Google Site Seach In Organic Results

I'm wondering if I've been hiding under a rock or just completely missed the whole google "site search box" magically appearing under selected websites "site links" in Google's organic results. At first it feels a bit confusing that there are now 2 search boxes within pixels of each other - but then I start to see this is an ingenious idea - saving users considerable time and effort. But, is it only for affiliated Google sites like Wiki and Dmoz? Because I don't see this same functionality for websites that are used almost exclusively for search like Yellow Pages...?

Microsoft Bids To Buy Yahoo! Inc

Google's D-Day is nearing, well - at least a day in which there may be an actual "competitor" in the market place for them to compete with. So Microsoft have finally done the inevitable - launching a takeover bid for Yahoo! Inc.

You'll see in my previous post some time back - "Microsoft to become a real Google competitor" that I was predicting the only company to possibly challenge Google, would be a Microsoft Super Company... Buying out the likes of Yahoo! & AOL.

So here is it, the official press release and $31 per share offer to buy out Yahoo! Inc. Official Microsoft Press Release - To Buy Yahoo!

What will the future now hold? Well if this goes through, then microsoft will be officially the largest "by far" super company in the world. The power that a company like that brings to the table is enormous, but will they have the smarts to out play Google?

Microsoft to become a real Google Competitor

Since Google began its world domination, taking control of the Internet - the one thing that Microsoft was yet to conquer - Microsoft has been trying everything in it's power to claw back the ground. Unfortunately in the same time, Google spent up big, hiring only the best engineers from around the world, designed, created or acquired anything in it's path and jumped even further ahead, so much so that it's impossible for any one company to steal market share, let alone rival it.

The Google domination is a pretty scary thing (unless you are a stock holder - the $100 listing price now sitting nicely at $500+ per share in less that 2.5 years on the public register) for every normal human being. The media companies of the past were powerful for one reason.

Controlling Information.

Google surpasses this, it controls the worlds data, and seeing data is the DNA of information, Google has a power Microsoft is really shaking in it's boots about. Google is growing, the rest are shrinking from the Google Squeeze and life might just not be the same in 5 years time with the monopoly.

People, companies and protesters have spat at Microsoft for years about its monopoly, its control, its power. Sure, they have a right to this, but the scary thought is, if Google is to continue its growth and domination for the next few years it may just be the most powerful company in the world, beyond anyone's imagination. (But is that actually a bad thing?)

Information is Power.

So this gets me to my actual point! (finally)
There has been a buzz around lately about the prospect of Microsoft or Yahoo stepping up to really compete with Google. Web Pro News posted a good article here about it.

What companies could combine to form a super company to beat Google at it's own game and take the electrifying online advertising market from underneath their feet? Not an easy task the way Google invests in its self. Although they are starting to head down the path of Yahoo, who has so much content that nobody actually uses!

There is probably only one option that could take down Google. That's Microsoft after purchasing Yahoo & AOL - this forming a super company from 3 under performing companies in the online search/marketing area, all battling to get a % or 2 from each other while Google sails its motor cruiser off into the sunset.

This is the only way that Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL (struggling to stay afloat) can claw back market share and compete with Google, hoping to eventually overthrow the kingdom. This super company would be one amazingly powerful player. Good enough to beat Google at its own game.

How long before we see something like this happen? Will it ever happen? Who knows...

One thing everyone seems to believe is that the longer there is no major competitor to Google, the further into that sunset Google gets. It's simple business really, why compete with 2 other strugelling companies for a share of the measly 15% of the search/marketing industry (Google has approx 75% - if not more). When you can combine, cut costs, share technology, diversify users and provide a world leading product for less and now, this super company gets to use its power and pull Google back to earth.

New Blogger Goes Live

Well the new version of Google's Blogger Blogging tool was released from beta today. With it's host of new features, templates and more... So go on, check it out and if your stuck in thefirst version of blogger, upgrade now. (it's stable!)

Flash SEO - how to optimize your flash website

As flash becomes so important to user experience and interactivity you shouldn't have to sacrifice design, animation or interactivity for search engine rankings and traffic. It's now possible to use SEO on your flash website - best of all it's quick and easy.

I just read a post on Search Engine Forums about Flash SEO. It's a question being asked more and more as flash becomes the biggest thing since sliced bread and it's been evolving for the last 5 years (at least).

Firstly, I'll have a quick rant about SEO's who always declare you must make 2 versions of a website if you're building completely in flash. One HTML - One Flash. Personally I think it's rubbish, some suggest using Javascript to implement flash (bad luck if they have JS turned off) and call in content from databases. In an age where rich media is taking over, development time is longer and more complex - corporates can't afford to build 2 sites and stay modern in design and interactivity. (Yes, HTML/CSS 2 is amazing, but we are not talking about there here!)

Flash, combined with broadband is now at such a prolific stage in it's life that it's completely mainstream, all the biggest sites use it, and use it almost exclusively. Take Nike.com for example. Don't have flash? Bad luck, download the latest player it will tell you!

So as the world adopts such a rich media application, the latest SEO questions are becoming increasingly about Flash SEO. Is Flash SEO it possible? How do I do Optimise Flash for Search Engines? Do I Provide a HTML site also? Can Google take content from my SWF? Out of My database? Can search engines see the text in my flash (swf) files?

This is a simple question that requires a long and complex answer - I won't pretend to know everything about Flash SEO, heck, I'll post that question to Matt Cutts! But what I will do is give you another opinion based on what I've seen, experienced and heard!

