Everyone loves Flash. 
Most people don't even know they are looking at a Flash Element, but they certainly are attractive "flashy" gimmicks on any website, and even more so as alluring video players. But are they really a viable solution, especially in a day and age where Search Engine Optimisation is the order of the day? Though this is universally debated by SEO Specialists and Flash Gurus, the fact remains that the end user - or viewer in our case - is the person it has the biggest effect on.

So you are browsing for some product or service, and through the blood, sweat and tears of some poor SEO Specialist, you click on the Organic Link of a potential supplier. Not because you like the name of the company or because they are well-known, but simply because they came up on the first page of Google. You enter the website and is suddenly aware that there is a section that is lagging or seems to be loading dramatically slow. Most people ignore this or simply exit the page - especially if it's one of the main features of the webpage you are entering. But why exactly is this happening? On closer inspection you find that sometimes it is simply a Flash Element loading on the page. Of course if you didn't have a recent version of Flash Player installed, it might not even do anything. This is just one of the many pitfalls of utilizing Flash to run your videos.

So let's look at the Pro's of using Flash Videos:
  »  Customizable and "flashy" looking video players that fit the theme and structure of your professionally designed website. 
      This adds that 'something special' to your website that creates impact and impression.

In today's ever evolving online world, one of the big names that everyone frequents, is YouTube. We all love going on there to watch music videos, video bloggers, funny virals and practically anything you can think of. Many people however don't realize the benefits that YouTube have to offer as part of your Online Marketing Strategy. Since the video component is part of the "Google Experience" it will automatically be added to their search results. Something that those Flash Gurus can only dream of. Above this there is also the added benefit that the YouTube Player works on any browser. Yes it can't be customized, but there is no need for the installation of software to make it function.

Let's jump into the Pro's of using YouTube Videos:
  »  Video hosting can become expensive; YouTube eliminates this as hosting your videos with them is absolutely free of charge.
  »  Your videos on YouTube come with their own MetaTags and therefore are added to any search results triggered by the ones on your 
      website. In short; two relevant search results instead of one, both going to the same company - Yours!
  »  You have access to the YouTube community. This means if your video is making some noise on YouTube it might lead to direct
      traffic to your website.
  »  YouTube can be a powerful tool to brand your company, and can be accelerated by using Google Adwords to show your video to
      people already interested in your product using their browsing history.

Four to one. 
Those are the odds stacked against you should you choose to rather utilize Flash above YouTube. But like anything it is a matter of perception as well as needs. If you want something that 'pops' and gives that 'wow' effect, then Flash Videos is definitely for you, but should you wish to utilize something that is not only practical, but also adept at supporting your Online Marketing Strategy, then there is no better option than YouTube. Not only does it cater for users of any demographic, but it also functions as an integral part of SEO, helping your website get to the front page of search engines such as Google, Bing etc.

So often we get the question “So how do you SEO a website?” In this article on how to SEO your website we touch on various factors involved making your website Search Engine Friendly.

Content is King!

Writing quality pieces of content that is meant for people first, and search engines second, is essential. In essence it means you should write quality content that is useful and engaging for humans and search engines will recognize your efforts. Content that is engaging has a higher chance to be shared among social media networks, generating free traffic to your website.

Also share your articles with the world and submit them to websites like Reddit, Digg and even Delicious. These content aggregators might gain you a few readers.

Rewrite some of your older content on your website with your SEO hat on. Update your image attributes, look at your keywords density, and add links referring to other relevant content on your website. The chances are that you know more on the content of the article now then you did a year ago, and search engines just love new content on a website encouraging them to pay more attention (don’t we all love some attention).

Links, links, links

It’s harsh outside in the big world of the internet, and you wish to be popular? Well what you need is a vote of confidence. 
The process which we will use is call link building and gets trusted websites to point to your website. Always remember that quality is better than quantity. You can publish a blog, use a RSS feed, social media networks, or even requests links pointing to your website from websites relating to your industry. 

Your popularity on the internet is measure by a metric called PageRank (PR) originally invented by Larry Page; co-founder of Google.

A Picture worth a thousand words

FACT: Search Engines do not recognize the content of any picture at the moment.

Ever click on the “images” tab in a search engine and search for your favorite holiday destination and got pictures relevant on it?
It involves doing all the nitty-gritty and giving your images a title, some alternate text and even a description so the search engine can identify what the picture is all about. So out of confusion you have created order and now the Search Engine can display results relevant to the title, alternate text and description you put in.

Ahoy Captain, drop the Anchor Link

I’m sure we all have seen the classic “For more information click here”. Those types of links are BAD. Why you ask? 

Search Engines consider those internal links as emphasis on that text, and emphasis on “click here” is a waste of precious space where you could have used a keyword as the anchor text which describes the page the user will be taken. Instead of using the poor example above, a proper use of anchor text would be; “Try our delectable range of pirate hats for your theme party” 
Don’t overdo the amount of anchor text on your website, put emphasis on your main products and keywords that you wish to focus on.

Count your words carefully

It has been said people on the internet do not read, it doesn’t mean that we should deprive them of good quality content. When writing content try to stick around 250 words per page. 250 Words per page will give you a good length of text to include related terms and emphasis on your targeted keywords.

Avoid Duplicate Content

Content on your website should always be unique from any other websites on the web. Duplicate content confuses a search engine on how to decide which one is more relevant than the other. It is most cases Search Engines will display the original before the duplicate piece.

