During this time of economic downturn, when business is diminishing and your counting every penny, it is essential to invest in your business’s future growth. The last 10 years have seen the world wide web grow into a whole new medium that wasn’t around during the last recession. Business is booming unbelievably online and the rate of the Internets growth is matched only by the contraction rate of traditional enterprises.

The world wide web is known by the vast majority as the place to go to find an immediate answer to their question, the solution to problems, or best value item. It’s ideal for window shopping since you can compare several shops in a few short clicks. Although this has been beneficial for many, it has worked against some businesses who do not sell on price.

One thing is certain though, the Internet has traffic, and that traffic is a measurable commodity. We know where surfers go, what they are looking for, and from that data we can position websites in their path in order to meet the surfers needs. This has become a very efficient way of buying customers which is in essence what any business does when it advertises. If you look at the acquisition cost of customers online it is much more cost effective than equivalent high street advertising.

The companies that position themselves now by increasing their spend on marketing and promotion are the companies that will weather the storm of recession. The economy is forecast to contract by 3.5% this year before returning to some mythical Darling growth forecast in 2010. Whether this happens or not, is not the subject of this article, but if we see growth in 2010 then this will be the shortest, least damaging slump on record. After all, with 7% unemployment, we still have 93% in work, shopping and spending money.

The intelligent business owners in the UK will be buying market share during the downturn while their competitors struggle to survive. Some businesses are growing in spite of the slow down, being one of them is just a case of moving with the times and exploiting the online opportunities that exist.

It is said that in times of economic boom, every 10 you spend on adverts, you will return 19, in an economic dry spell however, you will return 51 for every 10 spent on advertising. This is because during a recession there are fewer businesses advertising, therefore there are more potential customers to be had with every advert.

The options available to increase website traffic include search engine optimization, which is the practice of positioning your website at or near the top of the Organic search engine rankings, primarily Google which accounts for over 80% of all search traffic. Pay Per Click Management involves positioning your website at or near the top of Google’s paid listings. This is a near instant process unlike search engine optimization, but does depend upon you paying a sum each and every time your advert is clicked upon.

Put both of these methods into practice, along with an email newsletter in order to update your clients about what you’re up to, combine with article submission and a blog, and you can end up with a huge online presence, ensuring your company’s survival and growth during the recession.