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Zoonini Web Services and I put together a public service announcement to answer the age-old question “Do I need a Flash intro?”
Don’t get us wrong – we love Flash, when it’s used correctly to inspire, inform and engage your site visitors. It can create a slick, professional look. But a Flash intro is the equivalent of trying to bulldoze your visitor with a commercial about you, you, you. (Usually with bad techno music - the horror!) And, to boot, a Flash intro can be counterproductive to any web site optimization.
Your website isn’t about imposing YOUR experience. It’s about building a compelling, informative experience. If you are thinking about a Flash intro ask yourself this:
Does the Flash intro interfere with my visitor’s ability to access the information they are looking for?
Flash intros create a block between your great content and your potential customer’s to access it. Why would you want to do that?
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Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with Sara Falconer from the Hour.ca and we had a great discussion about promoting your business on the Information Super Highway! We talked about why the Internet is different from any other marketing channel and how to avoid some common mistakes.
And, today, the article is out. Here's an excerpt:
With Oprah and Ashton Kutcher introducing micro-blogging site Twitter to millions of people, there's no excuse for you not to be using online tools to promote yourself or your business... that is, if you can get it right. Too often, social media campaigns and websites are bogged down by lack of clarity and self-indulgence, say web designer Kathryn Presner and content strategist Charlotte Riley.
Read the complete article at the Hour.ca.
Approximately nine years ago I was working at LookSmart on a project called LookSmart Live. Similar to Ask Yahoo, people would send in their online stumpers and our team would do our best to dig up the answers on the Internet. The search skills I honed at LookSmart Live have served me well, as on a daily basis, I’m scouring the Web, conducting research for clients or getting information to write about a particular topic. (And, of course, looking for the occasional recipe.)
I thought I would put together some of the tricks I’ve learned over the years that make my job of finding things a lot easier. Generally speaking, search engines exclude “stop words”. (the, for, a) As well, uppercase and lowercase don’t really matter. For example, searching for “Turkey” or “turkey” yields the same results.
Let's start with some basics:
brownie recipes
This is the way most people search - by entering their keyword phrase in Google. This sort of query returns results that mention both “brownie” and/or “recipes” on the same page, or in the browser title or incoming links.
“brownie recipes”
By putting double quotes around a set of words, you get search results for the exact phrase you are looking for. (Often called "an exact phrase match.")
brownie OR recipes
Using the Boolean command “OR” tells Google to search for pages that have either “brownie” or “recipes” in the title, in in-bound links or in the body of the copy.
brownie recipes –walnuts
The negative search term uses the subtract sign to exclude words. For instance, this search will return pages with “brownie” and “recipes” but exclude pages with the word “walnuts.” (For all you walnut haters out there.)
brownie recipes ~good
Through the mighty tilde (~) you can add synonyms. This search will return results that include synonyms for “good”, like “best” in the body of the copy or in the title or incoming links.
brownies site:epicurious.com
This command allows me to search a particular site for a brownie recipe, in this case the Epicurious.com Web site.
intitle:"brownie recipes"
Using the intitle command allows me to search for brownie recipes (I’ve used the quotes to ensure both words) in browser title. If I wanted to restrict my search to pages with “brownie recipes” in the title of the Web page and that were a specific file type, such as a PDF, I would add the “filetype:” command afterward. Like this: intitle:"brownie recipes" filetype:pdf
inurl:brownie recipes
This command restricts the search to words found in the URL.
inanchor:brownie recipes
This command allows you to search for these phrases in anchor text, the text-based link clicked on to go to a web page.
Random Search Tips
Need to know the time somewhere else in the world? Just type the word “time” before the location:
time Melbourne
Get weather information the same way:
weather Toronto
Local search
Use the postal code or city name to find local results - for example poutine H4A 1E9
Vertical Search
Don’t forget Google verticals – they can save so much time. Search for:
News
Blogs
Images
Video
Books
Financial/market information
There are tons of other tricks and tips, so this post will be continued...
- One of the biggest stories this week was Dominos. And the above search results are just a small example how not having a social media plan in place can be damaging. After employees behaved very badly indeed, and uploaded their food pranks to YouTube, things went sideways for the pizza chain. USA Today explains some of the lessons to be learned.
- Well, Digg released a URL shortener that failed to impress. (That’s being kind.) Read the Truth About Digg’s DiggBar to get the inside scoop on why it’s just plain evil from an SEO point-of-view. Gene Smith offers up a few alternative options.
- What’s wrong with the phrase “social media”? Josh Bernoff elegantly explains Why 'Social Media' Sucks.
- How the Internet Community Saved Alf – need I say more?
- This is a beautiful post that deserves to be read and read again: 5 Lessons From Regular Architects That Everyone Should Embrace.
- Kelowna’s Orchard Park Shopping Mall hit one out of the park with its “Fresh-er-vention” Facebook contest. I foresee more Facebook Connect campaigns, don't you?
- Truer words were never spoken. Want to get people talking about your company? Create something newsworthy.
