Welcome back.  This is the second installment of our four part A-Z guide to online marketing.  The Internet is a part of our daily lives, but curiously enough, not everyone understands the most commonly used terms used in online marketing.  Learning the meaning of some of these words can help you grasp the bigger concepts of marketing a business on the Internet.

H is for HTML

Every web page you see online is nothing but a text document full of numerical or alphabetical characters.  All Internet pages are saved as HTML documents.  Not only does an HTML document contain your company copy, but it also contains codes for all of your graphics, menus, pictures and sounds.  It's important that all of your HTML documents (meaning every page on your site) be optimized so that search engines can find them.

I is for Inbound Links

Inbound links, or backlinks, are incoming links that direct traffic to your website.  Technically speaking, they are "web nodes" which connect to other web nodes.  When the Internet was young, inbound links were originally important for navigational purposes.  However, in modern times, interest in inbound links has revived thanks to link popularity—a factor in determining the top ranked websites.  The more inbound links you have coming to your website, the more search engines can see that your site is popular, important, and worthy of the top 10.

J is for JavaScript

JavaScript is a type of programming language that has been standardized so that it can work on any computer and with any operating system.  Using JavaScript, a user can embed dynamic (interactive, visual, audio, etc.) features into regular HTML documents.  Unfortunately, search engines do not index content written in JavaScript.  Therefore, it's imperative that all web pages contain searchable HMTL text.

K is for Keyword

The keyword is a particular word or phrase that helps "target" Internet readers.  Shoppers and casual surfers type in a specific keyword or keyword phrase indicating a specific mindset.  Merchants research the most popular keywords so they can incorporate them into their web copy, articles and blogs.  Long tail keywords refer to longer and more specific phrases.  When there is a keyword match between website text and a customer search, the customer is more likely to buy.

L is for Landing Page

A landing page refers to the individual webpage a user "lands" on after following a link to your site (usually based on a keyword phrase).  The landing page, used in both SEO and PPC marketing, is usually selected by a search engine because of its keyword relevancy.  While every merchant hopes the user lands on the homepage (or the introduction), visitors are often sent to a webpage that just happens to have the right keyword mentioned.  Therefore, webmasters are advised to link all web pages together and write each one as if it is a self-contained pitch.

M is for Meta Tags

Meta tags are part of the HTML document that describes what a document is for the benefit of search engine crawlers and users who will eventually read the description on a search engine.  The Meta description tag describes what the page is, while the Meta keyword tags highlights specific keywords the page contains.

That's all for this installment.  Come back next time to find out more marketing tips in part 3 of The A-Z of online marketing guide! Or start from the beginning and read the original of The A-Z of Online Marketing: Part 1.