a web site within the search community.

2. Submission of directory and link development: A professional SEM campaign starts by submitting to all major directory services and the topic or industry specific directories across the web. This is one of the best ways to enhance the site’s credibility.

3. Pay-per-placement campaigns: For a successful pay-per-placement SEM campaign, the SEM manager should do thorough keyword research, write and test the content, form and test landing pages, plus measure and monitor the results.

4. Paid inclusion programs: This SEM technique is one of the fastest ways to achieve the top ranks in the major search engines, but a paid inclusion program is somewhat different from a pay-per-placement method.

Thus, SEM is a set of methods related to marketing to increase the visibility of a website. Once learned, this technique can provide an effective way of driving highly targeted traffic to the web site.

First and foremost for a business or any other identity to establish a presence on the Internet requires a website. Website is simply a collection of Web pages which could contain images, graphics and even videos to enhance its visibility and content.

Creating web sites requires a certain level of planning to be done. One needs to be thoroughly sure of extent of information to be displayed and at the same time how to display it on the website. At the same time to what extent should the user be allowed to access the website is another criterion to be considered?

As you begin with conceptualizing the web sites, you need to be aware of certain different varieties of sites such as news sites, gaming sites, corporate sites, personal sites, social networking sites, academic sites to name a few. Each of them differs in extent of look, design and even in terms of accessibility.

There are certain websites which require a user subscription in order to access special information such as news sites, academic journals, game sites, stock market monitoring sites, social networking sites and so on. Here, the user is supposed to authenticate his or identity before gaining access to the site.

Web pages are written in HTML or XHTML and can be accessed through HTTP which transfers information from the Web server to the user’s browser. For public websites you can make use of the World Wide Web. The homepage or the common root is called the URL through which the web user can access through the internal pages of the website. Here, it becomes extremely crucial to determine the flow of the navigation or the flow of the website.

Websites need to be prepared in methodical and well planned manner as they are going to be the gateway to you, your work, your organization – hence they not only need to be user friendly but pretty impressive too.