subject: The Basics of Online Marketing [print this page] Basic Online Marketing Terms You Need to Know
1. HTML Tags (anchor-text links) - An HTML tag will hyperlink any keywords you chose to the URL you assign to them. This is an easy way to create anchor text links.
2. Anchor Text - Anchor text links are links pointing to your website or blog with a description of what you do. This is a major factor when Google goes to rank you in what are called the "SERPs" or search engine ranking pages. Essentially, it is the position where your website appears when someone does a particular search on Google, Bing or Yahoo for keywords related to your website.
3. Landing Pages - The biggest mistake online marketers make is that they go after one or two keywords pointed at their homepage. Instead, you have to make what are called landing pages. Landing pages are dedicated web pages that are geared towards one particular keyword phrase such as "Widget Companies in Los Angeles." This is one of the only ways that you can successfully carry out a SEO or online marketing, as I like to call it, campaign.
The URL of a landing page should reflect the keywords you are going after. To continue with the previous example, let's say you are beginning work on a page dedicated to the keyword phrase "Widget Companies in Los Angeles." In order to get Google's attention, the article on the landing page (it must be original content, because duplicate content is penalized by search engines) should be interesting and ought to contain the keywords (variations as well) "Widget Companies in Los Angeles" roughly 5% throughout the article. Bing allows 7% - 10%, but don't overdo it, the search engines get the point.
Finally, the url of the landing page should contain the keyword phrase such as widgets.com/widget-companies-in-los-angeles.php. This is a major factor for landing page and search engine ranking success.
4. Title, Meta Tags and Meta Descriptions - The information in the Meta Tags describes what is in the particular webpage. The Title of a webpage is the actual link that you click to be routed to the desired url. Continuing with our example, the Meta Tags and Titles may look something like this:
Title: Widget Companies in Los Angeles | Widget Company Los Angeles
Do you see how you mix up the keyword phrase, but to be effective, do this only slightly.
Meta Description: The Meta Description is the wording that goes under the Title of a Landing, or Homepage. To write a Google friendly Meta Description, although it sounds easy, actually takes practice and studying. The Meta Description should be about 3 short sentences. Here would be a good example of what the Widget Co. may write:
"Widget Co. is a New York, Chicago and Los Angeles Widget Company. Our Los Angeles Widget Companies work with all types of widgets from around the world. To learn more, contact our Los Angeles Widget Organization"
Finally, come the Meta Tags. The Meta Tags are quite basic and you should just mirror the Meta Title or Page Title. Unlike the other two, the Meta Tags are hidden and are not too important, however should be included when formulating the landing page.
Therefore, the Meta Tags should be something like this:
Los Angeles Widgets Companies | Widget Company LA
Here's a big hint for your job search, learn basic programming. This only takes reading a few books and playing around with a dummy website. Your value on the market will significantly increase.
