Our clients ask us about Flash all the time. For years Flash has been the stuff of web design joy and pain, causing frustration for search marketing folks. Those who design and brand absolutely love Flash’s web 2.0 animation, video, and rich media feel. 

SEM types traditionally have avoided Flash for critical organic optimization applications. The technology’s quirky propensity to be indexed (or not by) search engines has led to creative back door methods, sparking dialog and discourse as to whether certain techniques are evil cloaking tactics.

Matt Cutts has now revealed that Google has been quietly working with Adobe Systems’ Search Engine SDK technology to “read” Flash, which is an evolution from the “homebrewed” extraction method previously employed.

This may spawn a new era of cautiously optimistic Flash usage by search marketing pros who may become more amenable to using optimized Flash files. Stephan Spencer has posted a nice analysis of the Flash indexing situation in his CNET Searchlight blog and links out to additional resources

“… it’s really not a matter IF the mobile phone will become the dominant internet platform any more but WHEN…” – Yahoo! analyst Russell Beattie

Adopt Mobile Early
Compared to traditional web search, mobile search remains a relatively small piece of the pie. That said, the looming mobile marketplace is vast and can’t be ignored. We advise our clients to consider mobile versions of their sites for any web production with an expected shelf life of over 18 months.

Last September comScore Networks estimated that in the United States only about 19% of mobile owners were use phones like Treos, Blackberries, and Q’s to access the Internet. However there were approximately 2 billion mobile phone users globally compared to a measly 750 million Internet users. In some European countries like Spain nearly 25% of mobile phone owners use mobile search to access the Internet, mostly via big-engine portals like Google and Yahoo. I recommend mMetrics as a source for statistics on mobile usage.

There are a number of issues. This post discusses tips, tricks, and techniques for successful development of alternate mobile versions while demystifying the action-steps required to design, build, deploy, and market mobile websites.

2 Schools of Mobile Thought
There are 2 schools of thought regarding mobile site creation, double duty sites (where a single site acts as both mobile and wired) and multiple site versions. Each method can involve HTTP User-Agent headers, HTTP Accept Headers, and UAProf to identify the mobile browser and redirect to properly formatted content as appropriate. Wikipedia has a very useful list of user agents for your reference. It is possible to use.asp or PHP to detect mobile phones.

Double-Duty Sites
It can be practical to adapt existing website hierarchical structure. The site map is already there as are content attributes like text. The “double-duty” approach uses CSS to configure a single website to “auto-adapt,” functioning as both the mobile and wired editions. Exclusions, based on browser platforms, make available an alternative mobile-friendly version which only mobile users see. In essence this method “hides” page elements from mobile users or traditional (wired) browsers.

Double-Duty and Tricks
Employ multiple style sheets. At minimum designate one style sheet for normal web browsers (wired traffic) and a second style sheet (below the first) for mobile browsers.

Employ the CSS attribute “display: none” to mask page elements for either mobile or wired renderings. This method makes it possible to hide page elements from each type of visitor. The hybrid approach makes it feasible to use a single site structure for both browsing environments.

Use these headers to identify your visitor’s mobile device: HTTP User-Agent headers, HTTP Accept Headers, and UAProf. Be sure to utilize the appropriate MIME type: “text/html” or “application/xhtml+xml”.

The Multiple Sites Approach
Others prefer completely separate creative and technical processes for wired and mobile site design and development. The basis of this approach is rooted in the belief that mobile visitors should experience a totally different and more streamlined user experience and information design because they are more task-oriented. At SES Rachael Pasqua suggested that mobile is “not surf media, it’s search media”. She recommends developing on a subdomain (mobile.yourDomain.com) rather than a .mobi extension in order to retain the top level domain name without having to re-brand.

Mobile Website Design Essentials
Regardless of the approach you choose, it is critical that mobile websites be 100% W3C XHTML compliant because mobile browsers are completely unforgiving when it comes to improper coding. Strict adherence to XHTML accessibility guidelines offers the most reliable website experience for users. As an important aside XHTML compliance also provides adaptive users, who have special accessibility needs like the deaf and blind, access to content via their interpretative devices.

Mobile browsing requires different content placement like big navigation buttons at the top and bottom of the screen. Keep download times short. Bandwidth is still an issue in the mobile environment.

Make sure the site uses CSS to control the appearance of content. External CSS files can be used to designate a different style sheet for each mobile browser. When attaching style sheets, use the LINK element because is a friendlier format for mobile browsers.

Mobile Site Optimization
Some mobile optimization techniques are entirely different than wired sites. Other basic principles still hold true. For starters, the screen is only 2 or 3 inches, downloads can be slow, and visitors tend to be more results oriented. Here are some tips:

Key performance marketing goals (KPI) should be no more than 1-3 clicks away from the homepage. Don’t use fancy funnels to convert.

