Flash, AJAX, Usability, and SEO

By Shari Thurow | December 18, 2006

At the Chicago Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference a few weeks ago, I was privileged to speak on a wide variety of topics, including how both Flash and AJAX (define) can have a positive or negative effect on SEO (define) efforts.

The audience was a mixed group. Many Web developers and designers were in the audience, of course, as well as SEO professionals and other online marketers. Noticeably missing, however, were people who were educated, trained, or experienced in user-centered design (UCD). Quite frankly, I was a bit stunned at the lack of understanding about SEO and UCD, both from those on my respected panel and from the audience. "Everybody wants the 'enhanced' experience" seemed to be the prevailing attitude.

What's this 'enhanced experience' SEO professionals, developers, designers, and online marketers honestly believe people desire? Are they really testing, measuring, and verifying this belief, or was I listening to a group of people who believe their own hype?

Optimizing Animated Content

Don't get me wrong. I'm perfectly aware I have a big ego, so I'm always amazed when I meet people who have bigger egos than mine. However, I don't assume end users think and act the same way I do on a Web site.

For example, I love Flash. I love to design in Flash. I also love AJAX and have begun implementing it on a number of sites. I've seen Flash and AJAX used well individually and together, such as teaching people how to construct shelves on the IKEA Web site. And I've seen Flash used poorly.

However, Flash and AJAX can be confusing to users and search engines because the same URL delivers different content. URL structure is important to search engines because it provides a means of accessing content. It also provides a sense of place to site visitors.

Even though search engines currently can't access (or have difficulty accessing) the content within Flash or invisible layers, the problem isn't always access. The problem is often content. A few years ago, Yahoo analyzed the content contained within Flash movies and Web sites and found the content wasn't really useful. Extracting the links from these layers proved more useful.

So how should Web site owners determine whether or not to use Flash or AJAX on their Web sites?

Usability Testing, Focus Groups, and Web Analytics

I'm a usability professional. I don't throw bells and whistles on a Web page because I think they're cool. I want to know if my client's target audience believes the bells and whistles are useful (user confidence) and if they actually use them for the intended purpose (task completion).

Usability testing is the best way to determine user confidence and task completion. Unfortunately, many of my colleagues have limited or no experience in this area. They use focus groups and Web analytics as evidence to support their beliefs.

A focus group measures opinions. Opinions have limited effect on task completion. I can think a Flash movie or AJAX effect is pretty nifty, but I may not necessarily "Add to Cart," "Register for Class," or "Subscribe to Newsletter." Additionally, there's a group (or herd) mentality that can affect opinion. For example, if there are 12 people in a focus group and one person really disagrees, that person can often be persuaded to go along with the group because she doesn't want to be perceived as the naysayer.

My colleagues also use Web-analytics data as supporting evidence. The problem with this is users aren't presented with other options. If users are presented with only one option, who's to say whether they might select the less animated interface? Who's to say whether they'll complete the desired task, and why? Furthermore, Web site owners don't hear users think out loud. They don't directly hear their source of confusion (if any). All they see in analytics are click streams.

Though both user perception and click streams are important measurement tools, they're not task-oriented. Usability testing measures how effectively participants complete a desired task. If there are roadblocks to completing the desired task, such as an inappropriately named navigation label, these roadblocks can be eliminated so the site satisfies both user and business goals.

Listening to Users

Perhaps one of the most enlightening usability experiences I had was seeing how IT department heads interact with Web sites. One might think decision makers in an IT department would appreciate the enhanced experience Flash, AJAX, and other animation technologies offer.

I was mistaken.

Our firm has performed many usability tests on Flash- and AJAX-enhanced sites. Below are some of the actual comments we received from one-on-one usability tests:

• "The site wastes space. I am very busy. I hate it when sites like this waste my time."
  
  
• "I want to get down to business. I want to see things. What's with this [expletive] animation thing?"
  
  
• "This area takes up way too much space and doesn't give me any information. Where'd the navigation go?"
  
  
• "I don't like the navigation. When I move away from it, it stays there. It's just very confusing."
  
  
• "I've seen sites where they use that technology well. You can click on parts of the graphic and it takes you somewhere. This graphic is too big, does not tell me anything, and keeps up this annoying flashing when I am trying to do something else."

Overall, these participants found the Flash- and AJAX-enhanced features quite annoying. And that's just what business owners don't want: to annoy the very people who make purchasing decisions for their products and services.

Conclusion

Get with the program, developers and marketers. Don't assume your target audience wants an enhanced experience, not even advanced Web users. Analyze your target audience's search behavior. Don't skip SEO's usability aspect.

If you find your target audience genuinely wants the enhanced experience, then by all means give it to them. People will link to sites that provide them with easy access to desired information, which will have a positive SEO impact on link development.

If I can put my ego aside and not use Flash and AJAX when they aren't needed, you can, too.

Hotel Web Sites; the missing link(s)...

Hotel Web Sites; the missing link(s)... - By Keith Paulin
	There's a Fifth Element to building online revenues from your hotel web site, and without it you will never appear on page one of Google, Yahoo or MSN for the highest volume search terms...a Fifth you say? And the first Four Elements are?

The Fifth Element has nothing to do with anything actually on you hotel web site; the Fifth Element involves actively building more Inbound Links to your web site from other web sites. In the simplest of terms, a Search Engine sees a link to your web site as being like a vote of confidence in your web site. Search Engines believe that if other websites are linking to your web pages, you must have something good to link to and they will rate the page being linked to positively.

