Flash vs. Search Engine Optimization

Adobe Flash is a popular method to develop the websites. Not only design agencies or photographers using it, but even reputable institutions such as banks, don’t want have only pure graphics and HTML sites. This is also OK, so long as you do not exaggerate and use flash in the places where it is needed. A purely Flash-based site will disapoint you if you try to optimize it for the search engines. The reason is the most of search engines were developed under the assumption that the target page is written in HTML. Major search engines such as Google are already able to extract text and links from a flash file, but because the text in flash does not have the structure, the search engine can not see whether it is a title, a quote or another part of the document. This means that the search engine is not able, to determinate the importance of the text section and to sort the results by relevance. In HTML, on the other hand you can use H1-tag to label the heading and the other text sections in conjunction with the appropriate tags. This problem with assessing the importance of the results is a reason why the search results from a flash site, almost never shown by the search engine. Only if you explicitly search in Google for flash files, you get the right results.

What must be done to minimize the problem?

The fact is that we can no longer simply renounce the flash. We must therefore find a way to satisfy both the visitors, as well as the search engine with the result. There is more than one way to Rome, but not all are good and without threats. The most commonly used method is to create two separate web sites, as a purely flash-based file and other – in HTML. But I think that this solution is not optimal and it would be rather to use a combination of flash and html. It is advisable therefore to use an HTML site with embedded in that flash at appropriate places. There is an opinion that it is good to use JavaScript to show a flash-based site for a genuine visitors and a text-based for a search engine. I find this method more than questionable, since it so easy to get deleted from the search engine index.

The post Flash vs. Search Engine Optimization appeared first on Opmax Online Marketing & More.

from Opmax Online Marketing & More http://ift.tt/2sD6DOw
via IFTTT

Targeted Web Site Traffic Requires Forethought

In the world of search engine optimization there are some black and white truths but just as many gray areas. It can be enormously difficult for many web sites to set a course for search engine optimization that will ultimately deliver them the results they desire. The reason for this is that most people do not fully understand how search engine optimization works and, worse yet they don’t fully recognize their target audience. In order to reach targeted web site traffic it is necessary for a web site owner to first understand who they are speaking to before they craft the message that they will deliver.

Just as with any business plan, search engine optimization must be put into place with a comprehensive plan – a method that site owners – and perhaps their search engine optimization specialist – will work through until they reach their goals.

1.    Identify the target audience. This is advertising 101. You need to know your audience in order to craft an appropriate message. Targeted web site traffic is just the same as the audience we target in traditional advertising. We need to identify them before we can reach them.

2.    Craft the message. In the case of increasing web site traffic the message is online content. This content is keyword rich – utilizing those keywords that will help to elevate the site’s page rankings with the search engines. Additionally, this content must serve to inform, entertain, and reach out the audience that is reading it. By understanding that content must serve several purposes, web site owners have a better chance for crafting an effective message.

3.    Be consistent. Search engine optimization only works as long as a web site works it consistently. By continually updating the site with fresh content, search engine optimization goals can be met.

The post Targeted Web Site Traffic Requires Forethought appeared first on Opmax Online Marketing & More.

from Opmax Online Marketing & More http://ift.tt/2u0RCUe
via IFTTT

Desperately Seeking Page One

The goal of any web site is to attract their targeted web site traffic and ultimately increase their customer base. But this is actually a secondary goal. This is because savvy web site owners understand their first goal is to achieve high page rankings with the search engines; because without the achievement of this goal there is very little chance of achieving the secondary goal.

The search engines are the door through which potential customers must enter in order to find a site. They use the engines as a way to navigate the web; by inputting a search using a keyword or keyword phrase, search engine users are essentially asking the search engine to deliver them with the sites that are most relevant to their search criteria.

