Are you feeling bamboozled by the many terms being bandied around these days?
Website, home page, web page, blog, landing page, sales page, web 2.0, lens, hub, article, post, thread, forum…. Argh!
Don’t stress you are not alone!
Common question #1
Do I need a website or a blog?
Well a website is a collection of web pages that are interconnected. It can include a home page, landing page, sales page, blog, article and forum but need not. A blog is basically a web log – almost like a diary online. It can self hosted or hosted on any number of shared blogging platforms.
You wouldn’t choose to place your business on a shared platform though because you have no control and if they shut down or ban your account you lose everything,
Many websites these days include a blog – just like this so new information can be added quickly and easily. It is a tool that can be used to make your product, service or business more accessible to people. Blogs also offer the ability to add comments and increase the user interaction with the site.
Common Question #2
What is a landing page?
It is the page that visitors to your site land on. Your site can have many difference landing pages depending on the source of the visitor. For example smart marketers target different keywords with different search engine marketing ads. The different keyword ads can be directed to land on different pages on your site.
It overcomes the user frustration of searching for a particular thing, clicking on one of the search listings offered by Google only to be taken to some generic home page from where you have to try to work out where the information you need is. Smart use of landing pages allows you to land that searcher on a page of information directly relevant to the search they were doing.
Common Question #3
What is Web 2.0?
According to webopedia “Web 2.0 is the term given to describe a second generation of the World Wide Web that is focused on the ability for people to collaborate and share information online…Other improved functionality of Web 2.0 includes open communication with an emphasis on Web-based communities of users, and more open sharing of information. Over time Web 2.0 has been used more as a marketing term than a computer-science-based term. Blogs, wikis, and Web services are all seen as components of Web 2.0.”
Some example of web 2.0 properties are Squidoo lenses, hubpages, wikis, ning, blogger, and many more.
Internet marketers use Web 2.0 properties for distribution of content, to drive traffic and provide valuable backlinks. Web 2.0 can also be used to create link wheels for some serious SEO muscle but that is really a topic of it’s own.
What About the Rest?
A home page is the page that people arrive on if they type your domain name in directly.
A sales page is a page designed to sell you a product or service. These are commonly long copy sales letters.
A lens is a page on Squidoo on which you gather everything you know or think about a particular topic – the subject of your lens.
A hub is a web page, on hubpages, just like a lens on which you post an article about your topic of interest.
An article is fairly self explanatory it is a piece of content on a particular topic.
A post is a dynamic piece of content. It may be on a blog or on a forum.
A thread is a topic started on a forum.
A forum is a multi-user interface where people interact on different topics (or threads!)
In a nutshell a website can be made up of many pages that can serve different purposes – but it is always a collection of inter connected web pages.