Internet marketing, also called digital marketing, is the promotion of products and services with digital technologies such as computers, mobile phones and other digital media. Common methods include search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing and paid advertising on platforms such as Facebook.
History of Internet marketing
Creator: No single creator; the practice developed through many companies and tools. Year: 1990.
Digital marketing began in 1990. That year the Archie search engine was created. Archie was an index for File Transfer Protocol (FTP) sites. During the 1980s computer storage grew large enough to hold customer records. Companies stopped relying on limited list brokers. They used database marketing. It tracked customer information in computers.
The term digital marketing came into use in the 1990s. The first clickable banner advertisement was the You Will campaign by AT&T. It launched in 1994. In its first four months, 44 percent of the people who saw it clicked on it. Early work focused on HTML websites. It also focused on email marketing. Email let companies contact customers directly.
In the 2000s customers began to search for products online. They made decisions online instead of asking a salesperson. A 2000 survey in the United Kingdom found that most retailers had not registered their own domain names. The mid-2000s brought social media. Facebook launched in 2004. YouTube launched in 2005. Twitter, now called X, launched in 2006.
Marketing automation appeared in 2007. It is software that runs routine marketing tasks. Online behavioural advertising tailors ads to each user. It raises concerns about privacy and data protection. In the 2020s, AI-generated answers began to replace some search results. Marketers developed generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO). They did this to appear in those answers.
Changelog and latest update
Search engine rules changed as the methods changed. Google publishes its web search spam policies on its Search Central site. The policies cover deceptive content. They cover ranking manipulation. They also cover the site reputation policy. That policy applies when third-party content is published on a host site. It applies mainly because of that host's ranking signals.
Each new channel added a set of methods. Email marketing was in use before the social media channels arrived in the 2000s. Marketing automation was introduced in 2007. It sends routine messages through email and other channels. No person starts each one. Read the LinkedIn and YouTube pages for those channels.
Analytics tools record visits, clicks and actions on a website. A marketer uses them to compare campaigns. Measurement became a standard part of digital marketing. It became standard as the channels multiplied. The same records show whether a link, a page or an advertisement brought a visitor to a sale or a form.
Latest update: Google Search spam policies, 2026-08-28
The Google Search spam policies page states that it was last updated on 28 August 2026. The page describes spam practices that Google's systems act on. These include deceptive content, ranking manipulation and the site reputation policy. The page is the reference for what Google treats as spam.
Usage examples
Internet marketing uses web addresses, search engine rules and email consent. The examples show a link with campaign tracking parameters. They show the standard tag for Google Analytics. They show a robots.txt file that points search crawlers to a sitemap. They show an opt-in checkbox for a newsletter.
https://www.example.com/services/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring-offerThis link sends the visitor to the services page. It carries three tracking parameters that begin with utm_. The parameters name the source, the medium and the campaign. An analytics tool reads them on arrival. It counts the visit under the spring-offer campaign.
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XXXXXXX"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'G-XXXXXXX');
</script>This is the standard Google tag for Google Analytics. It goes in the head of each page. G-XXXXXXX stands for the measurement ID of the property. Google issues that ID. The tag loads the script that records page views and events for the site.
User-agent: *
Allow: /
Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap_index.xmlA robots.txt file sits at the root of the website. It tells search crawlers which paths they may read. The Allow line permits all paths for every crawler. The Sitemap line gives the address of the sitemap index. The index lists the pages the site wants search engines to find.
<form action="/subscribe" method="post">
<label>
<input type="checkbox" name="newsletter" value="yes">
Send me the monthly newsletter
</label>
<button type="submit">Subscribe</button>
</form>The checkbox starts unchecked. The visitor must choose to receive email. The form posts the choice to the server at the subscribe address. Email marketing that a visitor has not agreed to is treated as unwanted email. So the opt-in step matters.
References
These sources are outside Websnoogie and were checked on 2026-10-12.
Digital marketing
Wikipedia
The encyclopedia article on digital marketing, also reached from the Internet marketing address. It covers the Archie index of 1990, the 1994 banner advertisement, the growth of social media, marketing automation and the generative engine optimization methods. It is the reference for the terms used in the history section.
Google Search spam policies
Google Search Central
Google's list of practices that break its web search rules, including deceptive content, ranking manipulation and the site reputation policy. The page states that it was last updated on 28 August 2026. Site owners use the page to check whether their own pages break these rules.
Email marketing
Wikipedia
The encyclopedia article on sending commercial messages by email. It covers opt-in consent, the difference between wanted and unwanted email, and how email marketing relates to other digital channels such as search and social media. The page is cited here for the consent point behind the opt-in example.
SEO Starter Guide
Google Search Central
Google's introduction to search engine optimization for site owners. It explains how Google finds, crawls and understands pages, and the steps that help a site appear in results. The page shows a last updated date of 10 December 2025. The page is written as an introduction for people who are new to search.
Marketing work we can check, not promises we cannot keep
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