Over the years, Flash-based websites have gotten a bad rap from website visitors, search engine optimizers and web designers who were more concerned with user usability than the aesthetic appeal of a website. In the past, the major problems that faced flash-based websites and their users:

• Flash-based websites, especially those comprised entirely of flash, were a SEOs worst nightmare - search engines couldn’t read flash files so the only on-page optimization that took place was in the domain name itself and within the title element.
• While flash-enabled browsers are the norm today, this wasn’t the case only a few years back. If you had flash-based website, your users would either have to install a plugin to view the flash file or they had to use a different web browser - this is about as user-unfriendly as a website can get.
• Flash-based websites require much more bandwidth than a static HTML website; even though broadband internet is prevalent today - there is still a large chunk of the world’s population relying on 512k internet connections and slower. The internet has given us the opportunity to have information at the push of a button - and many people don’t react favorably to a 30 second long “loading” screen.
• Website visitors generally like to control how links open - flash-based navigation links essentially take away this freedom by removing the “right click” menu and forcing visitors to view links as they’re programmed into the flash file.

Now, these are only a few of the problems that have faced flash-based websites, both in the past and even today. While the overall user-friendliness of flash hasn’t improved significantly over the years - there’s been a recent change in terms of flash and search engine optimization that may very well cause all of us to see a significant spurt in flash-based websites; like it or not - search engines now have the ability to read flash files.

Adobe lends a helping hand to Yahoo and Google

Search engines have been trying unsuccessfully to accurately read the contents of flash-based files for years, and recently Adobe has given Yahoo and Google the software they need to do just that. In essence, this move on Adobe’s part has the potential of opening up the floodgates for flash lovers; a move tantamount to giving web developers a green light to use flash to their hearts content while allowing said website developers to truthfully assert that flash is now “SEO friendly”.

Truth-be-told, this advancement in flash-search technology is for all intents and purposes a positive step forward. Website developers now have a way to integrate Flash into websites without losing the ability to optimize these types of websites for search engines, which really is beneficial as it may help quality websites with useful services to rise up in the SERP.  While we don’t deny that this is a move in the right direction - the effects of this advancement lead us to the most important question of all: will this move forward in flash-based website optimization cause a step back in terms of user-friendliness in the global marketplace? Only time will tell.

Cuil, correctly pronounced as “cool”, is a fresh face in the search scene - one that has promised to be a major contender against Google, the search engine giant that literally overshadows all of its direct competitors with its gargantuan, digital footprint. While Cuil maintains somewhat noteworthy bragging rights because its founders are former Google employees and because the hype surrounding the launch of Cuil search caused its servers to overload time and time again, does Cuil really have what it takes to become the “Google-killer”?

Shaky start

When Cuil launched earlier this week - there were widespread reports of outages and completely irrelevant results. In fact, on day one we tried several different searches for common terms and were faced with “not found” messages galore amongst the mess of blatant spam pages and expired domains. Now, to be fair - it was the first day and Cuil’s engineers were not prepared for the influx of traffic that the new search engine received. So, we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

What Cuil offers

Google is well-known for its ranking algorithm based mostly on the popularity of a web page, link popularity to be exact. Cuil endeavors to take the old-school route by purportedly relying on a web page’s content to rank it. While this is how search engines first started out back in the olden days of search startups, most search engines tweaked their ranking algorithms to rely less-heavily on on-page factors simply because rankings were too easy to manipulate. Whether Cuil can take the old-school search and twist it into a workable format, that’s something that remains to be seen.

Is Cuil the Google Killer?

Based on the performance of the search engine this week so far - it’s not likely to happen anytime soon. However, even if Cuil is able to overcome their mostly negative launch, the truth of the matter is that Google is a household name in a world that predominantly internet-literate. Our generation has grown up with Google as our home page and it’s unlikely that the majority of computer users will cede their home pages nor search habits to Cuil. Sure, there will be some cross over, but in our opinion - if Cuil is really to become a major contender against Google, it won’t be this generation that helps it achieve that status.

