html (hyper-text markup language) is the basic layer for all websites. Every website has to include html in some way. It is the basic way that your browser knows how to translate what the author is trying to communicate to you. You may have heard of x-html which is becoming more and more popular. The 'x' simply stands for 'extensible', in short xhtml is a more strict format for writing html so that everyone's markup is formatted using a similar structure. This makes it easier to incorporate into devices such as mobile phones and other devices that now have the capability to surf the net. CSS (cascading style sheets), is a sort of add-on to html and xhtml, which allows for web designers to classify style attributes to elements of a webpage. This makes synchronization of pages easy with the ability to 'tag' an element by a style attribute across multiple pages.

Despite what you might think, javascript has nothing to do with the familiar programming language Java. Although in many ways, javascipt is just as powerful in different ways. In basic, javascript is the language that allows websites to do all of the cool interactive stuff without the use of flash. Anytime you see something like a dropdown menu, a form, an animation, or neat rollover effect (like on my photography page), chances are its javascript. That is assuming its not a flash site. Ajax (Asynchronous javascript and XML) is the use of javascript, along with some other form of data that is stored on the website's server. An example of this would be something like a form that auto fills the second time you visit the site, or the most popular example is Google Maps which is written entirely in Ajax!

Server-side scripting is the technology which incorporates the use of a database stored on the websites server in order to generate a dynamic web page. A common example would be a site that uses a 'search' bar to generate results of inventory that the company has that relates to your search term.

SEO (search engine optimization) is the process by which a website is structured and written in order to maximize search results from the major search engines. SEO has come a long way from the days of keyword stuffing and long lists of words on a webpage. Modern SEO practices include: the structure of the website "coding", writing valuable and meaningful content, usability structure of the website, and design practices. Search Marketing is the total effort of optimizing a website for visibility on the web. Search Marketing includes the efforts of: SEO, link building, paid campaigns such as ppc or Google AdWords, PR, and directory submissions. Social Media, as you may very well already be familiar with, are user driven, user moderated, user oriented websites, made "for the people, by the people"