It is incumbent upon a web site that is looking to increase web traffic to increase their page rankings. Being delivered on the first or second page is absolutely critical to a site’s success in being found by targeted web site traffic. It has been shown time and time again that most search engine users rarely go beyond page two of the search engine’s results. And so in order to be seen – to attract the attention of those search engine users that could be potential customers – web sites need to work their search engine optimization plan aggressively to move up the ladder of engine results.

To this end, many web sites find it helpful to work with a SEO specialist that will help a web site define their goals and set forth a comprehensive SEO plan. With consistent effort, page one could well be within sight.

The post Desperately Seeking Page One appeared first on Opmax Online Marketing & More.

from Opmax Online Marketing & More http://ift.tt/2u0UXml
via IFTTT

What is Local Maps Marketing?

Is your Business on the Map?  New customers and clients are looking for your business on Google, Yahoo, and Bing Local Maps.  Above is an example of a Google result for the search term “Los Angeles Attorney” which is searched 165,000 times a month.

Local Maps Marketing is the new online marketing tool that local businesses are using to find new clients.  Why?  Because Local Maps Marketing provides local results.  All of the businesses listed in the map are localized to the person searching.  Having your business listed on the first page of Google, Yahoo, and Bing maps will attract local clientele.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an attorney, plastic surgeon, dentist, contractor or any other local business… Local Maps Marketing is for you!

Google, Yahoo, and Bing control 98% of online search traffic.  Why pay thousands of dollars a month to be listed online with companies like Yellow Pages and Dex when they control less than .5% of search traffic.  If you want new clients, you need to be on the first page of the Google, Yahoo, and Bing in the Local Maps.

Online searches are growing at a massive rate:

• 74% of Internet searchers use local search to find services. Kelsey Group
• 54% of people have substituted Yellow Pages for online search. ComScore Networks
• 73% of all online activity is related to maps or “local search”. Google 5/07

It only takes a few weeks to have your business listed on the front page of the maps and to start receiving inbound phone calls from interested clients.

The post What is Local Maps Marketing? appeared first on Opmax Online Marketing & More.

from Opmax Online Marketing & More http://ift.tt/2u0h7Fo
via IFTTT

Image Search

Why would you want to optimize for image search and how do you do it? Here are some reasons for doing it:

Image search results are being increasingly used by the search engines in contextual search results to improve usability.

Google is serious about images. In October last year Google added an opt-in to Enhanced Image Search in Webmaster Tools. In conjunction with Image Labeler this allows Google to associate the images included in your site with labels that will improve indexing and search quality of those images.

If you search in Google or Yahoo for |pictures of diamond earrings|, |images of mowers|, |hammer image| or something similar, just above the organic listings you will get a row of relevant images. In Yahoo’s case sometimes the images are from Fliker rather than Yahoo image search, for example search Yahoo for |funny pictures|.

All three of the major search engines have a separate image search; Google image search, Yahoo image search and MSN image search.

Image search Statistics from Hitwise http://www.hitwise.com/ show image search is growing at 90% year on year and represents nearly 0.5% of all internet visits.

Traffic from image search can be targeted. It may not convert as well as organic search but it’s free!

Ok so how do you do it? The easiest way to explain is by example and I have created a new image for this page:

We will be optimizing this image for the term |image search| which currently has 5,660,000 results on Google Image Search.

• Put the search term in the page url. In this case it’s http://ift.tt/2tBCNbm
• Put the search term in the page title. In this case it’s <title>Image Search</title>
• Use the search term in close proximity to the image. In this case the search term appears twice in the sentence immediately following the image.
• Make sure the page topic corresponds to the search term. In this case the page topic is definitely image search!
• Make sure the image size is non-standard. In this case it’s 304 x
  203 pixels.
• Make the image in .jpg or .gif format. In this case it’s .jpg
• Name the image with the search term. In this case it’s image-search.jpg
• Use the search term in the alt attribute, the title attribute and make sure that you have included the width and height declarations. In this case we have <img src=”http://ift.tt/2t2faMl; alt=”Image search” title=”Image Search graphic signed by Googlebot” width=”304″ height=”203″ />

I am not suggesting that you do all of the above for every image on your site but if you choose some key pages and optimize the image(s) (or create them specially and then optimize them) on those pages there will be a tangible benefit.

