Tag Archives: SEO
You’ve heard me complain about Flash on the CIK blog before. Sure it looks pretty, but what does it actually do for your website’s design? The answer is nothing, unless you consider sucking up your bandwidth as a major bonus. If your Chatham-Kent business is looking into website redesigns, remember – Flash is not your friend. Sure, Flash can be useful in some situations, but it should only be used when absolutely necessary (creating animated text = not one of those situations). So, without further ado, here are five of the most frustrating reasons why Flash sucks (believe me, there are plenty more).
5) It’s a Bandwidth Hog
Sure, this isn’t as big a deal now as it was ten years ago, but still. Why create a site that sucks twice as much bandwidth as a standard HTML site? Believe it or not, some of your customers are still surfing using dial-up, which means they’re still waiting…for…your…website…to…load…
4) You Can’t Bookmark a Page
This drives me looney! Websites that are designed entirely using Flash do not have standard HTML URLs. So, the deeper you dig into a site, the more confused your browser becomes about your location; in fact, the next time you find yourself stuck on a Flash site, check your browser address bar as you flip between pages – chances are good it will show the homepage address for every single page within the site! This wonderful design flaw means there’s no way to bookmark a page that you’ve found useful, or easily share a link to an internal page of the site. Website design is suppose to be all about making things easy for visitors, so please don’t make things impossible by using a Flash-based site.
3) There’s a Loading Screen for Pete’s Sake!
Let’s get one thing straight – I don’t want to wait for anything, whether it’s my coffee or an organ transplant. Waiting sucks. So when I have to site and watch that little green loading bar on your website, it makes me very, very angry. If you’re website is so complicated that I must wait for it to load, do everyone a favour and redesign it. Chances are your customers will be confused by your fancy-pants features and end up bouncing anyway.
2) You Can’t Optimize Flash
Search engines hate Flash almost as much as I do. But, unlike me, who has the pleasure of turning one up every now and then, search engines simply ignore them. A search engine can’t read the garble of code that is Flash, so it simply chooses to ignore it. So, remember all that money you paid to your website designer to “optimize” your Flash site… ya, that was not one of your smartest ideas.
1) There is Absolutely No User Benefit to Flash Sites!
In case you forgot, your company website is suppose to be a tool that customers use to learn more about your business. Your site should therefore be built to provide the visitor with as much value and usefulness as possible. Don’t built your website because you think it looks cool. Build it so that your user can navigate it easily and discover exactly what it is they’re looking for.
These are just a few of the reasons why I hate Flash – feel free to add more in the comments!
I love writing content. Whether I’m writing for the CIK blog, or a client’s website, I know that the content I’m creating will benefit not just the company’s ability to rank in search engine results, but also the visitors that read it. After years of writing I’ve come to learn a thing or two about creating web-friendly content… mostly that people don’t know how to do it correctly. If you’ve taken on the task of creating search engine optimized content for your Chatham-Kent small business website, beware – you might be guilty of one (or all!) of the following SEO copywriting mistakes.
1) You’re Targeting the Wrong Keywords (Or No Keywords At All!)
This is a big issue for first time content creators. Small business owners understand that they need to publish content to their website in order to rank in search engine results. But creating content isn’t enough – you need to write content that’s targeted to the proper keywords. If you’re targeting the wrong keywords, or no keywords at all, you’re bringing useless traffic to your website. So, how can you tell if you’re targeting the wrong keywords? Well, if you’re conversions stink (i.e. if visitors are coming to your site, but not executing a certain action, either purchasing from an online store, or contacting you via an online form), you might be barking up the wrong tree. For help with your keyword research, checkout the Google Keyword Tool or the Wordtracker Keyword Question Tool. It’s important to know what keywords your customers are using to search for your website and product, and then include them in your copyrighting projects.
2) You Don’t Actually Have Content on Your Website
Your company website should answer the who, what, where, how, and why of your business. Believe it or not, this isn’t accomplished with pictures and Flash animation. If you’re small business website is built using Flash, I recommend that you fire your website designer immediately. Flash websites focus on design and not accessibility. This means that your website is essentially invisible to search engines, and thus, to visitors. It doesn’t matter how much content you have written on your website, if it’s posted using Flash, it’s doing nothing, nada, zilch for your site. You don’t actually have SEO-friendly content on your website unless that content is visible to the search engines.
3) Your Content Has Reached it’s Best Before Date
When was the last time you updated the content on your website? I don’t mean your blog, (hopefully you update that at least once a week) but the standard pages, like your “About” page, or “Service” listings. If you’re like most small business owners, you’ve likely forgotten about these staples pages. It happens all the time – business owners let their content expire. Now, you don’t need to update this information everyday, but you should give it a little pick-me-up every 18 months or so. This will allow you to update the lingo on your site and will give you a great opportunity to check and make sure you’re still targeting the right keywords.
These are just three common SEO copyrighting errors that I’ve come across – can you add a few more?
