Businesses these days need more than an Internet presence. They often have to compete for attention. Internet marketing degrees can help students help their future businesses or those of their employers to get recognized in cyberspace.
Students these days have a choice of Internet marketing degree programs or business degrees with Internet marketing specializations. Programs such as these provide students with the knowledge and skills that can help them manage websites and plan campaigns that extend beyond the yellow pages and print brochures. Some of the basics of Internet marketing degree programs can include:
Web 2.0. Some might mistakenly believe that Web 2.0 represents a new version of the World Wide Web. Rather, students in Internet marketing degree programs often learn how Web 2.0 involves web applications that allow people to be interactive when utilizing the web. These applications can include blogs, video sharing and social networking sites, folksonomies, hosted services and mashups.
Search engine marketing. SEM, as it's known, involves promoting websites at least in part by paying to make them more visible on the pages that provide search engine results. With SEM, for example, students in Internet marketing degree programs might learn how professionals pay for placement on Google or Bing search engine result pages (SERPs) as well as rely upon popular keywords that can improve their placement in other SERPs. Another form of SEM is Social Media Marketing, or SMM, whereby the social media pages of a website might also appear on SERPs.
Search engine optimization. SEO, as it's known, involves enhancing a website's visibility in SERPs without paying to do so. SEO relies upon the way that search engines operate, the words that people type into the search engines and the search engines that a marketer's audience tends to prefer. With SEO, Internet marketers rely upon content and coding. Students in Internet marketing degree programs, in addition to learning the ins and outs of SEO, might also gain insight into less desirable SEO techniques as far as search engines are concerned - techniques such as "keyword stuffing," "article spinning" and "link farms."
Web analytics. Web analytics, in a sense, is a market research tool as well as a means for determining website traffic. Internet marketing degree students might learn how to rely upon web analytics to determine any changes in the number of visitors and page views, the time spent on certain pages, might result from specific circumstances, such as when an advertising campaign is in effect. Internet marketers don't necessarily have to have a website in place in order to utilize web analytics, however. Rather than what's known as on-site web analytics that measures a website's performance, it might rely upon off-site web analytics to measure a website's potential audience and the visibility and to find out more about comments throughout the Internet.
Email, mobile and viral marketing. E-mail marketing in a sense is direct mail marketing through use of e-mail letters, newsletters and the like. Mobile marketing, which is sometimes referred to as wireless marketing, often involving the use of a mobile device. Viral marketing can include video clips, ebooks, text messages, flash games and more. Its mission: To appeal to web users who have strong social networking potential and who are likely to spread the message.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6137821
