One of the questions we are constantly asked about is the use of Flash (particularly on the home page). Jonathan Hochman has an interesting article on this topic. Here is an extract.

Search-Friendly Flash

Search engines have the ability to read Flash files and extract text and links. In particular, Google and Adobe announced a new algorithm for indexing textual Flash content on June 20, 2008. As explained by Rand Fishkin in Flash and SEO – Compelling Reasons Why Search Engines & Flash Still Don’t Mix, and Vanessa Fox in Search-Friendly Flash?, hoping that search engines can decipher you Flash is not a substitute for providing indexable HTML content.

Requirements for Successful Use of Flash

Flash animation is a great way to present complex content because it allows the designer to put more content in a finite space, without wrecking page design. For technology sites, Flash is an ideal way to present a slide show or movie explaining a complex product. At the other end of the spectrum, art and entertainment sites have a real need for multimedia, and Flash is the perfect solution.

When using Flash, we’d like to satisfy each of these objectives:

•     Clean design
•     Search Engine Optimization
•     Accessibility for a wide variety of browsers, including screen readers and mobile phones
•     Code validation and standards compliance
•     Correct functionality with IE

Reference: How to SEO Flash

Google makes continuous adjustments to its algorithms and thus there has been a recent big change in its search results. As a result, the webmasters of the numerous sites will have to change some of their search engine optimization or SEO strategies. Otherwise, they will lag behind many others who are already up now in the Google ranking as per the Google farmer and
Panda update.

Google farmer’s update

In the process of updating its algorithm, Google did not give any details about anything new in regards to the factors that it would like to see in the different web pages. This is an effort by the search engine to regulate more users mainly to the high-quality sites while devaluing the low-quality sites.

Mainly, Google tried to identify and penalize the rankings of the sites that generally contain copied content from other sites or the sites which have low-quality content and the sites which generally have high ad content rather than any quality content. In addition, Google also scraped sites that lack any brand trust. In other words Google took up the work of penalizing sites that
aren’t able to provide much information and value to the user.

Manny websites were negatively affected by the Google farmer/Panda update. However, the main impact of the changes appears to have downgraded most of the widely known and used article repositories. For example, the different websites like Ezine articles, Suite101, Buzzle.com, articlebase.com, hubpages.com, mahalo.com, business.com and many more. These sites mainly interact with other sites as part of their SEO strategy. One of the main idea behind SEO is the inclusion of content in the site, and that ‘content is king’. However, for many years this has lead most of the sites to add template content to their site, but they had forgotten to check with the quality of their content source. On the other hand, the sites that gained and were able to maintain their positions in the search engine rankings are Facebook, ehow, YouTube, Britannica, scribd, metacafe, LinkedIn, RadioShack, IKEA, indiatimes and so on.

Panda Update Problematic

Along with the advent of Panda update, there has been a considerable shift in sites that have been affected based on the types. The sites which were of significant brand authority have also seen large drops in their visibility, thereby resulting in a drop on the volume of traffic. Mainly, in case of the information sites this new change has proved to be quite problematic.

Guest Contributor

Yoast WordPress SEO plugin

We have been impressed with All in One SEO and the Ultimate SEO plugins and have been watching the development of the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin.

I think it is time to get off the wall and recommend the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin. Although the interface needs improvement for beginners, the functionality is outstanding especially with recent integration of the Linkex SEO analysis tool. We have used the paid SEOPressor tool in the past and frankly Lindex is equally impressive. Effectively, it is an idiot’s guide to onpage SEO, and shows you what needs to be done.

Linkdex Analysis

Here is a sample Post Analysis from a Cactus Blog

	The copy scores 61 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered OK to read.
	In the specified meta description, consider: How does it compare to the competition? Could it be made more appealing?
	Keyword / keyphrase appears in 2 (out of 2) headings in the copy. While not a major ranking factor, this is beneficial.
	The images on this page contain alt tags with the target keyword / phrase.
	The keyword / phrase appears in the URL for this page.
	The keyword appears in the first paragraph of the copy.
	The keyword density is 1.12%, which is great, the keyword was found 7 times.
	The meta description contains the primary keyword / phrase.
	The page title contains keyword / phrase, at the beginning which is considered to improve rankings.
	The page title is more than 40 characters and less than the recommended 70 character limit.
	There are 635 words contained in the body copy, this is greater than the 300 word recommended minimum.
	This page has 1 outbound link(s).

In addition you get a snippet preview:

Conclusion:
Impressive or what? This is a real bonus, and brings Yoasts WordPress SEO plugin to the top of the pile.

Panda Update

Have you been affected by Google’s Panda / Farmer update? Obviously, this has had far reaching affect, and Google feels obliged to offer more advice. If you cannot answer “yes” to the following questions then your site might be hit by this update and subsequent updates as this is rolled out across the World.

Google’s Panda Criteria:

• Would you trust the information presented in this article?
• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
• Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
• How much quality control is done on content?
• Does the article describe both sides of a story?
• Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites donât get as much attention or care?
• Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
• Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
• Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• Is this the sort of page youâd want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
• Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
• Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

Panda Content Changes?

So do you need to change your content??? Get some original well-researched content quick!

