Wondering how to spend your marketing dollars online these days? According to a Forbes study as reported by eMarketer, if the goal is to generate sales businesses of all budget sizes should start with SEO.

“Forty-eight percent of marketers said that search engine optimization (SEO) was the best method for generating conversions online.”

Supplement SEO with email marketing and pay-per-click search advertising. SEO and paid search will both get you in front of people who are already going out of their way online to find information about your industry or products. And email marketing builds a communication stream with folks who’ve said they’re interested in you.

If the goal is branding – building, maintaining, or changing perception — site or page sponsorships were considered the most powerful, presumably because of the high visibility and brand-value communication that this kind of advertising provides. Next in line for branding? SEO again… everybody’s doing it. Are you?