The search engines image databases are not updated all that frequently but when the image above ranks I will post an addendum here.

The post Image Search appeared first on Opmax Online Marketing & More.

from Opmax Online Marketing & More http://ift.tt/2t2fbQp
via IFTTT

Software Submission

Using submission software is a very bad mistake made by a small minority of site owners. Tempted by sales copy that promises to “Submit Your website to more than 1.2 Million Search Engines, Directories and Link pages” they pay for software that is completely unnecessary and in most cases will have a negative effect.

In practice there are only a handful of search engines that people use and all of those have robots that spider the web looking for new pages and sites. There is absolutely no need to submit your pages to these search engines because they will find you quite quickly if you have a link from at least one site that is in their index already. Of course you should have a lot more than one inbound link!

The disadvantages of using such software is that most of the sites they submit to are there only to collect your email address and then make it available to spammers. So when you purchase the software you are in effect paying to be spammed which is not a good way to spend money.

Here is a section of a page from a site that sells this kind of submission software:

Do some people really believe there are 700,000 search engines? Probably not but it doesn’t seem to stop them buying and using the software. Notice that one of the logos is DMOZ which is not a search engine but a directory. Automated DMOZ submission would be a very big mistake and all directory submission should be done by hand as outlined in a previous post Directory Links.

Some submission software claims to auto submit to guestbooks like this example here:

This is even more ludicrous than search engine submission software and should be avoided at all costs. Guestbook spamming doesn’t do anything for your site as far as the search engines are concerned, except perhaps label you as a spammer.

Guestbook spamming has become less of a problem as the number of sites with guestbooks has decreased but has now been replaced by blog spam (posting comments to blog posts that then provided a link to a spammer’s web site). Here is a section of a page from a site that sells blog link generating software:

Of course it doesn’t work because current blog software has methods of preventing blog spam such as registration and posting with captcha (an acronym for “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart”). Captcha is used on this blog. Even if the blog spammer breaks through the barriers and manages to post their spam most blogs apply the nofollow attribute to urls in comments, so it really is a complete waste of effort.

The post Software Submission appeared first on Opmax Online Marketing & More.

from Opmax Online Marketing & More http://ift.tt/2rCDYZJ
via IFTTT

Hidden Text (Revisited)

Just over a year ago I posted on the dangers of hidden text and concluded with the advice “…don’t use hidden text to try to improve your rankings“.

Here is a practical example of what may happen if you do.

Yesterday John Frost who runs the very popular Disney Blog posted that his blog had been delisted from the Google index and sure enough it had:

Such is the power of popular blogs that within a couple of hours of John’s plea for help their was an explanation and a resolution from none other than Google Engineer and spam fighter in chief, Matt Cutts. He explains in a diplomatic and friendly comment that hidden text was responsible for the ban. Specifically this page code:

<h2 id=”banner-description”>Informing Disney Fans the World Over with the latest news and updates from all Disney companies, divisions, and related stories. Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruises, Disney Animation, Pixar, ESPN, and more are covered in as much detail as I can muster.</h2>

With this in the external CSS file:

#banner-description
{
overflow: hidden;
width: 0;
height: 0;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
text-indent: -1000em;
}

As it happens this appears to be a generic Typepad problem in that when you set up a Typepad blog you are asked to enter a Weblog description which ends up being hidden by the CSS. However after Matt had pointed it out and John had removed the text, Matt helpfully submitted a reinclusion request.

Matt has gone off to talk to Six Apart the Typepad developers and The Disney Blog will be back in the index sometime next week.

The moral of the story is still the same – don’t use hidden text to try to improve your rankings.

The post Hidden Text (Revisited) appeared first on Opmax Online Marketing & More.

from Opmax Online Marketing & More http://ift.tt/2rcIRJw
via IFTTT