- Zen Habits often dishes up some great productivity tips, and I particularly liked this one: Seven Productivity Tips for People That Hate GTD.
- Not to sound all gushy, but Lee Odden is an SEO rock star. He continually puts out Top 10 material. Read his article Improve Public Relations with SEO & Social Media, and discover why keyword research, content optimization and content assets can add value to your website, your end user and your company’s brand.
- Who doesn’t love a makeover? Roberta Rosenberg does a brilliant job of explaining how TheWeddingLens.com could be improved and get a better conversion rate.
Friday Fun
What’s your Twitter zodiac sign?
After an all-too-brief stint in Toronto where I attended Mesh and met up with colleagues and friends, my head is swimming with some of outstanding moments and great lines, some of which I’ve jotted down here...
"Companies go to great lengths to protect their existing business models, even if it goes against their best interests. And, in a lot of cases, I believe it does. A lot of these innovations will increase the size of a market, not decrease it. But innovation also creates fear." Mike Masnick discussing how litigious copyright laws inhibit new sustainable business models."I think that I could retire on happiness." Jessica Jackley discussing how she feels about her work at Kiva.org
"Digital has to be at the strategy table from conceptualism. If digital only exists to support traditional, it’s a fail." Pepsico’s Bonin Bough on the integration of digital media.
"Search is huge. It’s the new digital newsstand. It's a whole new space to evolve into, and create relevant content.... You have to start thinking like a newsroom. Think about going from sound bite to sound blast." Bonin Bough on message distribution.
"Today it’s all about filtering – how do you find what’s important?" Andrew Cherwenka on finding the signal through the noise."Blogging is dinner. Twitter is dessert." Mark Evans on the difference between substance and yummy tidbits.
1.) Well, as everyone knows it was April Fools’ Day this week, and those pranksters at Google were once again in top form. They created CADIE, an artifical intelligence tasked-array system that worked on making the user experience more pleasurable by making web pages like this as well as creating Google Auto Pilot for Gmail. Google also introduced Brain Search. (But, what scares me is I don’t think that’s too farfetched!)
2.) Not to be outdone, the Guardian announced it was switching from print and would be published exclusively through Twitter. Experts say “any story can be told in 140 characters.”
3.) Despite the rather annoying pop-up at SEObook, this interview with Mike Grehan is well worth the read, filled with many, many insights about the future of search. Download the white paper here.
4.) Copyblogger has a piece by Sherice Jacob that provides tips on How the Right Words Help You Sell Better.
5.) Twitter pal Mark Goren has some handy tips on how to filter out some of the noise and allow top content to come to you.
6.) Listen up, because here is some invaluable advice. Don’t miss 8 Great Content Marketing Takeaways from 2009 Custom Content Conference.
7.) That clever and talented social media guy (and fantastic photographer) CC Chapman put out a free white paper called About Face, which provides the inside scoop on Facebook pages.
8.) If you love something, set it free! Maggie Fox from Social Media Group and Scott Monty from Ford put together a compelling Slideshare presentation. It’s definitely got me thinking about how I can create something that people want to share. (Oh, where is that cloning machine??)
9.) Steve Rubel interviews Jeff Jarvis about his new book What Would Google Do?
10.) I missed this really fascinating read from Brainstorm’s Ed Illig a while back, but couldn’t stop thinking about it this week. It’s an amazing story of how a former opera star rebranded himself after vocal chord surgery changed his singing voice. It also touches on how he used the Internet to propel his new career forward.
Friday Fun
All you wordies out there, try the Marketing Profs challenge. Come up with a word that describes “A customer who rants at you without justifiable reason.” At the time of this post, “Frustomer” was leading.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MONTREAL, April 1, 2009 – Today, A.C. Riley Communications was certified as a licensed LOLspeak copywriting firm, by the International Institute of LOLcats. A.C. Riley Communications is the first in North America to be fully authorized.
“Wez spekin the LOLspeak for the corporatage cumminications, Im in ur corner, writin ur copyz.” said A. Charlotte Riley, president of A.C. Riley Communications. “We plan to breakthroughs the “I can has cheezburger barrier” for LOLspeak to be jumpin the sharkz and swimmings in the mainstream”
Riley contents that applying a “human” voice to corporate communications is not only one-dimensional, but also biased, saying “Kitties got teh feelin too. It can’t be all humanz, humanz, humanz, wot?”
Instead, Riley is urging businesses and organizations to give up the “best-of-breed corporatespeak that be representin the faceless face of biz.”
“If my bizniz was farking importants to them, I be spekin to a for reals person. But that’s wot theys say to fools people into believings that they care about you. The future is LOLspeak. It be reals. FTW!” Riley stated exuberantly during an interview.
About A.C. Riley Communications
A.C. Riley Communications is a Montreal-based communications firm that specializes in content analysis and development, optimized copywriting and marketing collaterals. It is the first company in North American to be officially sanctioned by the International Institute of LOLcats for Intertubes and Outertubes copywriting.
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