Question: How you define good Web marketing?
Is it getting as much traffic to your web site as possible? Is it making direct sales? Is it achieving high rankings by search engines and if so, what search engines? Is it reinforcing your company brand?

Answer: It depends on your objectives.
Good marketing meets your businesses objectives and provides solutions to your customers and potential customers. Before you define what good Web marketing is you need to define and establish what the proper objectives should be for your Web site.

Here are 3 typical objectives for any commercial Web site and some things to consider for each objective.

1. SAVE MONEY (Save Money by Providing Good Customer Service / Resources Online)

Provide general information for clients who are interested in you, particularly earlier on in the buying process. Provide information or resources to save you money, for example:

A Web site is often far less expensive than printing / printed material distribution costs and you can update your Web site in 'real time' very affordably.
A Web site provides easy access to information and resources for your customers freeing up customer service and sales staff time and resources.

Web marketing considerations - INFORM:

What is your Web sites focus?
How does the focus of your Web site align with branding or overall business objectives?
Can you provide up-to-date, timely, and regular access to information with these tactics?

This strongly determines keywords and phases you will use in your Web site content.

2. CREATE LEADS (Build & Maintain Relationships with Those Who Are Not Ready to Buy Immediately)

Did you know that it often takes MANY visits to a website before a visitor will decide to buy or contact you? Provide products and services that set up consistent 2-way communications between customers and your business, for example:

E-mail newsletters
White papers available for download;
Regularly updated feature articles;
Blogs & RSS;
On-line chat and forums;
Instant messaging programming;
Flash, video or other animation to entertain your visitors.

Web marketing considerations - BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS:

How can you layout your Web pages so that visitors can easily access Web site features like e-mail subscription fields or links to forums? Can you provide up-to-date, timely, and regular access to information with these tactics?

3. SELL DIRECTLY ON-LINE (E-commerce / E-marketing)

Present products or services, a "call to action" and ask for and "close" the online sale! Provide capabilities for on-line transactions. These require a secure Web host / service.

In general there are 2 options here:

Real-time processing' is when a credit card or other form of payment is processed and the order is closed immediately using automated e-commerce software; this is typically necessary when large and steady volumes of orders occur.

'Delayed purchasing', whereby a customer provides payment information and the order is manually processed by a business upon retrieving this information from a secure Web server; this can be more affordable for smaller business when orders arent that heavy nor steady and the business has the opportunity to pick up and process orders in a timely manner.

Web marketing considerations - SELLING ON-LINE:

What search engines and directories can you target that specifically address e-commerce delivery and capabilities? How do you direct and channel visitors to the e-commerce section of your Web site? ... using graphics? ... using text? ... using navigation?

Each of these objectives will determine how you build, maintain and market your Web site.