Uncover the missing formula in your web design and marketing | exceler8 the web

Don't let Flash happen to your web design - Google can't read it.

Last week I got a call from Fantasia Floral Design, a local florist on the upper east side of New York City. They were interested in the article I wrote on the Google Enhanced Business Listing. Before calling the business I performed a quick assessment of their website. What I found was a critical and all too common problem.

Their website was made entirely in Flash, a web programing language that is intended for displaying motion graphics and videos on a website but never intended for use in attracting search engines or powering entire websites. Google and other search engines read text but not the content of Flash or video files.

Given that local search is now the number one tool people use to find local products and services this presents a major problem.

The solution is to have a new website design made using modern web design and local search engine optimization methods. Today, an integrated design that combines best practices in web design, usability and SEO are available in the general marketplace at affordable prices (for example we offer a starter package that includes your WordPress install, setup, design theme, local SEO, training, web hosting, and training for under a thousand bucks).

There are some additional benefits to updating your website. If your old Flash content is still compelling and relevant there’s a good chance it can be incorporated into your new web design like as I’ve done with Fantasia Floral’s Flash movie below.

A website built on a modern platform will open up other features and benefits that make it easier to market your business online, such as easy integration with social media like Twitter and Facebook. Modern website platforms like WordPress like we use here at LOCAL Na8ion make it easy for business owners without technical knowhow to update their own website, freeing them from the costs of hiring a web designer every time something in their business changes.

There’s always a balancing act when creating a web design that’s attractive to people and search engines. The site must look good and function well while providing users with clear navigation – all while being fully accessible to Google and other search engines. The benefit of this integrated web design is better organic search engine rankings, a lasting effect that keeps paying you back as long as you’re in business. That’s what good web design and marketing are all about – better results.

iTunes, QuickTime, iPhone or iPod Download.

For those of you who have products or services that can be sold anywhere the Internet has opened up new revenue and growth opportunities for small business that never existed before. But just because you can get business from anywhere doesn’t mean that your marketing effort should be similarly broad.

While I encourage you to think globally when it comes to your ideas and marketing differentiation I would strongly suggest that you act locally when it comes time for targeting your message and advertising. The money you can make from competing aggressively in your local market can fuel your ambition to expand regionally or nationally.

In the mean time you’ll spend MUCH less time on your internet marketing, see results faster and things like social media outreach and search engine optimization are childs-play at a local level as compared to similar national/global efforts.

Here are a few examples

Local Marketing Effort

• Search engines: you only compete on your search terms with local geographic modifier (e.g. Florists Los Gatos not Florists EVERYWHERE)
• Advertising: you only have to rise above the local advertising din. It’s easier to make noise locally with any kind of online or offline advertising
• Social Media: you only have to target local users of social media with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, an effort that will lend itself to a much more manageable social Rolodex.

There may be a new kind of small business internet ad coming to Google that will offer you a low cost means to advertise online – the Google Enhanced Listing. For now Google is testing the service in Houston and San Jose but most agree we’ll see the Google Enhanced Listing offered in all markets later this year.

At only $25, the Google Enhanced Listing is designed to highlight a part of your business (a coupon, video or just your home page) on the Google search results pages. A small yellow flag appears next to your business listing on the Google Maps 7-pack and also on the map itself.

Here’s an example of a local skateboard shop that was recently featured in the New York Times article These Battle Lines are Drawn in Yellow.

Click to enlarge: Example of Google Enhanced Business Listing

As a small business owner you’re acutely aware of how expensive and ineffective local advertising can be.

When paid search ads (pay-per-click ads) were new on Google and other search engines they were initially dirt cheap and highly effective. As the market became competitive and bid prices rose, the price to win a ‘click’ skyrocketed to the point where small business owners like you and I found ourselves in all too familiar territory – being spent out of the market. The same experience we’ve had with online banner advertising and before that print Yellow Pages, Newspaper, Direct Mail, Coupons and the PennySaver. The NYT article I cited earlier provides a great example.

“But one of his sure-fire ways to drive Web visitors and foot traffic — buying search ads on Google — got to be pretty expensive. Mr. Cowie, whose shop is just 1,000 square feet, found himself bidding for placement against deep-pocketed national chains, and having to spend $1,500 to $2,000 a month just to keep up.” - New York Times article These Battle Lines Are Drawn in Yellow

This experience is why we still use and champion organic search engine optimization, social media and web marketing. These methods have no associated advertising costs and the money invested in effective web design, marketing ideas and organic Local SEO are largely one-time costs that are quickly recovered, unlike ads that you have to keep paying for indefinitely with dubious effect.

The best part of Google’s Enhanced Business Listing is that it’s s flat fee. For now it’s also very affordable at $25 a month. We’ll have to wait and see how effective it is. In the early days early adopters will likely see a big impact but after the product saturates the Google maps listings expect results to dwindle sharply. Then we’ll be back where we started – finding unique ideas and marketing methods to make our business stand out and creating web designs, video and copy that converts shoppers into buyers.