Photo thanks to Jan Tik.
If you haven’t heard already, Adobe made waves last week when it gave “flash player technology” know-how to Google and Yahoo, enabling both search engines to crawl links presented in a flash video object. (Microsoft opted out of the deal, citing competition issues with Adobe.)
Before this announcement web developers frowned upon using tons of flash technology on a website because the search engines had no way to follow flash links. And if search engines couldn’t see your content, chances were that users wouldn’t either. Flash SEO was, effectively, an oxymoron.
Adobe’s announcement brings up some interesting questions and concerns:
Does Flash SEO Really Work?
Yes.
Thanks to some up-to-the-minute testing by Gary Moyle and Co. over at Guava, we can be assured that Google’s internet-crawling robots actually can follow links contained within in a flash movie. Adobe’s announcement was met with some initial skepticism but it appears that everything is working as planned.
Flash SEO = Great Rankings for Existing Flash Websites?
No.
Because existing Flash websites couldn’t be crawled by search engines, designers had no motive to make them search engine friendly. They paid attention to aesthetics and pictures and colors, but not to things like keyword density, page titles, or internal linking structure. I.e., the things that search engines use to rank pages.
Most existing Flash sites are constructed so poorly that while Google’s ability to crawl them might boost their rankings initially, they will be no match for optimized sites in competitive search terms over the long run without drastic modifications.
Flash SEO vs. Regular SEO
The field is so new (less than a week old), that best practices for Flash SEO are completely unknown. Today’s SEO industry evolved over 15+ years of trial and error. Original SEO’s evolution involved optimizers finding easy loopholes to boost rankings, Google shutting them down, SEO’s finding more loopholes, Google shutting those down, etc.
Google consistently works to bring the best results to its searchers and has gotten pretty good at it: the easiest way to rank well today is to provide relevant, up to date content. And the best people to do that on today’s web are still proven SEO’s, not flash developers.
Flash SEO and “Flash Bombing”
One scary scenario Gary mentions is “flash bombing.” Because Google’s robots index all links in a Flash video (even the hidden ones), it is possible for deviant developers to hide hundreds of invisible links within flash videos to boost rankings. So the user doesn’t see them, but the Googlebot does and can’t know the difference.
In the early days of SEO practices like this caused a major headache for search engine algorithms. Search engine results pages were filled with spammy results that came from unethical linking practices. It took a lot of time an effort to write code that effectively sorted the wheat from the chaff, and kept the two separated.
It remains to be seen what impact Flash SEO will have on the future of search engine rankings. As a cutting edge Internet Marketing agency, we can’t wait to start experimenting.
For more info, visit our Flash SEO page.
A quick thought before I leave:
I went to the Wal-Mart site to look for some workout equipment, and a survey popped up in my face. Annoyed, I agreed to take it and lie to show them how annoying pop-ups are.
The first question was an age question, with seven answers ranging from “Under 18″ to “65 and over.”
I chose 65 and over, obviously.
Suddenly the survey shut down, took me to a page thanking me for my time, and closed the window.
After the first question? There are four possible reasons Wal-Mart would do this:
1) They wisened up to people lying on surveys
2) They don’t think people 65 or over can take an online survey
3) They don’t care what people 65 or over think
4) All of the above
There’s a 75% chance they have a negative opinion of their customers. If I were them I’d just skip the survey and pay for some focus groups, rather than run the risk of making a customer angry.
In a sign that online video is becoming increasingly popular, Hitwise is reporting that US YouTube visits have increased 26% from last year’s numbers.
For many, YouTube has become the preferred destination for everything from movie trailers to how-to videos. Many video podcasts are also uploaded to YouTube, and the vast amount of random, hilarious videos cannot be understated.
Myspace TV holds the second place spot, though lost 44% of its traffic from last year. My theory is that this has a lot to do with Fox shows being streamed from Hulu instead of Myspace.
Google Video is still impressively in third place, even though Google now owns YouTube and has thrown most of its video love behind that. As a result, Google Video’s traffic is down 52%.
Yahoo! Video is clinging to fourth place, trying to ride out all the Yahoo! drama going down in Sunnyvale. From last year, traffic has dropped 31%.
In last place we have Veoh, the company with the smallest market share but the biggest percentage gain in traffic. Since last year, Veoh’s visits have increased 32%. What exactly this means remains to be seen. Will Veoh come on even stronger before this year ends and perhaps steal third or fourth place? Only time will tell.
Forrester Predicts Substantial Growth for Search Marketing Industry. If you’re not currently utilizing search marketing, you’re competition is probably beating you to the punch.