Place main content at the top of the first page and follow with navigation. Though opposite from traditional web design (nav bars on top), mobile users want to see changing content quickly enough to know they are on a different page- as opposed to a replay of navigation elements. In this small screen format, top nav bars eat up a significant portion each pages first field of view. Mobile visitors do not want to scroll to realize that they are on a new page holding the content they seek.

Keep the navigation very simple using large text links. Provide fewer navigation options to pages that have less information. Use images only when needed to accomplish the KPI. For more complex navigation, create menu-only pages with big text link nav options. Practice good old fashioned call-to-action principles early and often.

Use sitemaps and robots.txt so that spiders can quickly index your mobile site while avoiding the possibility of duplicate content.

Use pretty URLs which employ keywords.

Do not use Flash, pop ups, iframes, javascript or frames. Some of these technologies block mobile spiders and none can be expected to render well on mobile platforms at this time.

Optimize your site for 1-2 word keyphrases. Mobile users tend to search for smaller phrases with fewer words (the big thumb factor).

Use <H> (heading) and bold html tags. As with traditional web design, html tags like H and Bold send signals to mobile search engines regarding content you designate as core.

Be strategic and intentional in mobile specific link building campaigns and dedicate efforts to mobile URL marketing tactics. Submit to mobile and local directories and seek links from other mobile sites.

Traditional PR buzz tactics like brick and online press releases help to garner additional inbound links. Mobile search is still young enough that it is “news” in some arenas that your product or services are offered via mobile. Take advantage of being an early adopter with good PR.

Integrate social media tagging and social bookmarking tools on your mobile pages. My belief is that social behavior via the mobile web is the future. All we need to look at is text messaging as the harbinger.

Be sure phone numbers are clickable. Keep in mind while mobile handsets usually render phone numbers clickable, the following syntax helps to ensure this: < href=”tel:2503851190″>250-385-1190</a>. It should be obvious that the KPI for mobile applications is often a visitor calling a phone number. Your clickable phone number and main website address should be in the footer of each mobile page.

Caveats:
Protect your brand. If you decide not to use the .mobi domain for your brand’s mobile site, purchase it anyway to defend your brand. Forward traffic to the actual mobile site by way of a 301 redirect from the .mobi address.

It is true that Google offers a transcoding application which does it’s level best to parse any website to mobile automatically. Do not depend on this technology. You likely won’t enjoy the results.

Keep your mobile URL very short and easy to remember. A significant amount of mobile traffic comes from direct visitors who type in your URL.

Additional Resources:
http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/000577.html

http://blogs.feedburner.com/tips/optimize/make_your_site_mobile_in_under/

http://www.andymoore.info/wordpress-mobile-plugin/

http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/

http://dev.mobi/book/export/html/373

http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2007/03/mobile_web_dev.html

http://www.thescripts.com/forum/thread647122.html

http://www.developershome.com/wap/wcss/wcss_tutorial.asp?page=toDiffUserAgents2

Large Scale Study of Wireless Search Behavior: Google Mobile Search

http://www.google.com/mobile/

http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/006868.html

http://mobile.yahoo.com/onesearch

http://mobile.ask.com/

http://mobile.search.live.com/about/

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2007/tc20070220_828216.htm

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070524-the-future-of-google-mobile-search-mapped-results.html

Making the situation more confusing for agencies is the reality that advertising agency clients have heard about search marketing, they know they need it, and they ask agencies directly about it. This puts (formally full service) agencies in an awkward position including but not limited to the possibility of missed revenue opportunities. Agencies in our area seem to give their clients the stock answer: “we don’t offer those services and recommend working with a firm that specializes in SEM.”

This post begins a series of articles aimed squarely at advertising and PR agencies with the intent of demystifying the SEM process.

Old Information is Cheaper
This is especially true in second and third tier markets where engaging an “SEM firm” often means paying too much for second or third tier misinformation or web 1.0 advice (in a web 2.0 world). Unfortunately the current environment of great demand and fast profit for SEM wanna-be-companies breeds “SEM firms” that are actually last-generation website building shops. Hiring a design/build firm to market a website costs less in the short tem and you get what you pay for-less traffic and sales over time.

SEM is More than a Media Buy.
It is true that, among other services, an SEM firm functions as a media buyer. However traditional “media buyers” did not have seat at the table as demographics were identified and fundamental creative strategies to exploit target markets were hatched. SEM firms should and do participate in determining core creative for many of the world’s most prevalent brands.

