The Internet has come a long way since its foundations were laid 40 years ago. Originally used by the American military to inter connect college research labs in America, the Internet now connects over 1.5 billion users worldwide. Fuelled by the expansion of broadband throughout Ireland, the country now has over 2.5 million Internet users. Comreg statistics show that 59% of Irish households have broadband. This expansion has changed modern society profoundly. With a new generation of Internet savvy kids coming along it won’t be long before we live in a virtual world.

The Internet has evolved from being a research tool to being an ecommerce tool. For many people, buying online is seen as the cheaper, faster and best way of shopping. There are very few things you cannot find online. You can buy clothes, do your banking, renew your motor insurance, book holiday flights and hotels, read the newspapers, watch movies, stay in contact with friends, ‘win’ a Nigerian lottery, explore new music and even find love.

Kids are switching from TV to the Internet for their amusement. Newspaper companies are finding it harder and harder to fight off the attack from online news sources. This is adversely affecting TV and print advertising. internet marketing has become the new marketing medium of choice. Salesmen are being replaced by Internet nerds. Businesses are now coming to realise the enormous profits the Internet can bring. This has resulted in an explosion of new online businesses on the Internet over the last few years.

For your business or idea to be successful online you must first create a website. However, creating a website is not enough. There is no point having the best looking website on the Internet if nobody can find you. The main way that people find what they are looking for online is through search engines like Google. If people are looking for a coving service online they go into Google and type coving into the Google search box. Millions of search results are normally returned. These search results are ordered in terms of relevance to the search query ‘coving’. The website that most closely relates to the search term coving is returned first.

Getting your business to the top of these search results is like positioning your business on Grafton St. in Dublin. This is where all the business is at. The top position in Google is worth millions of Euros to many different companies in many different sectors. If you can gain the top position for the terms that best describe your business then your business will be a success online.

The Internet is here to stay and will continue to expand rapidly for another 40 years. Placing your business on the Internet and using the right online marketing strategies will see your business grow as well. Your business can be opened up to the new Global village. Instead of targeting Tipperary you can target Ireland, Europe and the World. The sky is the limit.

This article was written by JumpStart Marketing an Irish based Web Design and SEO firm

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