URL Shorteners

URL shortening is a technique on the World Wide Web in which a URL may be made substantially shorter in length and still re-direct to the required page. This is typically achieved by using an HTTP Redirect on a domain name that is short, which links to the web page that has a long URL. For example, http://www.seoadviser.info becomes http://bit.ly/ifS6gF via the bit.ly service.

These are great tools but can you use these url shorteners with your anchor text keywords and not be at a SEO disadvantage?

URL Shorteners and SEO

So do URL shorteners do pass link juice? Matt Cutts says “Yes” as long as they’re 301 redirects. This makes perfect sense because Google is counting signals from the likes of Twitter and Facebook in their ranking algorithm where shorteners are used. Cutts specifically states Bit.ly and Goo.gl as two that work well. Matt explains in the video below ….

One of our most trusted partners is seoMOZ – their data and material is always excellent. So when they release findings, you should take note! Here are their preliminary findings for 2011.

Image by jcolman via Flickr

1. Facebook + Twitter are Big. Even if you don’t believe that it’s having a major impact on the rankings directly, the correlation shows that those sites/pages which perform well in social media outperform in search rankings. If you’re in either profession – SEO or social media marketing – you should probably be working to strengthen your skillset on both sides.
2. Partial Anchor Text. This was heavily discussed on several panels today, and the opinions of voters suggest that SEOs have noticed too – exact match anchor text seems to be less powerful than partial match anchor text (at least, sometimes). To be honest, I voted and thought that exact was still stronger, but it could be that Google’s getting pickier about spammy, overly precise keyword-match anchors (and that’s a good thing, IMO).
3. Exact Match Domains? The correlation this round is strikingly lower than last June’s data. Perhaps Google’s taken some action here, or maybe other factors are at play, but either way, the votes from the SEOs suggest that we haven’t yet seen the bottom of exact match domain name value.
4. Something’s Funny About Nofollows. The correlation data here is downright weird. Maybe nofollowed links are simply well-correlated to followed links, maybe Google’s actually using some nofollow signals or perhaps, nofollows often come from good places (like social media sites, profiles, blog comments, discussion forums, etc.) that correlate to good, useful, high quality sites/brands.
5. Domain-Wide Signals Matter. After the Panda/Farmer update, no one in SEO should be surprised that Google’s looking at domains as well as pages, but the correlation and the strength SEOs ascribed in the voting both surprised me.

Check out their Open Site Explorer tool. There is a free version!

Google Farmer Update

Image via Wikipedia

Now that the dust has settled on the latest major Google algorithm update – referred to as the “Farmer” update – how are you faring post the Google Farmer Update?

It seems that sites with quality and original content have seen improved rankings whereas those with duplicate content have bombed.  “Adsense” sites have been hit where there is little original content  – but note comments that webmasters are removing adsense from their sites are exaggerated. It’s the content you should be concentrating on. In fairness Google always tries to provide valuable results to search enquiries. Whilst they have their critics, Google will always endeavour to improve their search results.

So the content, content, content mantra is more relevant than ever. Who wants to read duplicate content or even worse badly “spun” articles?

Tackling Google Farmer Update

So apart from improving the content of your site and removing “duplicate content” what can be done? Those sites that are over reliant on links from article directories such as Ezine articles will have dropped rankings. Google seems to be penalising links from Ezine articles – although we prefer to say that less Google page rank is passed. We suspect that Ezine articles will address the problem, and improve the quality of their articles with the result that Ezine Articles will seen as an authority sites in the future.

Remember any link strategy must look natural to Google. Over reliance on one type of link (say, backlinks from Ezine articles) is not natural. Ideally you will receive natural backlinks to your high quality content – but in reality you will probably need to “encourage” Google with a diverse link strategy.  Take some positive action and heed the “warnings” in the Google Farmer update.

Related articles

• EzineArticles Aims to Get Rankings Back, Following Google Algorithm Update (webpronews.com)
• On the duplicate content myth (wpbtips.wordpress.com)
• Google Cracks Down Even Further on Content Theft (shoutmeloud.com)
• Find if a Site is Affected by Google Farmer Update (labnol.org)

Only just come across this video produced by the Google team including Matt Cutts and Vanessa Fox in June 2010.

SEO Video: Content

Over an hour long with tips for SEO beginners through to SEO veterans.

Matt and the team review real sites and highlight issues, and suggest SEO improvements, content tips and even design. They reveal great tools and Google sites (what a surprise!).

An hour of great SEO tips – grab a coffee and sit back and digest.

Related articles

• How Google Search Works by Matt Cutts (stepforth.com)
• Quick Tip – Free, Simple To Use, SEO Backlink Analyser (natalielouise.com.au)
• The SEO’s Handbook – 53 Resources For First Time SEOs (quicksprout.com)

Another top class video from SeoMoz ….this is about using Twitter as a tool for SEO. Yes, you can see trends and predict good article titles and when to publish them. Also learn about the ‘Query Deserves Freshness’ factor in the Google algorithm.

The free trend tool mentioned in the video is Trendistic.

Link order on a page – there has been a persistent rumour that the 1st link on a page is the MOST important. Straight from the horse’s mouth, Matt Cutts (Google):

Surprised?