Flash vs. Javascript

As the web continues to expand, customers have become more savvy to the newest technologies. Any good designer knows that full flash sites have practically no SEO value. Although google has started to change this, the other search engines have not caught up. So how do you build a dynamic site without compromising searchability? jQuery, Scriptacoulous and MooTools. These javascript based technologies offer animated designs while keep sites search engine friendly. For example, take a look at the navigation on this page: http://affinitybeauty.net/.


The navigation on this site is clean and dynamic. Best of all, all the content is located on one page. This of course has its cons. If it is a large site, you do not want to have everything on just one page as it will take a long time to load. But for smaller sites, it is a great option.

The great thing about the javascript framework tools is that you can mix and match. You can use several plugins to create cool effects. For example, on this site we used the same navigation as above, but also added an image gallery to the home page.
http://fcakitchens.com/chrisbaetz/new-site/
Eventually, the image gallery along the bottom of the home page will open to a lightbox gallery displaying all the images in full size.

There are numerous plugins and customizations. For example, for our contact forms, we used a jQuery plugin which displays the form in a lightbox over the page: http://soldesigns.net/. Click on Contact Us or Get A Free Quote.

This gives your site a more dynamic feel without compromising its searchability.

Below are links to the sites that offer these tools and explanations on how to use them:

jQuery
MooTools
Script.aculo.us/

Blogging for Search Engines

Time and time again you continue to hear about blogging being great for search engines, but is it really? Yes it is!

There are many reasons why search engines love blogs. The most important one is actually the most logical. If your site is important enough to blog about, then it must be important to find in search engines.

The great thing about blogs is the way they are programmed. They automatically make keywords for you, descriptions, tags, and all kinds of nifty things that search engines love. Most blog sites offer some type of rating system or you can rate blog articles on sites like Digg or Del.icio.us.

So what should you blog about? About your site of course! What do you do? Why is it better than anyone else's? Can you offer advice to others? Do you have products to sell? Are there questions that your customers asked repeatedly?

These are all great starting points. The most important thing to remember is to always link back to pages within your site and make sure that your posts contain keywords relative to your topic. And most important of all, make sure that your title is relevant to your site's content! The title is what search engines will find when they try to read your blog. The better the title, the more hits you will receive.

Happy blogging!