New developments in Flash search indexing could lead to significant changes in search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies.

Adobe has revealed that it is providing its Flash Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to help the two engines make improvements to their search indexing of Flash SWF file formats.

This could eventually lead to greater visibility of Flash content to search engines, helping web users to find more of the kind of information they are looking for, Adobe said.

According to Mashable, this development could rewrite the rules of SEO, which have historically suggested that those looking to improve search rankings should avoid Flash content as it is not easily picked up by engines.

“We are initially working with Google and Yahoo! to significantly improve search of this rich content on the web and we intend to broaden the availability of this capability to benefit all content publishers, developers and end users,” commented David Wadhwani of Adobe.

Google has already started rolling out the Flash Player technology across its engine and has developed an algorithm that looks at text in Flash elements such as buttons and banners, according to a recent Official Google Blog posting.

News brought to you by ClickThrough - specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing

Spotlighting search terms, site linking and regular blogging are among the best ways a firm can benefit from search engines, a Google engineer claims.

Matt Cutts tells USA Today that search engine optimisation is easier than most companies believe.

He says the most common pitfall is businesses setting up websites without emphasising their key search word enough on it.

“You have to make sure the keywords are on the page,” he tells the newspaper.

“If you’re a San Diego doctor, Des Moines architect or Portland ad agency, best to let people know so immediately, at the top of your page.”

Getting other sites to ‘link’ back to you as an endorsement is also helpful as most search engines rank pages based on popularity.

Google remains the internet’s most popular search engine, with new figures from comScore showing that it increased its share of core US searches from 61.6 per cent to 61.8 per cent in May 2008.

News brought to you by ClickThrough - a provider of SEO Services & Pay Per Click strategies

By K. Mar on Jun 29, 2008 in Marketing and Consulting, Scandinavia, Sweden, www.Icenews.is

Scandinavia’s reputation for high tech investment and innovation means it is a constant magnet for the world’s high tech industries. This year SMX Search Marketing Expo has chosen Stockholm as the location for one of its flagship annual conferences.

SMX is a global search engine marketing conference that offers a wide selection of workshops, discussions and networking opportunities for industry professionals who want to keep ahead in the rapidly changing world of search marketing.

The SMX Search Marketing Expo in Stockholm is planned for the 23rd and 24th September in the Stockholm City Conference Centre, Folkets Hus.

Speakers include Nordic eMarketing’s Kristjan Mar Hauksson and Eniro’s Christer Pettersson, as well as a host of other expert online search marketers. Event speakers are carefully selected based on proven knowledge and experience that they can share with others. There is also a commitment not to include commercial pitches in presentations – a fact that keeps proceedings fresh and fast.

Other SMX expo events take place annually in a several major cities, such as London, Sao Paolo and Seattle, as well as Stockholm. The events provide a fun and stimulating environment for professionals to exchange knowledge and experience, to find and maintain useful contacts and even to keep an eye on the competition.

Personalised search techniques, keyword research tools, and link building are among this year’s top topics. Also on the agenda are targeting potential customer habits and preferences, and how to avoid exclusion by the search engines for ‘spam-like’ behaviour.

For more information on the SMX Search Marketing Expo Stockholm, visit: www.searchmarketingexpo.com/stockholm

So you have a web site which looks pretty but does not produce any leads or sales. You have invested a good chunk of money and now what ? What can you do to finally participate in the gold rush that is more than ever taking place online.

Online marketing will help you business succeed in a competitive environment. A setting where traditional marketing channels have faded away. Some of my clients report that, this year 2008, leads from Yellow Pages ® Directory have reduced to a trickle whereas their online leads from a well ranked website have fully replaced the Yellow Gold.

If you have NOT gone with the times and have again committed all your marketing dollars for the year fully in traditional marketing channels, than you may awaken one day to a bitter surprise: Your leads stop coming and you either don’t know what to do and go bust, or you know that there is this thing called internet marketing but you have absolutely no funds left to try it out.

My advise: Don’t go overboard with spending huge dollars on a glossy online marketing agency, engage a small affordable online marketer to create a concept for you and produce 10 online leads and subsequent sales for you to build confidence in this (for you) new marketing channel.

Rule No 1: Make a Start and Experience Returns on Investment
Find your own online marketing confidence by understanding and living ROI: Return On Investment.
A small monthly budget of a few hundred dollars that returns a few thousands is a very good start to tap into internet marketing.

Well, so how can I produce 10 times ROI on a few hundred dollars ? It’s not easy and not done on the quick but it can be done, and I do it all the time:

Rule No.2: Create a Website That Sells
Display a convincing case for your products and services, not just a listing of text and images, you must have EMOTION, or FEELING on your website, something that touches your visitors. Then you must have CALL FOR ACTION on your website, which can be displayed in various ways.

They must fell the need to ACT on the EMOTION that you have created. In one way or another.

Now, make it easy for them to ACT, dont hide your contact details, calls for actions and links to your contact page everywhere plus your phone number large at the top of each page.

Build TRUST with your website: Nothing is done on the quick here - you really have to sit down with your website developer and come up with a well designed flow of click logic, add subliminal messages, photos, text, more images. They have to be convinced that it makes sense to call you or email you. You need good quality images of your products, they need to be presented nicely, there should be a good amount of confidence building text with it, like FAQ Frequently Answered Questions are very well rewarded by search engines.

Dont get me wrong - this is after they have landed on your site - so obviously - how do we make them find your site in the first place ?

(Part 2 of 3 coming soon)

Preview Part 2: Search engine myths debunked: “I want to be at the top of page one on Google for search phrase “FLOWERS”.

Good Luck ! It will be difficult to get on the top of page one in the main section on Google for ONE super busy power keyword with a small marketing budget of a few hundred dollars per month. (The top ranked guys bitterly defend their spots with the large funds available from huge profits coming from top rankings.

But you can break into top search engine rankings over time - use the backdoor, it’s all about Trust building with Google by offering more, more relevant, frequently added content. Nothing is more valuable online than TRUSTWORTHY, RELEVANT, FREQUENTLY UPDATED content.

Make a start here: Investigate and collect lots and lots of valuable income producing keyword phrases that the Google keyword tool will assemble for you for FREE and that you have implemented into your site with cleverly written content and FAQ pages etc.

(Written by Michael Arendt, Marketing Director, MyConsulting Internet Marketing Melbourne, Search Engine Optimisation

Here are a few tips for link building:

- Links should in a best case scenario be naturally aquired over time by providing the best content and changing it frequently. If you still dont get many people linking to you, you may want to emulate a natural linking process yourself:

Here is what to look out for:

1. Have changing anchor text, variations of your strongest keywords
2. Have the links come from different hosts, or C-Class IPs, if you create a few mini websites to link to you, spread the hosting accounts over the globe
3. Links from related and relevant sites have more link weight
4. Links should not come from link farms, link directories
5. Links should come from pages with different Page Pank values, like any natural link inflow would. However, a few very high PR sites can help you nicely. The table on the right shows an average of PR 2.9 for 286 inlinks. That is a very good result. The website that produced the above figures, has very high top 10 positions on google for most of their keywords.
   
6. Links should point to all pages on your website, not just the home page
7. Links should originate on varied places or locations from the link source, not just from the footer of a page, they should come varied from any position
8. Use old and new sites, just new sites will have less weight
9. Links should not be short term, or temporary
10. Use some selected highly regarded business directories, or local community portals
11. Try have .gov, or .edu sites link to you, they have especially high value