1. How to Find the Best Keywords or Search Terms

Firstly, find out what your competitors think are good keywords for your industry class or product type. They may be completely wrong, but it is worth checking and it only takes a few [...]]]> Find below an easy three step program to select killer keywords for your website.

1. How to Find the Best Keywords or Search Terms

Firstly, find out what your competitors think are good keywords for your industry class or product type. They may be completely wrong, but it is worth checking and it only takes a few moments. Here’s how…

1. Go to three of your closest competitor sites
2. On the homepage go View > Source
3. Look for two lines of code at the top of the page that look like <meta name=”description”… and <meta name=”keywords”…
4. Make a short list of search terms you think are worthwhile

Now, go and test your short list of these keywords on www.keyworddiscovery.com. You will need an account to get basic results.

The example below is for the keywords “real estate”. Note how “las vegas real estate” is the second most searched on term with “real estate” in it. Who would have guessed?

Recap: looking at your competitor’s web sites and using a keyword discovery tool has a single purpose: to get real about what people are actually searching on. NOT what you think they are searching on, but what they are actually searching on. It is a litmus test. You are looking for synonyms to your search phrases.

Tip: the keywords you choose are not in fact words, but phrases. There are too many web pages that conform to a single word so people search using phrases.

2. How do I Add my Killer Keywords to My Web Site?

Much has been written on this topic, so what follows are broad principles and not specific instructions.

So, you have your shortlist of keyword phrases and you now need to work them into your web site in such a way as to make it 200% clear to search engines what your site is all about.

The thumbnail above expands to a full size screenshot. Note the the little flame icons. They show that:

1. The <title> tag is glowing white hot. If you only do one thing, make sure each page of your web site has keywords in the title tag specific to that page. Many webpages are listed as “Untitled” in search engine results. These sites are missing the single biggest opportunity they have to present keywords phrases.
2. The first link on your homepage is also burning hot for search engines. Try to include at least one keyword in it.
3. The first main heading on your page (H1 or H2 tags) is burning hot. Tell those search engines what the page is about.
4. The first para on the page is the one that introduces the subject of the page. It is cooler, but still very important. Add your keywords to it.
5. Likewise, the closing para sums up the page. Put your keywords in it.

Recap: What does all this mean? It means that there are some parts of your page that are scrutinised more closely than others. Use this logic to present your keywords to search engines.

Tip:you are looking for 5% (not more) keyword density on your chosen phrase(s). Use www.keyworddensity.com to calculate your keyword density in relation to your competitor’s sites.
Tip 2: make sure your page is comprised of valid hypertext mark up. Go to http://validator.w3.org to make sure.
Tips 3:if your site is made with frames, get a web designer to rewrite it with tables or divs and css. Frames are old and out moded.

3. Evaluation: well, did it work?

To evaluate the success of the work above you need a ranking report. A ranking report takes your web address and chosen keyword phrase(s) and looks for your position or “ranking” on search engines.

There are free tools that do this like http://www.selfseo.com/serp_check.php but they tend to be blunt and not very helpful. If Dynamic Web Solutions made your web site, it is likely that we are submitting it to search engines and can give you a free emailed report of your search engine ranking on the leading search engines.

See a sample below (click to enlarge).

Summary:

1. Compile a short list of keyword phrases you are going to target after researching competitor sites and using reverse look up tools like Keyword Discovery
2. Work these keyword phrases into strategic parts of your web pages
3. Review with ranking reports at 12 week intervals

If you have done the above, you will be clear what your objective is and you will have a subjective means of evaluating your progress.

Flash is a Macromedia technology used for animation. It was not necessarily conceived for the web (originally it was aimed at multimedia CD presentations) and it has a number of problems that makes it a poor solution for a web site. In my view, you can’t really call a Flash web site, a [...]]]> What is Flash Anyway?

Flash is a Macromedia technology used for animation. It was not necessarily conceived for the web (originally it was aimed at multimedia CD presentations) and it has a number of problems that makes it a poor solution for a web site. In my view, you can’t really call a Flash web site, a web site: it is more a presentation in a web browser.

Drawbacks to Flash

1. A browser plugin is required to play the animation. The plugin is called Shockwave and about 5% of people do not have it installed and available to their browser. These people get a grey hole in their screen instead of your flash presentation.
2. Search engines are blind to Flash. They can not read or infer anything about a flash web site. There is a program that can turn a Flash presentation into an HTML web site so it can be indexed by search engines, but you will be punished if you forward one audience (human) to the flash, the the other audience (machine) to the HTML. This is called “cloaking”, and will earn you much more than 10 minutes in the search engine sin bin.
3. How strange is that “enter” or “skip intro” button. Weird huh? Just let me into the site, I want to get on with what I came here for! How many human hours are lost to making people click that button before they get anything useful.
4. Companies tend to use Flash to present their brand ahead of the content on their site. While this may stroke their ego it does nothing for the casual visitor. Ask yourself the last time you really wanted to take a close look at a company logo rather than find out what they had on offer. Never right? Content always wins over eye candy.
5. Flash can not easily be changed. You will have to return to the source to get text and images changed. Also, special tools are required. You can edit an HTML document in Notepad, the most basic text editor on your computer, but to change a Flash presentation you need a $700 program and many, many more hours. If you had some 20 something make your Flash web site, chances are they will have moved on by the time you need to return to them for changes.
6. Finally Flash is an oxymoron. There is nothing flash about Flash. Most Flash web sites are very slow to load. They are useless to modem users.

Usability expert Jakob Nielsen has more to add in this article: Flash: 99% Bad

So What’s Good About It? People Use it, there must be Advantages?

Young designers (25 yrs and under) love Flash. It moves and makes sounds. As an experience it is closer to Television and beats boring old static web pages hands down, besides all you can do with a web page is read it and look at pictures right?

The best use I have seen of Flash is image viewing, like Simple Viewer and product display animations that allow the user to rotate the product, open or disassemble the pieces etc. In other words, the Flash is doing a specific function within a wider framework.

So is Flash ever any good?
Well, yes. If used judiciously, so as not to create a download burden and hide the site from search engines. Maybe to animate a logo or banner area, but not the whole page, and definitely no “enter” button.

Summary
As a web site owners you have to ask yourself is my web cool or tool. Should it entertain, or is there a serious function to perform. If you want to be taken seriously by humans and search engines, stay away from Flash. The Flash presentation as a web site will be more costly to maintain.

NO, you shouldn’t buy Google ads if…