World Wide Web provides a huge source of information however to seek something that is simple to understand might be a tedious and time consuming task. Therefore whether you are a novice fledging your career in digital marketing or a marketing professional aspiring to learn about digital marketing here are few fundamentals you should get to grips with first.

Web Development Structure

Get the basics right. Familiarize yourself with the Web Development Structure which mainly refers to the non-design aspects of creating a web site namely writing markup and coding. Few of the widely referred mark-up languages are HTML to create structure of a website denoting text and CSS to define the presentation of the web pages.Other set of mark-up languages embedded are PHP and ASP.net. On the other side coding is a software development process with a set path or instructions to follow primarily built on programming languages like C#, C++, Java. If you fancy learning these languages all for free just browse W3S website and get started. Some key topics for further research in this section are responsive web design, operating systems, domain name server (DNS).

Online Revenue Models

Understand the various online revenue models. This is all about how a business aims to generate revenue by setting up a website. Some of the quick browse internet models that we come across in our day to day life are Amazon, SnapDeal, Flipkart known as Affiliate models and Justdial, Indiamart, Magicbricks termed as Aggregator models. Just have a quick look at different websites you browse regularly and try to understand their way of generating income online.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Learn the relevance of using a CMS. CMS serves as a virtual place where content can be stored, controlled, retrieved, updated and published hence saves you time and money. This content can be in the form oftext, graphics, images, visuals, audio and everything that together makes your website. Few leading providers of CMS platforms are WordPress, Drupal and Jhoomla. Although there is no one size fits all CMS platforms a swift research and comparison depending on your business needs and goals can help to decide. Besides this the good news is all these platforms are open source and free to subscribe, download and use.

Content and Information Architecture

Content is like ‘Glue’ that keeps your visitors bonded to your website. A website should be easy to browse with a clearly defined website structure.Content writing is an art likewise a good targeted content will not only attract your audience but also improve your site hits, keeps your bounce rate to minimal and finally helps achieve your business objective. Therefore creating, engaging a compelling and unique content is the most crucial aspect of digital marketing.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

You probably hear this term several times every day. SEO is a process of getting your website visible on search engines and not just limited to one search engine via paid or organic search results. Simply by means of On-page and Off-page optimisation. On-page is whatever you can do on your website and Off-page can be termed as link building elsewhere. Other key areas for further reference in this these topics are keywords, file robot.txt, title (meta-tags), anchor tags, search volume.

Analytics and Webmaster Tools

With thedifferent analytics tools available online you can generate visitor statistics, track and measure customer behaviorwhich will also assist in designing campaigns. Google analytics is a free tool available that needs to be embedded on your website. Few paid tools available areOmniture and Site Catalyst. Additionally webmaster tool helps recognize any malware / threats on a website as well as alerts with warning messages to recover a problem that affects the performance of a website.
Finally it is all about getting started and you will eventually learn as you engage in frequent reading, exploring and using your knowledge into practice.

Authored by –Snehal Pawar-LIPS Student