Glossary of basic terms

Here is a of basic terms relating to web design, online and offline promotion, world wide web and information technology. Click on the links below to access the categories of your choice, you will then be presented with a choice a articles to browse through.

This is a great resource for beginners to assist you in making the right choice for your web design needs or simply to familiarize yourself with the world wide web.

Article Marketing 

In its simplest form, article marketing is a type of advertising through which a business writes short articles related to its respective industry. Once written, the business makes these articles freely available for distribution and publication in the marketplace. Each article contains a 'bio box' and 'by-line' which include references and contact information for the author's business. Well written content articles released for free distribution have the potential of gaining the author business credibility within his or her market, as well as new clients.

Background

Article marketing is not a new practice. It has been used by professionals for nearly as long as mass print has been available. In paper-print form (as opposed to online forms) it is commonly utilized by business owners as a means of obtaining free press space. Simply put, the local business provides useful content to the newspaper free of charge and in return the newspaper prints the business' contact information with the article (this by all means is a useful marketing concept). Since newspapers and other traditional media are expected to present content on limited budgets, this arrangement is generally advantageous for all parties involved.

For example, an accounting firm may write an article titled "The Top 10 ways to Avoid Getting Audited" and marketing the article to small business owners by offering it to the local newspapers 2-3 weeks prior to tax season. Similarly, a roofing company could implementing a good marketing tactic offer radio stations a concise article on "How to avoid ice damage to your roof this winter" shortly before the winter season.

Online Article Marketing

With the rise of ecommerce and online marketing, article marketing has made a move to the online world as well. As in traditional forms of media, online article marketing has served the dual role of providing publishers with essentially free content and advertisers with essentially free advertising. However unlike the off-line version, there are additional dimensions to article marketing online. Most notable among the differences is the use of articles for search engine optimization.

Article Marketing and Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) deals with the order in which web pages are ranked when key words or phrases are typed into search engines. The higher a page is ranked, the more likely it will draw a greater number of site visitors. For company websites, increased traffic oftentimes translates to increased sales and article marketing has proven most useful and effective for most of the leading internet marketing ventures around.

One method of Search Engine Optimization encompasses the idea that a website's rank in search engines will rise as it obtains more html links pointing back to it from other websites. Therefore writing and distributing articles that contain a link to a business owner's website within the 'bio box' should result in more links back to that website. In theory, this will increase that website's rank within search engines. This has led to a trend in online marketing towards writing articles solely for SEO purposes, which are commonly referred to as reprint articles. This trend has been matched by a wide selection of article marketing directory sites which accept, vet, and provide redistribution of such articles to online publishers.