Greg Jordan has more than fifteen years of success helping companies make sense of the intersection of business and technology. His broad range of experience spanning internet advertising sales, search marketing, consulting, and business development add to his perspective on the digital marketing space.
Greg is President of Greg Jordan DesignDigital Marketing for Growing Gusinesses. Services include search engine management, SEO, email marketing, mobile marketing, content marketing ...read more.
SEO consultants frown when they see Flash on a website.
That's because the files that make rich Internet applications (RIAs) so pretty used to be difficult for search engines to crawl and properly index. But the brilliant folks at Adobe have made significant changes over the past couple of years.
A Flash-based website is no longer an SEO death sentence!
But if you're going to use Flash on your website, try and use it sparingly. It's like that with all of the good stuff in life, isn't it?
Make sure your website developer is in fluid communication with nerdy SEO specialists who can properly advise on the proper use of Flash on your website.
Steve Jobs at Apple wrote an open letter explaining why Apple doesn't allow Flash on its iPhones, iPods, and iPads. If your target market is using these devices then that's a good reason to avoid Flash. There are ways, however, to build your mobile site to detect what operating system it's being read by. So there's a work-around if you want to try multiple versions.
Adobe responds to Steve Jobs' letter about Flash
Responding to Steve Jobs and Apple, Adobe co-founders John Warnock and Chuck Geschke published an open letter of their own.
We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs. No company — no matter how big or how creative — should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web. —Excerpt from Adobe's "Our thoughts on open markets"
Did the word nude get your attention? Well, it should.
SEO is all about being found naturally and letting the search engines see what you've got. Don't be shy. Be naked. Be natural.
That's the problem. Too many websites are prude, not nude. They don't let the search engines see what they've got. Their content is effectively hidden as a result of incomplete website programming, becoming overly complicated, or they've gotten lazy with their promise to remain authentic and naked.
This post was written with the small and mid-sized business in mind, but perhaps larger companies would benefit as well. None of this is really new. It's just a good, wholesome review of the basics.
Basic SEO is as easy as 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Act locally and think globally. Design your site for humans, but don't forget Google. If your site is well liked by humans, Google will catch on. Try not to over-think it.
Be human. Think of the ways people are most apt to search for your website. Use that language. Those are the words people type into search engines.
Look around you. There are other sites that you're competing against. Get inspiration. If they're more popular than you, make sure your content is just as relevant, or better!
Grab the Long Tail. Are there Long Tail search terms that people use to find your stuff? Can you take advantage of being a relevant search result for those terms?
Write as good well as you can. If you're not a good copywriter, hire one. It's worth it. Well written copy will help you sell more of your stuff. Good copy not only helps with conversion, it keeps your content focused and relevant.
Stay organized. Every page on your site should be as focused and organized as possible. Follow standard HTML document structure. Start the body copy of each page with content that includes the keyword phrase on which you're going to focus. Repeat that keyword phrase as a theme on the page. Directories should be hierarchical, and use real words, not dynamic URLs. For example, try to keep your website addresses intuitively structured: http://www.yoursite.com/products/shoes/tennis/product123nothttp://www.yoursite.com/pdp2/asdpo.asp?#1234sessionid123
Links. It's about quality, not just quantity. Quality means relevancy. Relevancy means the links to your site should come from relevant sites. For example, if your site sells shoes and there's an inbound link from a site that sells tennis rackets, you better be selling tennis shoes, and not ballet slippers. Interlinking helps too. Interlinking is when you link to content within your own site. Link up everything that's relevant. Choose your anchor text wisely. The Internet is about good links!
Bonus: It is a more powerful inbound link if the hyperlinked ("anchor text") text that is liking to your site is also relevant, and linking to a specific page on your website, not just your home page.
Blog. Google likes blogs. A blog can help to keep the content on your site fresh and dynamic. What? You're afraid to blog? If you're reading this you're not afraid to blog. Now, go on!
Video. Google loves video. Good videos are a PITA to produce, but do it.
Socialize everything. All of the content on your site should have the ability to be Tweeted, shared on Facebook, Digg, YouTube, LinkedIn, and all of the other usual social media suspects. They all will have links back to your website and blog, right? Find out which social meda outlets your customers and prospects are using. Be there, and be naked!
Think Outside of the Box
Sometimes SEO requires thinking outside of the box. Here, watch this video. It will help you to think outside of the box...
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