One of the key points I think we should start with is that, YES google among other search engines can read your SWF files. It can follow links, pull out URL's, explore your content .etc So don't stress! (although it's far from best practice if Flash SEO is key to your business)

Although it's believed that search engines can only read the embedded flash file. I believe that to be true. (we will ask matt cutts none the less) In saying that, most professionally designed Flash websites these days use things link "container" swf's. These usually pre-load and position the flash site in the browser. Additionally this is becoming a simple trick to stop most people stealing flash code/swf's. This container flash file has no content, it just calls in other flash files. Hence, search engines can't read those external flash files that are buried away.

Which now brings a Flash SEO to question the best way in which to get the search engines the content from their flash websites, use container files to position websites, while still protecting their files from people looking to steal code/animation. So the new standard is born, professional sites with lots of content should be moving all the content out of flash (also speeds the website up) into XML files or external databases.

This gives google much easier access to the content you want to serve up!
Deconcept gives a pretty good overview of how to serve up flash content to the engines, but again, that uses the concept of using 2 versions of your website. Or at least drains your time by using JavaScript complete the task.
If you notice, that latest version of flash professional automatically publishes a div with id="flashcontent" and automatically publishes all the included flash content, in text to that div. It publishes your flash content & URL's with ease.

This, combined with the increasing ability for search engines to parse your SWF files, means that a serious flash development team doesn't need to create 2 versions of a website. That "flashcontent" div gives you the ability to place what ever textural content, images and links in there you like - you can do this automatically from flash, XML or a database.

DerekA makes a good post in reply to Deconcept here. But seriously, it's the fastest, easiest and most search engine friendly way there is to do Flash SEO - that I know of anyway - have your say, post a comment :D

To Matt Cutts, if you're reading this, everyone would love your opinion ;)
So just rounding this off, YES, there is a way to SEO your Flash Website. It's simple, it's quick and above all, the modern technique cuts out the labour of a that old 2 site version trend that I'm predicting will die off in the next 2 years - completely.

The technique: If your not an advanced programmer, let flash automatically publish all the content of your site into the id="flashcontent" div, Flash 8 automatically publishes all links found embedded in the SWF.

If you're more advanced and you store all your data as XML or in a database, write a quick script that will automatically publish all the flash content into that div. Make sure your script publishes with the correct H1, H2 tags .etc - which it should do easily because your a professional flash designer or developer and Ofcourse you control all the text and content styles in your flash site from external an CSS file! (note. if your not doing that, you should be!)

Hope this helped a few of you, or at least weighed up the other side of the argument. In today's competitive market, you can't afford to waste your time or money developing and maintaining 2 websites. Besides, it's the new "rich media" age - It's where everything is going and the search engines are continuing to advance their algorithm to parse flash websites at a rate of knots.

Don't get left behind. It's OK do develop your new or existing websites in flash to keep up with modern rich media applications, design trends and interactivity to wow your customers or visitors. AND still being able to effectively SEO your flash website and be found in the major search engines!

Good Luck & Stay tuned for more info on this topic. Right here.

Does Google PageRank Matter?

PageRank is perhaps one of the hottest topics in the SEO industry. I get asked the question on a weekly basis and to tell you the truth, my answer probably sways either side of the fence from time to time. I won't weigh into the debate offically right now, i'll just leave you with some food for thought!
Some SEO professionals and enthuisiests will probably tell you that the infamous green Google PR bar makes or breaks your search engine results, and they will even bet their house on it. While on the other hand, you will have equally as many people telling you it won't influence on the success of your website.

There are a whole bunch of factors that can burn your PR, from duplicate content and incorrect keyword density right through to inbound links (or lack of) and the download times of your page. Even code:content ratio plays an important part.

I'll post my take on PR next week. But for now, what's your opinnion?

Google Analytics

If you're not already using Google Analytics as a standard reporting suite for your website or your clients', more importantly. Why not? It's FREE! I've found the Analytics software so advanced and indepth that it's now one of the first things I set up before launching a website.
With such a multitude of reporting options, from GEO Mapping right through to setting up Funnels (the process of tracking a users steps around a website to a desired page or goal - eg. sales conversion or sign up). Google also provides all your standard stats like bouce rates, top content, time spent, hits, visits .etc

Google Anayltics was designed to be an extension to it's Adwords clients. It still is (although anyone can have it tracking their website). Users get the best results from Analytics by running an Adwords campain in conjunction, Google then tracks clicks, keywords, conversion rates & ROI to spit out some amazing data.

Wow, right? That's only just the beginning, the Analytics team have gone so far as to allowing you to tag all your other SEM campaigns from say, Yahoo. Plus tagging your interactive campaigns (like web banners), Google Analytics then tracks all your clicks and traffic, grabs it all together and then brings it into it's Analytics Reporting, so you can see your entire marketing campaign stats on a single page!! So stop messing about. Sign up for free with your Google Webmasters account.

2006 Pubcon in Vegas

So PubCon in Vegas was again an enormous hit.
With probably 2000+ webmasters from around the world turning up to watch, listen, learn and question all the big name speakers from the likes of Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Ask.com and Search Engine Watch - just to name a few, actually more like 2% of the number of speakers at the event.

Matt Cutts was a huge star again, with a following bigger than 50cents entourage!

I'll up date this post with an overview of some of the topics covered as soon as I can. Meanwhile, the next big event on the calendar is Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2006 and would be well worth the visit if your in the neighbourhood.