“SEO – Acronym for “Search Engine Optimization.” This is the process of editing a web site’s content and code in order to improve visibility within one or more search engines.” Sempo

“SEM – Acronym for “Search Engine Marketing.” A form of internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs).  SEM methods include: search engine optimization (SEO), paid placement, contextual advertising, digital asset optimization, and paid inclusion.” Sempo

Great resources for Search Engine Optimization for Small Business or Personal Knowledge.

SEOmoz
SEOmoz serves as a hub for search marketers worldwide, providing education, tools, resources and paid services to help every SEO to be the best they can be.

Sempo.org
SEMPO is a global non-profit organization serving the search engine marketing industry and marketing professionals engaged in it.

WebMasterWorld
News and discussion for the web professional and those interested in SEO or SEM.

SearchEngineWatch
A wealth of news, knowledge and information related to the SEO industry.

HighRankings
Tried and True, Professional SEO Consulting since 1995.

Red Hawk Strategies
Tips to grow your business and profits by harnessing the power of the web.

Top Search Engines submission guidelines for web masters and content contributors

You may want to look at each search engine’s submission guidelines. Improper tactics may get your site banned or even blacklisted.

• Google – Submission Guidelines
• Bing – Submission Guidelines
• Yahoo – Submission Guidelines

Below I’m linking some sites that I currently use frequently and some site stats.

Top 10 helpful sites for marketing business online and tracking results.

1. Google Analytics: Site Statistics & More

   A free tool by Google to check site stats. You can see who came to your site, from where, how they clicked through your site, how long they were on each page and much more. My site stats have tapered off since I’ve neglected to update my site in quite awhile.

2. Quantcast: Monitoring Demographics

   Quantcast is a free tool to get demographic data about your site’s audience. Combined with G.A. you can see trends in people’s viewing behavior, see what’s working and what’s not and for who.

3. Facebook: Social Networking

   I recently created a Facebook page and currently have 52 fans. Not many but you’ve got to start somewhere. Facebook is a great tool to connect with people in your industry, business partners and potential customers.

4. Twitter: Micro-Blogging

   Although I didn’t get it at first, now I understand the business benefits of using a tool like Twitter. You can follow topics you’re interested in, connect with others in your field, see what people are saying about your company and just keep people up to date on what your up to in 140 characters.

5. YouTube:

   With YouTube you can have your own channel and share your message with the masses for nothing. I started a YouTube channel a while back but didn’t make any posts on it at first… now how silly is that. So recently I’ve posted up some test videos to get my feet wet. And now I’m planning out some cool videos that I will put together that should be much better and hopefully yield better results.

6. LinkedIn: Professional Networking

   Linked in is a really good site for professionally connecting with others and marketing yourself. You basically upload your information and connect with others in your industry. You can receive referrals as well as make them. I’ve started to work my linked in account a bit more recently. At the very least it’s helping me remember peoples names.

7. Delicious: Access your bookmarks from anywhere

   Delicious is the site you need to set up your account but once you have your account you can download a Delicious browser toolbar for FireFox (my preferred browser) and make bookmarks to your account. You can access them from any computer, import your current bookmarks, view other people’s bookmarks and so much more. If you like keeping track of good sites, use delicious.

8. Digg: Keeping up to date & self promotion

   Digg is a great place to be inspired, keep up to date with trends and news. The best content is voted to popularity by anyone uses Digg. You can also submit your own content to Digg and get some good exposure. You must keep in mind that nobody wants spam. I have Dugg a few things but haven’t submitted anything… as of yet.

9. Stumble Upon: Discover the best of the web in less time

   Instead of blindly surfing through the internet wouldn’t it be better to look at stuff that peers found worthy. Choose a topic that interests you and start stumbling into new things. Go places you would probably have never gone to prior.

10. Web Site Grader: Grade your site and make improvements

    Quite a handy tool provided by HubSpot. Enter your site and see how it ranks. It will give you tips to how to improve your score and get better search engine ranks.

Well these are just a few of the sites that I currently use in regards to marketing myself online. Now that I have an idea of where I currently am I will define some goals and monitor my progress.