 

Title Tags & Description Tags

Title tags are part of the meta tags that appear in the top of your HTML inside the head section of your document. Title tags could be compared to the chapter titles in a book, it should tell people and search engines what the page in your book is about. Title tags should contain less than 70 characters to optimize how search engines will display you within the organic results.

Header Tags

Header tags are headings, so treat them as headings (just like those you find in books and even magazines). In HTML we have various header tags for example;
     <H1>This is the main heading</H1>
     <H2>This is a subheading A</H2>
     <H2>This is a subheading B</H2>
     <H3>This is a lower subheading</H3>

Search engines pays attention to the wording in the header tags, and gives the search engine an indication that the content to follow will be related to the heading text. It is good practice to only have 1 main heading (H1) on each page with multiple sub headings (H2 – H6) and is a great way to separate sections of your page.

Meta what?

Meta tags of course, pieces of code in the header section of your webpage. This is how they generally look like;
     <title> Your Fantastic Page Title Here </title>
     <meta name=”description” content=”Your Mind Blowing Page Description Here” />
     <meta name=”keywords” content=”relevant keywords 1, relevant keywords 2, relevant keywords 3” />

The Meta Description Tag
This is the part where you need to shine! The description tag will give you the opportunity to let the person viewing your entry in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) decide whether you are the most relevant and if you can provide the service/ product that they are looking for. Description tags should have no more than 160 characters.

The Meta Keywords Tag
Here you will insert no more than 25 keywords relevant to the content of page. Try to make them as relevant as possible, many search engines look at the meta keywords tag to determine which industry your website represents and of course helps you in your quest for better organic results within search engines.

Sitemap

A good sitemap is crucial so that search engines and visitors can easily find all the pages on your website. Imagine a sitemap as the “you are here” map in a huge shopping centre. As your website grows and expand it is crucial to make sure that search engines and people alike know what pages are available on your website. It also makes it easier for a search engine to recognize if you have any new content on your website, without re-indexing everything.

Sitemaps comes in 2 flavors, HTML and XML. The HTML sitemap is viewable by your visitors in a structured and ordered manner. The XML sitemap is submitted to Webmaster Tool accounts (Google and Bing) where you can prioritize certain pages and intervals for indexing within the XML document.

I like you, please follow me…

Social Media, everybody is part of it and has integrated it into part of their daily routine and schedule, the need to be constantly connected has infected nearly everyone. It is essential that your website works seamlessly together with all your social interactions on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Myspace, Google +, Pinterest, and the list continues

A “like” or a “follow” is a GREAT commendation for your business/website. We all know pyramid schemes, just imagines this is a pyramid scheme without the catch. The amount of people that you could reach via the social media platforms exceeds millions. Imagine you have 1 friend on Facebook. Your friend has 5 friends, and those 5 friends have 10 friends each. You can just imagine the possible reach via these platforms.

Posting and sharing your newest products, latest developments, and epic articles are easily shared on these different platforms.

Stop the bus!!

A consumable is something that has an end of life point, gets used up and is nondurable. That’s right, we consume food and water, we use pens and paper, ink cartridges run empty and dry.

But how does this bode for websites?

Technology and the ease at which the public have access to technology and specifically the internet has changed how people gather information and make decisions. This sounds all good and well but has an inherent few drawbacks that are now coming home to roost.
In order to understand how websites fit into it we have to take a trip back into the past, fortunately most of this would be in your lifetime.

Pre Industrial Age

It is safe to assume that most of the information gathering processes were due to trial and error and by recommendations based on first-hand experience. Information was shared by word of mouth from one generation to the next. There was little or no form of record keeping, writing it down, due to the fact that the majority of people where illiterate plus there were no such things as pens and paper. Trust and memory was at the order of the day.

Industrial Age

Thanks to Johannes Gutenberg in 1439; a revolution in the information technology industry happened with the invention on the mechanical movable printing press. Suddenly more information was available in the form of books and so there was an increase in the literacy among people.

18th - 19th Century

With limited access to libraries, due to the class system; the use of the encyclopaedia became bigger and wider and suddenly more and more people had access to a very broad range of information. We all used them from time to time for school and varsity projects and even sat and paged through them just looking at pictures and discovering an odd fact or two.

Birth of the Internet

From its conception in the 1950s by Professor Leonard Kleinrock it was never imagined that it would become the global information super highway that it would be so aptly named towards the end of the 20th century. Websites became more and more accessible and so the demand for information went through the roof. Suddenly you had more data on millions of topics, places and people at your fingertips and businesses soon realised that this was a perfect means to an end, the end being capable of reaching many consumers and vice versa. 

People had a need for more and more information.

The Cloud

Sounds like a 1950’s B grade horror movie starring Vincent Price and Boris Karloff but actually it’s a recent day colloquial term for Cloud Computing; popularised by marketers to promote their and your products to the entire world. The internet has matured into a teenager full of energy and with an insatiable hunger.

 

Website as Consumable

As illustrated through this walk through the ages it’s clear that Joe Soap has a need for more information. Joe is no longer getting the info handed down to him from his parents and he is no longer limited by other people’s experience and advice but has a vast amount of information at his fingertips to inform him and help make up his mind.

It is in this boundlessness of information that websites have become consumables. When last did you go back to and old and outdated website? The peoples need for information drove the space race, the cellular communication race, entertainment and ever so more the need to source information to help their decision making processes.

Your website is information, Is it relevant and up-to-date? If it is not, it will be used once and people will move on to the most relevant and current website.

Your website needs to be fresh, relevant and current.