Search Sense

Today Google announced they can better index text content in Flash files. With the help of Adobe, search engines are able to navigate a flash file and extract text and links, which on the surface sounds great.

I agree it’s a lot better than not indexing it, but, this has definitely sent the wrong message to Flash happy web-developers. If you think this opens the door for Flash in search, then think again.

Google has indexed, PDF files along with several other non-HTML file formats for many years, but you only see them in search results, when there’s a shed load of external anchor text pointing to the file or for a long tail query with little competition. Our e-Book on Social Media has ranked consistently in the top 3 for several  years, but it’s little to do with Google’s ability to index PDF, and everything to do with the 600+ links pointing to it with the words ‘’Social media’.

So why should this be?

1.       Flash files won’t have the same HTML mark-up which in regular pages, Google use to judge relevance.

2.       A lot of Flash navigation use non-text buttons, so no value from important internal anchor text

3.       Deep links contribute heavily to Google rankings in regular sites. But most Flash sites are contained in a single file, and people generally link to the file and not to deeper pages

Add to these, clicking on a Flash listing in Google is unlikely to take you to the place returned in the search results, unless the file is broken into lots of unique URL sections – providing a very poor user experience. And let’s not get started about mobile.

Don’t get me wrong, it is great that search engines are trying to keep up with web technologies, but until they can provide the same opportunity for Flash files to rank as regular sites and provide a similar user experience, they must send the right message to the web development and creative community.

I’ll still continue to advice clients to use Flash only where necessary. But, for those stuck with their Flash site, at least we can make it a bit more search friendly.

But my concern is that a lot of traditional creative agencies will use this development as a blank Chequebook to continue building expensive Flash sites which may be search friendlier but has no real chance of competing with a regular website.

QuadsZilla just made an interesting post on http://seoblackhat.com titled: There’s no Such Thing as Advanced White Hat SEO he makes some interesting points about how so called advanced white hat techniques are basically bordering on grey/black hat. Refferring to Lisa Barone’s experience at SMX:

Here are some of the “advanced search engine optimization” techniques I picked up during my time in Seattle.

• There are lots of old sites lying around on the Interwebz with great link juice. Buy them and capitalize on that. But do it carefully or Google will pick up on it and reset the score.
• Conditional redirects are teh awesome.
• Search marketers don’t need ethics. They’re marketers. Check the ethics at the door.
• You can never have too many .edu links.
• I need to grow some balls, stop fearing Matt Cutts and start buying links.

Where were the white hat advanced search engine optimization techniques in Seattle?

Because black hat seo is the only place where there is any development. White hat can work, but it’s exactly the same stuff that worked 6 years ago. Why do you need to go to a conference to get 6 year old information?

I think they’re mostly talking aout on-site optimisation rather than advanced methods for acquiring links etc, however I thought it was interesting. The whole post is here.

I have just noticed Google.co.uk is testing green backgrounds above and below the search results. This test seems to be happening only on a very limited number of datacentres. I managed to reproduce this on 66.249.93.99 (+2).

It looks like Google is trying out something new again and is testing it only locally. They have always been tweaking the layout and colours to make the Search Engine Landing Pages (SERPs) clearer and easier to use. In the past few years they have tested and implemented different ideas. I have always been under the impression the main 2 reasons were to improve the user experience and generate more visibility for the paid ads.

At first sight I thought the green backgrounds looked ugly and even tacky. However on a second look with my Search Engine Marketing head on, the premium placement ads stand out significantly more. Also my eyes are constantly dragged towards the top green bar which means I’m focusing on the premium listings and not lower listed organic results. As a result I feel more likely to click on the top results - paid and natural as well. If there are no premium ads (screen shot 1) I am tempted to click either on the first natural listing or the first AdWords ad on the right.

(click the images twice to view)

A SERP with three premium listings has a similar effect. My eyes are constantly coming back to the green bar and therefore all the top ads attract more attention.

Even though I personally do not like the green backgrounds I believe Google have come up with a design which will improve the click through rate for the premium and top organic listings.

I have also noticed that Google have added green backgrounds for premium ads on Google Directory SERPs but since I never use this I can’t tell how long this has been in place. This directory design seems to be rolled out to all datacentres. Unlike the SERP design mentioned previously I seem to be somewhat blind to the premium paid results. I think this is because the green backgrounds seem to blend with one another unlike the green/yellow combination which is much more compelling.

Google.com has recently been reported to be testing nearly white background for the premium placement AdWords ads. Rustybrick comments on Google Blending Ads More Into Organic Results.

’speling games online’ >200 searches per month

Garett Rogers of ZDNet has discovered a new Google interface likely designed for mobile. As most mobile studies reveal the reluctance of users to enter long search queries, generally limiting to just one or two words, the new interface provides a logical way forward. At least for location based queries where it is easier to disambiguate and provide a navigational structure for discovering local information.

You can have a play with the interface here http://www.google.com/m/lcb

And here’s a sequence I tried out earlier starting with a search for ‘Brighton’