While Cuil had a less-than-stellar entry into the online marketplace, because of all of the hype surrounding this new search engine - it’s worth taking a look at and maybe even keeping tabs on.

It’s been compared off and on to Wikipedia, we were teased with its inception back in 2007 and today Google Knol has become a reality for industry and niche experts all around the world.  While the public availability of Google Knol is warmly welcomed by internet marketers worldwide – are there any downsides to this new information-based service?

Google Knol –advice from industry experts, or biased marketers?

Google Knol is a user-generated content service, a service where anybody in the world with a Google account can contribute to the open-community project. And, while some articles within Knol’s pages are community-moderated, users have the option to disallow others from editing their articles. In all honesty, there is a great potential for “abuse” by savvy marketers - either the creation of guised spam pages or patently false information that cannot be modified by third parties.

Now, the potential for abuse is severely limited if Google’s Knol service doesn’t “get off the ground”, so to speak, and has limited exposure in search engines’ results. However, considering the fact that Google Knol is a variation of Wikipedia and the fact that this is a Google Service - the chances are slim-to-none that Google Knol will somehow avoid receiving significant amount of exposure in the SERP.  And, something that could heighten the potential for abuse is if Google happens to give their Knol service a tiny pinch of algorithmic love – who’s to say that Google Knols won’t outrank established and trusted content instantly? After all, it is a Google service - why wouldn’t Google inherently trust the content on their own servers more than content hosted on third-party websites?

Truth be told – most of this is mere speculation at the moment as Google Knol just officially launched today. Nobody really knows the weight or exposure that Google Knol will have and only Google really knows if their Knol service will earn automatic trust in their heavily relied-upon search results. A topic we haven’t touched on, though -

SEO and Google Knol – what will it mean?

While there are visible similarities between Wikipedia and Google Knol – for all intents and purposes, it’s a completely different type of service; namely it’s a user-generated content service being offered and hosted for free by the most popular search engine in the world. If Google Knols get any form of favor from the search engine giant - there could be major repercussions for search engine optimizers and website owners world-wide.

Again, it’s all mere speculation at this point, but as website owners and internet marketers, Google’s Knol service has a significant amount of potential, both good and bad.  Only time will tell which route this new service will take.

Keyword research is, undoubtedly, a very important task when you start with SEO. If you’re targeting wrong keywords, you’re losing your time and money. So , the first step of an SEO campaign is to target profitable keywords that helps you get a kicking business.

Here are few steps for keyword research that I’d advice.

Step1- Keyword List Generation: There are many tools available out there. I like Wordtracker, KeywordDiscovery and Google Adwords Keyword Research tool. Generate as many keywords as you can. Focus on keywords that are relevant to your niche. Don’t try to focus on too general keywords.

For example, if your website is related to skin care products, you should not target “Skin Care” as your keyword as it is highly competitive keyword and additionally, it may not deliver you sale. (A person who is searching for skin care may be interested in skin care articles, skin care books, skin care advice or anything and it is obvious that these searchers won’t be interested in your skin care products; so if you’re receiving traffic from them, they wont help you.)

So find keywords that helps! For our example, you can find keywords like

skin care cream
skin care products
skin care shop
skin diseases and medicine
skin care medicine
best skin care products
mens skin care products
organic skin care
professional skin care products
skin care cosmetics
beauty cream
beauty products

And so on…

Step2 - Traffic Estimation: After you have prepared list of relevant keywords, estimate traffic of those keywords. If you’re optimizing a website which has 3 search per month, it won’t make sense. Microsoft adCenter has developed a nice tool to estimate traffic of keywords, which can be downloaded from here. It is currently compatible with Excel 2007 only.

Step3 - Run PPC Campaign: If you’ve just started your website/business than to find profitable keywords, you can run PPC Campaigns. Don’t forget to track your campaign and find out keywords which convert. It is possible that you’ll find few keywords which won’t send you single order or business even after sending hundreds of clicks. Avoid optimizing those keywords.

After you find profitable keywords by running PPC, You’ll get an idea for which keywords, you should do SEO and optimize your website.

