Things have moved fast in the last couple of years and the world wide web is now an extremely crowded medium. Among the millions of web sites available for viewing the majority are very difficult, if not impossible, to find. Previously benevolent portals and search engines are now charging site owners for an appearance on their pages and the original 'free-for-all' concept of the internet is disappearing beneath the aggression of commercialism.

This is not all necessarily bad and commercial reality has caused much needed consolidation in the area of search portals with many of the lesser, but very useful, search engines being swallowed up by larger concerns. Not only are there now fewer influential search engines but those that remain are sharing more of their source material. All this is of great benefit to those who seek for information on the internet - there are less places in which to look which makes the chances of finding things easier. As industry standards evolve, it is also helpful for those of us that make a living out of promoting other people's web sites - it reduces the possibilities.

In consequence, the role of the online internet marketing specialist has changed enormously. It is no longer just a game of 'cat and mouse' between us and the search engines. Whereas three years ago it might have been sufficient to guess the algorithms used by the search engines and submit a handful of pages, nowadays the internet marketing mix has to be carefully targeted using a variety of methods to encourage the right sort of traffic in order to ensure a site's success.

Before considering any sort of on-line promotional exercise it's vital to know the purpose of the web site, its targeted visitors and what role it will fulfil in the overall marketing strategy. It is important that the web site builder is involved in the discussion so that any potential pitfalls on the technical side can be avoided or rectified early on. Once an overall view has been formed it will be possible to start to consider each of the many routes available and to build the site accordingly. If the collection of information is essential to the success of the venture, then pages will be configured to seduce the visitor into parting with an email or physical address. If on-line purchase is the ultimate goal, then the navigation must lead seamlessly through the processes to the point of sale. It is far easier to consider all these aspects before one jot of code is written than to go back and unpick a completed web site and redesign it later on.

Optimisation of the site to make it friendly to search engines is of primary importance with 75% of people still using this method to locate information. It's a technical matter and may involve tweaking some of the site's structure to give it the best chance. Similar attention to researching and selecting key search words will also pay dividends. At this point in the exercise it is often beneficial to analyse competitors' sites. Monitoring competitive web sites for content, navigation ease, loading times and updating frequencies provides an insight into market trends and may provide some valuable pointers to the most effective strategies.

Another analytical tool which can be used to extremely good effect is traffic monitoring. Very few web site owners actually understand the patterns produced in great profusion by web site monitoring software. One of the first steps in driving new traffic to a web site is to understand who are the current visitors, when they visit and how they navigate the site. There are lots of inexpensive packages on the market to provide the figures, but the real benefit comes from understanding how they relate to the site. This really is a job for a specialist.

Most people understand the power of a top brand domain name and that these can be a powerful marketing tool in their own right. Appropriate web site addresses are however often purchased and then not exploited. With a little bit of technical know-how different web addresses can be set up to point to specific pages or areas within a site or used for niche marketing exercises or to provide unique campaign monitoring.

The internet is ideally suited to micro branding exercises and in many ways favours a niche marketing approach. Niche brands can easily and inexpensively be presented in different ways, enabling all elements of the on-line marketing programme to operate in their favour. Where it may not have been cost effective to produce a different brochure for a particular product, producing a separate web page will incur minimal costs. Coupled with monitoring and possibly data collection it is possible to manage customer relationships for a niche market in a way that was hitherto impossible.

Although the importance of search engines has in no way diminished, the practice of charging either for processing submissions or the provision of prominent links is on the increase. "Pay per click" is rapidly becoming one of the most effective ways to reach a specific target audience. Nowadays it's necessary to keep a close watch on the portals because new paid-for opportunities are materialising every day.

A very strong on-line promotion tool used in the US is now becoming increasingly exploited here: affiliate marketing. The opportunities for affiliate marketing in the UK are increasing but caution is needed in this area. No-one wants to find they've become affiliated to a loser so it is advisable to seek professional advice before embarking on integration with third party products.

Contact list management has become one the most effective ways to contact prospective and existing customers. Customer relationship marketing sits very well with the medium of the internet. People rarely buy on their first visit to a site but their initial interest provides the ideal vehicle for data collection. Subsequent emailed reminders of the web site's presence - perhaps with the inducement of special offers - serve to seduce the visitor back, time and time again.

For those seeking international business the importance of a multi-lingual web site cannot be emphasised too much. But not only should the site contents be in the languages of the target countries, so also should all the vital information: title, description, meta tags, alt tags, etc. What's more the site should be submitted to those search engines most used within the target countries. The quality of translation is most important because obviously customers will feel most 'at home' with a site which is well-written in their mother tongue. Another important point to bear in mind when considering translation particularly of the title, description and meta tags is that misuse of just one character here may invalidate a site from being ranked in a particular category.

Much was made of the power of banner advertising in the early days of the commercial internet. Although its efficacy has declined recently there is no doubt that with strong brand management and perhaps combined with affiliate marketing, there is still a role for the banner ad within the total on-line marketing mix.

One of the most under-utilised but extremely powerful methods to improve web presence is link management. Where suppliers or customers can oblige with a reciprocal link it makes sense to design the site to accommodate this facility. Links help build the usability of the web and strengthen relationships with commercial partners. The quality of links can also have a real effect on the status of the web site as viewed by search engines - the more links to a site, the higher its credibility and therefore ranking. Whether link exchange is used or not, monitoring of links is something which all web site managers should carry out on a regular basis in case any undesirable associations have been made.

Even when all the above issues have been considered, the appropriate ones executed, and traffic should be pouring into the web site there's still one thing which can kill all marketing efforts. If the site is 'down' no-one can see it so a reliable hosting company is a vital. There are lots of companies who will monitor your site on a very regular basis and provide you with information on 'down time' and download times. Similarly broken internal and external links will do nothing to please the visitor, so regular link monitoring is also essential.

With such a wide variety of channels for on-line marketing even though the web is crowded, there is still plenty of potential for channelling traffic to a site. But the internet is a fast moving medium and what works well today may not work well in a month or even a week's time. Keeping up with the internet is now a full-time job, so for those who mean real internet business professional on-line marketing services are vital.