For small businesses looking to optimize their online presence and take benefit of digital marketing tools, search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing are emerging as increasingly precious strategies.

A latest report from digital marketing intelligence firm ComScore revealed that the number of global online searches increased 41 percent, rising from 80.5 billion searches (July 2008) to 113.7 billion searches (July 2009).

Google search engines may be the most excellent investment for a small business' search engine marketing dollars, as Google websites saw the maximum amount of searches - The 76.7 billion Google searches seen in July 2009 mark a 58 percent increase over the last year, and now represent 67.5 percent of the market share.

Yahoo search engines were in second place, yet far behind Google at 8.9 billion searches in July 2009, marking a 2 percent increase year-over-year. AOL was the only search engine to see moribund use, falling 11 percent since July 2008 to just 1 billion searches in July 2009.

Approximately two-thirds of businesses use search engine optimization (SEO) in their marketing efforts, according to a survey from Korn/Ferry International, iPressroom and the Public Relations Society of America.

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