As you know, a Flash movie as the index page of a site has always been a major problem with search engine optimization. There’s simply no content for the search engines to index.So when I learned that Google can index the contents of Flash movies, I was amazed. It seemed this important discovery had gone almost unnoticed in the SEO world.

But as you probably know, Google has always been the first to index different types of content: PDF files, .doc files, etc. Google has also made amazing inroads in being able to index dynamic content.

And now they’re the first major search engine to index Flash – another significant step forward in the SEO industry. So why has Flash presented such problems in the past?

Flash and SEO

With a Flash movie as the main page of a site, the Web site owner is giving up the crucial text necessary to prove to the search engines that the main page is about a particular topic. Without that text, the search engines have nothing to index. Therefore, the main page rarely does well in the rankings, unless off-page factors such as link popularity or link reputation are sufficient to carry the page on their own.

In the past, legitimate work arounds were hard to implement. This made things extremely difficult for businesses who wanted to create a rich user experience with a Flash home page, such as Web design firms, photography studios, graphic design firms, and so forth. So, these businesses often sacrificed rankings for the user experience, since they could rarely have both while still following all of the guidelines set forth by the search engines.

The guy who Knows It All

While exploring the Net searching for ways to improve our customers’ ranks in search engines I came across an interview with Greg Drezner, a SEO expert who made some amazing discoveries in this subject while trying to promote a replica watches website. Here is a part of the interview, I’m sure you will find it as exciting as I did.

Question:

Greg, how do we know that Google is now indexing the contents of Flash files? Is there a way that we can search the index just for Flash?

Greg Drezner:

Yes. You can enter your search term in Google, and along with that search term, use the filetype operator and restrict your search to the file extension ג€œ.swfג€. This will search for your search term only in Flash files. You should see [FLASH] just before each listing in the results page that is a Flash document.

Question:

How much of your Flash movie does Google see? In other words, how deep into the Flash file does the spider go?

Greg Drezner:

In my experience testing the Macromedia tool, I have found that Google sees all the text that the tool can extract including all links . . . everything from top to bottom.

Question:

What about Flash banners? Will Google also index the contents of Flash banners?

Greg Drezner:

Yes. Any Flash presentation, whether full-page or banner size, can be indexed by Google.

I know more than a few people who are now relieved that their flash site is indexed.

However there are even more powerful ways to SEO your Flash websites.

Ask us what we can do for your Flash website via our contact page.

WordCamp is coming to Israel on Oct. 25 in Tel Aviv!

In a nutshell WordCamp is a Blogging conference with lectures and panels that will cover technical topics like WordPress installation, blogging for business, and more. To learn more about the conference visit the official WordCamp Israel site. If you’re going – look us up and introduce yourself. See you there!

As for now, SEO (acronym for Search Engines Optimization) can be divided into two separate fields: On-site and Off-site optimization.
Let’s discuss an important part of the later one.

While going through the first steps of designing a new website, or redesigning an existing one, it is extremely important to give some weight into Information Architecture. Websites who are designed from scratch with user accessibility in mind, tend to receive more love from SE, and of course, from the visitors themselves.
A Designer need to know to whom the website is intended for, and then with the help of some research, to create a system which is intuitive and comfortable for visitors.

Since the great importance of this matter, it is not to be taken lightly, and one should consider outsourcing its’ Information Architecture, Design and Organization.
Information Architecture done correctly, sometimes planned weeks before the first line of HTML ever written, can make all the difference between a site that gets 3-4 hits per day to a high ranking website with hundreds of visits, leads and a high conversion rate.

You’d be amazed to discover that websites’ owners often forget their visitors (or maybe you won’t). They ask the designer to work on the site until it looks great on their 9″ black & green computer screen; even if it means that the site will not be accessible to the majority of their users (I’m speaking from experience that really happened!).So first of all, if you are still using one of these old 9″ black & green computer screens ג€“ don’t be so cheap! Buy a normal one. 19″ would be nice but the minimum is really just 17″.
Second, and this tip is important in many aspects in life: If you already invest your money and hire a professional to design your website or blog, listen to what they have to say. Trust their experienced advices & instincts. Do not hire someone you don’t trust to begin with, or you will waste a lot of time hesitating before you actually get any work done. When you do feel you hired the right person (me perhaps?) make sure to incorporate your intimate knowledge of your business with your designers’ skills, talent and experience.
That should help the designer to make the best website they can for you and get you the best value for you money.

I like to keep this article really simple. It probably is not the article for those of you who embrace and understand the all nuances to how the internet marketing world of today really works. This means those of you who have already finished reading, ג€œHow to Make My Space Your Spaceג€, and have taken sixteen webinars on creating exciting ezines.

But for those of you who hear about social networking and wonder what’s with all that buz about it, here are a few words of advice. There is a virtual world out there, and if you already have a profile on LinkedIn, Facebook or Myspace, youג€™re on your way.

And thatג€™s a good thing, because social networking is not going away. It is a big deal, it is very inexpensive and it works. So at the very least, put up a page on the three biggest players at the virtual game. Be sure to include a bio, a picture and your contact information.

If you have never hear of these social networks, or, you have heard very little, you know that they exist but don’t really care, maybe this would change your mind:

About LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is the worldג€™s largest and most effective business network. On LinkedIn, more than 3.3 million professionals find jobs, people and service providers through their existing network of business relationships.

About Facebook:
How many users does Facebook have worldwide? More than 63 million active users
An average of 250,000 new registrations per day since Jan. 2007
An average of 3% weekly growth since Jan. 2007
Active users doubling every 6 months

Are you convinced yet? if not, lets check on one more famous social network, MySpace

About MySpace:
The last available stats suggest that MySpace is currently signing up 500,000 new users a week, but theyג€™ve added more than 170,000 accounts so far today! read more about it on the original article on Mashable.

So you’ve opened your profile on one or all of these social networks? Then block out three hours every single week to accept new ג€œfriendsג€ or ג€œlinksג€ and to respond to people who discover (or rediscover) you. With the two hours left over, take the tutorials for each community. Learn the basics of how to build your network and send announcements to your own friends.

Whether you want to promote your business or just participate with like-minded people about your work, your politics or your hobbies, remember that the virtual world is virtually unbeatable.

If you need a hand getting started, reach out to us by email, advice is free, and we can work out the rest.

See you on Linkedin!

Don’t forget to add me as a friend!

Omer Golan

IE Death March

And it’s about time.

The world’s worst browser is about to dissapear from the World Wide Web and all of you out there can help!

Support the IE Death March first by dropping your support for IE6, and announce it to the world to help others to the same.

As the organizer of the IE Death March Auayan from Seattle wrote on his page, if, for some reason, youג€™ve found yourself here too using Internet Explorer 6, you can help yourself by downloading Firefox, Safari, Opera and/or Internet Explorer 7 (thereג€™s a beta for IE8, if youג€™re feeling adventurous).