Local online video ad revenues will skyrocket in the next few years, increasing from $10.9 million in 2007 to $1.5 billion by the end of 2012 - a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 167.8% - according to The Kelsey Group’s US Local Video Forecast (2007-2012).
Photo thanks to colros.
Are you doing business online?
If so, you’ve probably met your nemesis. She is lurking in the shadows of ebay and Amazon ready to snatch away your customers. She sells what you sell, but for next to nothing.
She doesn’t think like you. She doesn’t analyze expenses and sales. She got her (your) product for free, or as a must-buy. She has no use for it anymore and wants cash.
Not as much cash as she can, but some cash. Less cash than you have to charge to keep your business going. She can look up how much you charge then set her price at less than yours.
When everyone sells something online, many people will end up selling what you sell. And they don’t have operating expenses to cover or people to pay. They can undercut you easily.
When the market is everyone, price is easy to beat. But quality isn’t.
You’ve got one huge advantage over these guerrilla sellers:
The resources to communicate quality.
You must convince your customers that your new golf clubs are worth the extra money, the money that separates your product from Uncle Frank’s “twice-used” golf clubs.
As a business with marketing money to spend (although maybe not a ton), you can blow mom and pop out of the water by communicating value.
A couple ways to do that are:
- A well-managed internet marketing campaign
- A modern website
- Stellar customer service
Independent sellers can beat or equal you 100% of the time on product and price.
For businesses selling on today’s web, the other two P’s are astronomically more important.
You can still be on the cutting edge of technology without breaking the bank. You just need to know where to go!
Here’s a list of 8 status-symbol electronic gadgets and their counterparts that turn as many heads, but cost a ton less.
Macbook Air => eeePC
I used to sit in the basement of the Union building at college writing on my eeePC, then I had to move because people asked me about it so much I didnt get any work done.
The eeePC can’t compete when it comes to storage, but that’s less and less important as companies like Dropboks, OmniDrive, and even Gmail give away gigabytes of storage for free.
Plus it costs $1400 less than a Macbook Air, and you won’t accidentally throw it out.
Amazon Kindle => Ipod Notes + Project Gutenberg
Instead of shelling out $400 for the device then another $10 or $15 per book, you can read all the books worth reading on your Ipod.
Project Gutenberg has thousands of the greatest works of literature all in digital form, and this site has a program that splits the text files into pages then shows you how to upload them to your iPod.
Manybooks.net has a huge library of works too.
Ipod Touch => Ipod Video GUI Hack
The guys over at ipodhacking.com have written a couple firmware updates for a bunch of versions of the iPod, but the most impressive by far is their Video to Touch converter.
If you have a iPod video 5.0 or 5.5, you can update your firmware to reflect the UI of the iPod Touch.
It looks just like the iPod Touch interface, it’s free, and you won’t have to worry about the touchscreen breaking.
Huge Powerful Desktop PC=> Docking Station with Used Equipment
Used computer parts are dirt cheap and most still work great. If you don’t already know someone fixing old computers, ask around and you’ll find someone quickly. They’ll have great deals.
For my docking station I went to the State Surplus store in Harrisburg and bought the following:
- 17-inch monitor
- Keyboard
- Optical mouse
- Surge protector
- Harmon/Kardon speakers
for a grand total of…
SIXTEEN DOLLARS.
It was a horrible misappropriation of tax funds, but I now have a fully-functional docking station for less than my monthly dry cleaning.
Noise-Cancelling Headphones => Over-the-Ear Headphones
Truth be told, unless you work as an air traffic controller or on a factory floor, you don’t really need complete silence to listen to music at work.
You can effectively block out the light din of chit-chat and tap-tap-tap of keyboards with noise-cancelling lookalike headphones, like these.
Plus you’ll save $150.
Car Compatible Head Unit => cnet’s Car Ipod Tutorial
Turn your stereo into a fully-functional iPod for about the same price as you’d pay for a better-looking yet lower-quality FM transmitter.
Any Ipod => Anywhere.fm
If you’re not working out or traveling, the fact that you don’t have access to your local hard drive won’t matter thanks to anywhere.fm.
You can upload your entire music library for free and listen to it wherever you have internet access.
Bulky Video Camera => Flip Video
The Flip video camera burst onto the scene when Google gave them out as Christmas gifts last year.
They’re about the size of a digital camera, hold an hour of video, and render an extremely sharp picture. I use mine all the time.
And for only $100 you can use the money you save to do something worth videotaping.
Any other suggestions? Leave a comment!