Ask any small business owner what their greatest challenge is online and the answer will almost always be: Visibility.  Small companies often face this issue, as they do not have the well-established branding of large corporations nor do they possess national or global visibility offline.

On May 31, Microsoft premiered a "Release Preview" of Windows 8 on their website which features a downloadable version of the upcoming operating system with limited functionality.  Additionally, the release includes several applications that will be integrated into the new Windows environment; which is based on the "Metro" language seen on the Windows Phone OS.  Among the applications included with the preview is a new program called "People", which is an obvious indicator of Microsoft's recognition of the impact of social media on Windows users.

For many Internet marketers and advertisers, pay per click ads are a double-edged sword.  While their prime placement within the SERPs is ideal, the cost of PPC campaigns can be problematic for some smaller businesses with lower advertising budgets.  However, a balance can be found within most PPC campaigns that is optimal for virtually any company, regardless of budget constraints.

In the weeks following the much-discussed Penguin Update, many things have changed for Internet marketers.  Last week, I covered the topic of link building and how it has evolved since Penguin first struck on April 24^th.  Today, I'm going to address another major issue affecting digital marketers, bloggers, content developers and business owners alike: Content.

The effects of Google's Penguin Update have been felt by many webmasters and digital marketers over the past six weeks.  Not surprisingly, a large percentage of sites impacted by the update were penalized due to their link profiles.  Before April 24^th, paid links were prevalent throughout the Internet, but many link farming companies were reeling from the effects of Google's Panda.  In fact, BuildMyRank.com was even de-indexed for its link building practices and was forced to shut down entirely.  Penguin's debut effectively finished the job that Panda started by specifically targeting black and gray hat link building techniques, amongst other things.

Facebook, Google+, Twitter and virtually every other social network have become more than pastimes for the millions that use them daily.  Today, these sites are the product offerings of multi-national corporations and have not only changed many aspects of Internet marketing, but impacted popular culture around the world.

Over the past several years, Google has slowly expanded their business beyond search and even Web-based technology. While the entire Google brand was initially built on the revolutionary search engine pioneered by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; the transition into email, social media and other areas has mostly proven to be a success for the company. Gmail, Google+ and subsidiary, YouTube, are amongst the most frequently visited and most profitable sites on the Internet. In addition to those entities, Google also developed the immensely popular Chrome browser and Android mobile OS. These and other innovations have helped Google maintain a large percentage of the market share in the Internet tech sector and made many of the company's properties a target for Internet marketing companies and advertisers. However, some of the company's newest endeavors have left even the most devout Google supporters concerned.