Ethical SEO should be a technique that:

1. Does more good than harm.
2. Remembers the dignity and rights of everyone who is involved.
3. Treats everyone who is involved fairly.
4. Looks out for the overall benefit of everyone who is involved.
5. Enhances the participant’s experience.

With this in mind, it is also important to clearly understand what is expected of both the Search Engines, the users and both the web page and its owner alike.

Some of the things that are expected of Search Engines include:

1. Return the most relevant resources based upon the keywords that are entered by the user.
2. Index and maintain an index of all of the different web pages that are online today.
3. Be honest about the links that they sponsor on their search results pages.

Some of the things that are expected of web pages and site owners include:

1. Provide relevant content for the user’s search.
2. Remain honest whenever changing the content or keywords.
3. Adhere to the Terms and Conditions that various Search Engines have laid out.

Some of the things that are expected of the users include:

1. They should only use those search engines that return relevant results on their results pages to do their web searching.
2. They should be at least somewhat aware of what is taking place on the Internet.
3. They should be fair whenever a case of minor mismatches in search results takes place. This should always be their attitude unless these mismatches appear to be done with malicious intent.

Search Engine Optimization is complicated because Search Engines do not want you to figure out how they work or how they rank web sites. This is important because otherwise everyone would be able to manipulate them in order to be able reach the top. This is also why Search Engines always update their algorithms.

What you need to do is remember what the basic reasons are for people to go to a web site. These include:

1. Entertainment
2. Information
3. It sells something that you need.

Ensuring that you have a site that people will want to go to will help you rank better with the Search Engines. Of course, if you have a specialized web site then there is probably already enough content for anyone who wants it. However, many pages of really good content will help you here. Plus, as you create more content people will want to return to your web site to see what you have written. They will then continue to return if they like what they see.

All of this has to do with on site SEO, meaning the steps that you take in order to optimize your web site from the inside out. This is important because every page of content will be indexed by the Search Engines and thus each one will have its own title and tags. This will in turn bring you a lot more traffic to your web site. So, yes, more content does mean better SEO for your web site.

If Google notices any “unnatural” link structures your web site will be “sandboxed” or moved to the bottom of the SERPs. This is why you need to be careful whenever you conduct a link popularity campaign. Here are some ways to get back links for your web site without getting “sandboxed”:

1. Make sure that the link is on a web page that is hosted on a unique IP address.
2. Make sure that the link itself is on a web page that has a unique IP that has an independent set of back links.
3. Make sure that the web site linking to you is relevant to your web site’s topic.
4. Make sure that the link is created within a week.

Some of the best ways to get these types of links is through:

1. Directories are a basic starting point for a link campaign as they will be spidered and indexed quickly as long as they follow the aforementioned “rules.”
2. Press Releases provide you with an opportunity to announce your web site while getting a back link from relevant pages.  Make sure that yours is well-written and submitted to multiple news wires. 
3. Writing and publishing helpful articles for general “how-to” web sites is appreciated them and will also get you some great back links.

Whatever you do, you should also usually avoid reciprocal linking and renting links from link brokers or networks.  Both of these types of links will have minimal impact upon your Search Engine rankings and could get you “sandboxed.”  Instead, concentrate on the aforementioned ways to get quality one-way inbound links.

The best thing that you can do to help your web site is work at obtaining relevant links. So, if you own a web site, then you should only add links that visitors to your web site will find useful. As such, you are going to have to forget about the number of links you have and concentrate upon their quality instead.  In order to know if Google finds a link relevant you will need to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if Search Engines did not exist?”

1. Start by evaluating what your business is all about and what your business offers. Every service or product that you offer is a potential keyword.
2. Ask your customers for any feedback about their web site searching habits so that you know what keywords they tend to type into the Search Engines. You may want to offer a discount for completing a survey wherein you gather this information.
3. Research any competition that is in the same field as you to see what keywords they are using. Of course, you will need to research a lot of different competitors but herein you may be able to find keywords that you may not have previously thought of.
4. Use a keyword research tool. This will help you see how many times a certain keyword has been searched for by visitors.