Ethical search engine optimization

This article is for SEOs, Internet marketers, webmaster and site designers and all those who are interested in Search Engine Optimization.

For a long time now designer and developers used to stay away from flash because they were considered SEO unfriendly. SEOs had a bad time optimizing the flash files. The common trick used for this was the Google swf object a javascript package that used to manipulate a named div that already carried formatted text describing the flash content on a webpage. This was not only clumsy but it allowed keyword spamming too.

Now Google and Adobe got together and brought about a revolution in search engine crawling algorithms. Google search process can now read the text on your flash files. The flash files are now indexed like web pages. But make sure the text you are putting on the flash is flash text only. If you put an image that reads “apple” then no way the SE robot can read the text. So all information that you want to get cached must be in text. Images and movies in .flv format are still not indexed or understood by the SE bots.

As far as links are considered in the flash files or in other words the navigation from flash files they are done in the same way as done from the html pages. So even flash menus will not be a problem any more. I know its difficult to accept but its true folks. The things will now be easier. Hats off to Google.

All those who are using the swf object have nothing to worry. You may still continue to use the same code as Google says it will continue to support the code too that was used to fetch the flash file to manipulate the named Div as mentioned before.

So designers you have free hand form now onwards. Go ahead and so your creativity to the world. Flashy sites are now in.

There is a lot of litter on the street, and the weird thing is that those things that do not belong there (litter, etc) is what catches your eye first. The search-engines seem to have adopted this rule.

The virtual world is like the real world. When I take my bike to the mountains in only half an hour ride, I’m surrounded by nature. A closer look reveals that nature and nurture can’t be separated, perhaps on a few Virgin Islands in the ocean, where nature is unaffected… A few yards away the first litter triggers my eye; a red agricultural machine, a sort of a lawn mower in the bush, a few miles further a somehow whitish fridge once pulled down the edge of the mountain, cans of coca-cola, plastic bottles, you name it and you will find it. Rubbish and litter.

The internet is like that, the real and virtual world are populated by the same people. Rubbish is everywhere, but how do search engines deal with this? Do they show pure nature or do they focus on the litter and rubbish down the road?

Testing is the ultimate activity before launching a product. A test shows some quality characteristics of a product. Fool-proof is a simple and interesting test where you enter BS data and check the response of the system. It is often a first indication of the overall quality…

A test needs data and having written a few hundred articles gives you enough data to perform some simple investigations. Anyone with a few hundred articles may check this.

The fool-proof test I performed was by using my name (by using quotes and without initials. This may not work with all names as mine is quite unique) and submitting these to the main search engines. This is the result:

1. Google’s first page:

The fourth entry shows litter. Someone from Pakistan has misused my name (I’m quite sure that it doesn’t fit the pakistan context) and put in in their url. Google finds it probably as being weird and therefor significant. The URL in question refers to a youtube video.
On the ninth place there is another occurrence of misuse with my name and showed again in a wrong context. Perhaps the same person , also from Pakistan.

2. Live Search is free from rubbish on the first page, the second and other I didn’t check.

3. Yahoo doesn’t show the Youtube results (because they have their own video site), but also there on the first page they show a link out of context. Again my name is used. This is shown on the 6th place.
On the fifth place there is another wrong reference from a site called “swik.net” that misused my and very likely other peoples names.

What does this mean? It means that littering is not only accepted as in the real world, it attracts the attention. In this case, the attention of the mayor search engines.

The search engines represent the eye of the visitor that drives his bike through nature. And litter is among the first that is displayed. This seems logical and fits the principle of searching: that of attention. Attention is never drawn to what you need, but to what gets you distracted.
Another view on this matter could be that Search Engines are not aware of the results they show, whereas a human check instantly signals wrong entries…

The Search engine rules are real, more real than real life itself.