Agencies used to gather essential market and demographic research by methods born of smaller samplings like surveys and focus groups. Your SEM firm is the modern team member with definitive marketplace data in the form of keyword research. One database we use samples 38 billion searches annually and is broken out by season. Other tools sample smaller databases which are “purer,” meaning they are less skewed by certain types of searches.

Keyword Research Early in the Creative Process
With Internet penetration so high in the United States keyword research is literally the holy grail of marketing. Never before in the history of marketing has such authoritative data been so available to measure a marketplace. The research translates to the physical world. For instance one hotel management client we have sees a total correlation between search volume in their keyword universe and weekly sales. Let’s face it, the customer searching on the Internet is the same customer that is walking around the mall, staying in hotels, shopping b2b, and purchasing consumer electronics. Even if you don’t plan on Internet marketing consider procuring definitive market research by hiring a qualified search engine marketing firm.

A good place to start when engaging an SEM firm is by requesting sample keyword research projects. While there are a number of free and commercial keyword research tools out there, a qualified SEM firm leverages multiple resources. They are adept at analyzing niche’ spaces by subcategory while identifying marketplace opportunities and liabilities. I’ve been doing keyword research projects for businesses for nearly 10 years now and the insight in to any marketplace aimClear brings to the table transcends monthly search volume data for fat short tail keywords. The proprietary suite of tools we use is more advanced than any public domain keyword information.

Players most concerned with the brand and image of a product usually want sparse text on the homepage with lots of white space available for images, flash, video, and other cool stuff. To advertising folks optimizing the homepage may mean uncluttering it and making sure the homepage has direction, intent, and a distinct call to action. IT personnel (who had total control of websites in previous generations of website development) want security, ease, and control of the technical process. All of these objectives are admirable but often boil down to conflict over control of the word-count density on the newly optimized homepage-or even arguments as to whether the SEO firm is allowed to impact the homepage at all. Who’s position should prevail? How many words should there be on the homepage?

I want the site to get higher ranking for keywords important to sales of the product being marketed. My thinking is that any website has extremely limited advertising, marketing, or PR value if no customers find it when they search.

SEO Keywords
There is a lot of misunderstanding out there. It is true. Back in the day, lacing the bottom of the homepage with SEO keywords and pumping up the meta-data was enough to put a well optimized homepage over the top to attain decent ranking. Be assured this is no longer the case. Professional SEO website design involves actualizing an understanding of known and assumed SEO attributes including page title (most important), anchor text (words used in hyperlinks), and many other on-page characteristics in addition to researching and using SEO keywords. After the all important title tag the actual written content of the page is the most important variable.

Words are Clues for the Search Engines
Words are the embodiment of sales in writing and the written content you create for you your website should contain indicators of what the page is about (obvious). You’ve probably heard that search engines look algorithmically at a wide array of on and off-page clues when ranking a page for a specific keyword including how many other websites link to you and the quality of those sites. The more highly-trafficked sites, with content related to your site, link to you the better.

When we begin a new SEO project we take in to consideration the quantity and quality of inbound links when recommending the homepage word-count. We’re a lot more accepting of a lower homepage word-count when thousands of inbound links exist already because your site has a good chance of achieving better rankings with sparser homepage copy. In some cases, where inbound links are plentiful and high quality, we’ve achieved success with word-counts as low as 80 words on the homepage.

The critical focus in optimizing your site needs to be creating enough content relevant to the product you are marketing to alert the engines that your “words” are important to any potential customer searching by relevant keywords. If you don’t have a lot of existing inbound links then it’s important to accept your fate. There need to be more words on the homepage. Think of link-building activities as seeking permission to have fewer words on your homepage.

Take an Informational Approach
We like to see a minim of 350 and up to 650 words on a homepage with a least 3 subheadings in an environment where you have not achieved significant inbound links previously. We believe that potential customers, searching for your product, are looking for information to answer the question they just typed into the search box on Google. I always recommend you answer their questions with enough information rich density to satisfy the query and attract the search engines.

The Splash Page Trap
We’ve seen those interested in a low or no word-count homepage justify the approach by calling the site’s index (first) page a splash page and proposing to place the “homepage lower in the site hierarchy. Let’s be clear. The homepage is the first page a visitor comes to in your site. Though someone might call the first page a splash page and propose that the information rich “homepage” be the second page encountered after the visitor clicks on a link or is automatically redirected, this shell game won’t be as effective.

The actual homepage of a website has the most SEO value out of the box. Though XML sitemaps (the new site submission standard) offer the opportunity to notify the search engines how important each interior page is, a “homepage” placed on the interior of a website after a splash page has no more potential for value then any other interior page. It’s not a homepage at all.

We don’t recommend a splash page unless a website has a large count of high quality inbound links already or you put enough words on the splash page. Don’t fall into the splash page trap to justify having little text on the homepage.