Search Engine robots or spiders continuously travel virally from web site to web site following links like an enormous daisy chain; in fact Search Engines initially discover your web site via a link from another web site. Once your hotel web site has been found, each page of your site is then ranked by Search Engines based on a complex set of criteria known as an algorithm; a piece of computer code that takes into consideration on-site and off-site factors collected by the robots or spiders. Data is then assembled, collated and evaluated in order to come up with a Page Score or Rank. This is how a search engine determines which sites to present when someone types in 'Hong Kong hotel with harbour view' or 'New York five star lodging near Wall Street'.

All things being equal, when two hotel web sites have similar structure and content, the site with the best links will be served up first. Note that I wrote 'best links' not 'most links'. Some time ago, a site with the 'most links' would have won out, however, although Search Engines may be blind to images, they are not blind to webmasters manipulating their algorithms. They are continuously fine tuning their spiders to exclude web sites that attempt to 'fudge' their results. Remember that a Search Engine's prime function is to deliver highly relevant results, not some mysterious pharmaceutical products when you are searching for that 'boutique London hotel near Knightsbridge'.

Search Engines today take into consideration several additional factors when rating Inbound Links to your site:

• the reputation or 'Trust' value of sites linking to your hotel web site

• the Theme or Relevance of sites linking to you

• the 'Anchor Text' (the words that the link is embedded within) in links to your site

Trust - for example, a link from a government tourism site is highly trusted by Search Engines, is 'on theme' and will most likely have anchor text including your hotel name (and 'destination + hotel' if you have been e-smart or have read ahead).

Theme or Relevance - a link from a destination guide web site that may also list other hotels in your region is 'on theme'; a link from your local scout troop site is of little value; not 'no value' but little value.

Anchor Text - this is now so critical in maximising your site's appearance at the top of the Search Engines Results Pages (SERP's) that we recommend that, for online purposes, that you include your destination in your official property name eg The Stafford 'Paris Hotel'. The terms 'destination + hotel' are usually among the major search terms that online searchers use for locating their accommodation options. The result of this is that links to your site embedded in you property name will also, almost always, have 'destination + hotel' in the anchor text. Having your keywords in the anchor text in links to your web site will help you climb up to page one on the Search Engines.

There are already some links to your site from other web sites, you just don't know who and how many. Helpfully, the Search Engines can tell you how many links there are currently to your site and from which sites. Go to Yahoo and type in linkdomain:www.yourwebsiteurl.com (replacing yourwebsiteurl.com with your own URL) and hit the Search button. Now, before you get all excited, do the same on Google...using the slightly different command link:www.yourwebsiteurl.com ...and you will see a much smaller number. Each of the Search Engines evaluates and counts links differently and Google is the fussiest of them all.

How many trusted, on theme, relevant links with the right words in the anchor text (getting the hang of this now?) do you need to march your web pages up the rankings? Whilst it does depend on how competitive your keywords are, about 30 links recognised by Google, and 600 on Yahoo and MSN will suffice...and adding about 100 a month means six months work and a lot of patience, although you will start to see results within a few weeks. And please don't try to add 600 links in a week (or sign up for those '1000 links for $19.95 in a week' services); the Search Engines are smart enough to know the difference between reasonable, 'natural' link growth (some acceleration is acceptable) and web sites that are trying to fudge the results and compensate for that.

So, how do you go about building more Inbound Links? Here are three simple, easy methods to start with:

• talk to you suppliers and ask them to link to your web site...your suppliers web sites are likely to be on theme (they supply your industry), somewhat 'trusted' (don't we all trust our suppliers) and will more than likely be happy to phrase the link text exactly the way you want (and if you add this request into your final negotiations it is difficult for them to say no)

• encourage your Conference and Events team to ask their clients to link to your hotel web site, that is, the venue for their upcoming conference, event or meeting...not so strong on theme but usually they are trusted corporate or association sites and again, if you supply them with the link and anchor text, there's a pretty good chance that they will simply add the link verbatim

• talk to your local partners, attractions and neighbours and ask them to link to you...they will be on theme (destination), relevant etc etc

You may be asked to provide a link back, and that is fine, but the preferred result is a 'one way link' to your pages. In simple terms 'links in' minus 'links out' gives you a net link value from the Search Engines (in reality its more complex than that).

Naturally, there is a lot more to building more Inbound Links...we haven't touched on submitting to web directories, outbound links to trusted sites, reciprocal links, link exchanges, buying links, renting links...in highly competitive online markets you may need to use all of these tools and more.

Oh, and sorry, but there IS a Sixth Element to consider as you work your way up to page one on Google for your main keywords...patience. You just can't hurry along the Search Engines. The same way that the very best chefs know that you need time and patience to create a culinary masterpiece, so you will need time and patience to work your web site up to page one for your optimum search terms. There is no 'quick fix' and anyone who promises to achieve 'a page one listing for high volume keywords in a month for $49.95' is a liar.

Yes, short term results can be achieved through certain 'black hat' techniques and I know a lot of them...but the risk of having your web site banned from Google, Yahoo or MSN, is just too great. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The Search Engines employ some of the smartest software engineers on the planet and they are light years ahead of anything you could think up to fool them.

Starting today, now, put into practice the simple methods I have outlined above to build relevant, theme-based links with the right anchor text...and watch as your web site starts heading North over the following few weeks and months. Assuming you have the first Four Elements in place, the results of implementing your own Fifth Element, an effective Inbound Link building program, will be rapidly growing visitor traffic to your web site, increasing online revenues and growth in RevPOV (Revenue Per Online Visit). And don't forget to add in that elusive Sixth Element, a little time and patience.