When setting up a business on the internet there are many different factors to consider, including where to target your budget, how much you should put aside for the future, and how best to attract and keep your readers. These are all vital questions which may sound a little complicated, but are they really that difficult?

The bottom line is that if you have a decent product / service to sell then the rest should fit fairly easily into place. If on the other hand your product is not uncompetitive or not popular, then you can spend all of the money you like on advertising and web design, but it will just never happen. The internet is a market place which offers very little compassion, you are either up there with the best or you are no where - or possibly fighting over the scraps at the bottom of the market.

Once you have a product, you need to allocate a budget for web design and search engine optimisation (SEO), but which is more important?

The truth is that both SEO and your web design are important, if you cannot get the customers to your site (SEO) then you have no chance of closing a sale. However, if your website design is not user friendly then your potential customer will not stay long, and a sale may be lost. The trick about a tight budget is finding a balance, and maybe planning to invest more, as and when income starts to flow into your site. The best business and the best sites on the internet are self funding, i.e. they bring in sufficient income to finance their own future development.

After all, who can afford to finance a loss making business forever?

While we have this constant battle between webmasters and the search engine giants such as Google, there is one party who are stuck in the middle of it all, and not sure what to do - the Search Engine Optimization industry. While their business models are built around a number of elements from keyword placement to link building, each and every element has a part to play - if you take one away what will happen?

There is a major debate ongoing as to whether link building is actually detrimental to the development of the internet. When searching for popular keywords, do you really want to see sites which have very little to offer, except they have a few keywords in the right place? Would you not feel more comfortable dealing with a business that was willing to spend money, a site which looks as though it has had time spent on developing it? Surely the internet is all about quality not quantity?

If Google were to make any more major changes then we may see a backlash from developers and website owners - could this open the door for MSN or Yahoo! to step in and make a play for the big time?

The truth is that even Google do not know how the internet will develop in the future, because no matter how hard they push in one direction they cannot afford to upset their customers. They may have ventured away from the Search Engine industry with the acquisition of sites such as YouTube, but the search engine business is still their main area of expertise - but are they willing to take the chance that they know their customers better than they know themselves?

It would take a brave business to push against their customers for too long, although we will see how this progresses.

From a humble beginning in 1996, Google have gone on to become one of the most successful companies of all time, covering almost ever area of internet life, constantly expanding and cementing their position on the internet going forward.

The share price of the company has reflected this meteoric rise, with the company’s shares rising over 400% since launch, valuing the company at a mind blowing $121 billion! Turnover for last year was an impressive $10.6 billion, continuing the historical year on year growth, with profitability rising to $3 billion. While the stock market has a strong love affair with the company, they are valued on a sky high rating which leaves little room for disappointment.

How much would it cost to re-build Google today?

When you consider the massive increase in turnover, the rising profits forecasts looking ahead and the company’s ever growing grip on the world wide web, there is an argument that there is no way that you could rebuild Google from the beginning. The company was formed at a time when the internet was just beginning to gain main stream interest, and they managed to position themselves at the top of the pile when the internet really took off.

Their cash cow, which is Adsense, continues to bring in billions of dollars a year, and while there have been some rumblings of discontent of late, the Adsense business is still head and shoulders above anything else currently available. There are some great comparisons between Google and eBay,, in that investors were sceptical of both in their early days. However, both of them have pushed on to dominate their respective business areas - with little real competition against them, a part from the payment system market where they offer their own services.

While you can never say never, and a major competitior may appear to take on Google at some point, it seems highly unlikely that they would let this happen. It would cost billions upon billions of dollars to rebuild Google in this day and age, and while they go from strength to strength there seems little chance of anyone stepping forward as a serious contender for the top slot. Perhaps an MSN / Yahoo merger may offer some relief, but it seems that this will not happen in the short term.

The latest trend in the internet hosting industry appears to involve using different IP addresses for each of your sites, with the same host. What is it supposed to do, and does it actually work?

This is one of those Search Engine Optimisation questions which nobody really knows the answer to, although many will freely offer their views and opinions. The reason for the different IP addresses for sites with the same host, is simply to link them together without being penalised by Google.

At the moment Google will filter out any links from sites hosted from the same IP address with the same host, because in the eyes of Google they are from the same network. While there are also rumours that Google will look at each individual site’s “WhoIs” to see who owns the site, these reports are unconfirmed. However it does seem to be accepted that different IPs for sites in the same network should assist in bumping up Page Rankings.

Why are different IPs required?

Ever since the idea of Page Ranking was rolled out by Google, Black Hat and White Hat search engine optimisation experts have tried to find short cuts around the systems, effectively quick ways of boosting any site’s Page Rank. The networking of all sites owned by one person was one of the early ideas, although this was quickly recognised and filters put in place by Google.

If the rumours about Google using the “WhoIs” data to check who actually owns a site are true, then the IP idea is effectively dead in the water.

So what is at stake?

Apart from the fact that a good Page Rank can be priceless, those who try to take short cuts may well be putting the future of their networks in jeopardy. While Google has been known to filter out suspicious links, there are concerns that not only are Google filtering links, but they are also penalising sites where these instances occur.

As with any of the Google filters or ideas for the future, we never really hear any official confirmation, but you can be sure that they are working on ways to ensure only natural links are counted when the Page Rank data is added up.

There have also been some recent rumours about big changes in the Page Rank system, but we will let you have more news as and when it is available.

While a couple of months ago we saw the war of words between Google and eBay, which resulted in eBay pulling all Google Ads from their US site, it now appears that the popular social site Digg are also looking to move away from Google. A flash in the pan, or the start of a revolt against Google’s rough tactics?

Many observers of the internet have been waiting for this moment for some time, the moment when Google finally push their customers too far, and pay the price. While the spat with eBay was in connection with eBay not integrating Google’s new checkout system into their business, Google’s petty response has back fired in a big way.

It appears that Google went out of their way to organise a corporate event at the same time, and in the same city as a prominent eBay presentation, in the hope of enticing some eBay customers away. After realising that this was a bad move, Google apparently back tracked and cancelled their event, hoping to heal their rift with eBay - this has not happened.

It has also been announced this week that Digg will be stripping all Google Ads from their site and replacing them with the Microsoft advertising system. It seems that someone is finally making in roads into the dominance of Google, which until recently had gone unchecked. So what next for Google?

While Google still have a massive impact on many areas of the internet, the recent events may offer a useful wake up call and show that they may not have it their own way forever. While this may mark a turning point in the increasingly strong market position of the company, it may shift some of the emphasis back to customer satisfaction. It appears that MSN have finally woken up, and while the recent Digg move was a good start, there is still a long long way to go.