Unethical SEO

You want your WebSite to top search engine results. There are Search Engine Optimization "SEO" experts who are paid to get your WebSite ranked better. But how do they do it? It's all smoke and mirrors to average business owner. There are many "SEO" experts out there that will do just about anything to make a quick buck at your expense. Over the years, people have pursued the ever allusive top rank on search engine sites such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and the countless others. The point really isn't always to obtain that coveted position, in some cases it is simply to redirect the top search results to a particular page. You as a business owner need to know that this is called Blackhat SEO and is minimally unethical, and many of the search engine companies consider it against their terms of service.

Blackhat SEO experts fully comprehend that their sites may anticipate that their sites may ultimately be banned irrevocably from search results. Would you like your WebSite banned from Google, never to appear in any search result ever again? Well you should know that the tactics of some disreputable SEO experts, code named Blackhat can lead to this unthinkable dead end.

Some of the more common tactics of Blackhat are: link farming, keyword stuffing, hidden text, blog comment spamming, and cloaking.While the use of these tactics may seem innocent enough, after all its your WebSite, they can lead to search engine delisting, a situation which is devastating to WebSite traffic.

Abacus uses SEO techniques that are approved by the major search engines, to ensure the long term viability of your WebSite search engine ranking.

Flash - There's still life out there

There is some credible Flash trash talking among my colleagues and the Web industry in general. Several years ago Flash was the new and in-demand Web technology that could make any WebSite vitalized and come to life. Unfortunately enough bad apples got into the bathwater and our new baby was in threat of being thrown out...

Not so long ago the fact was simple, the computer geeks that understood how to make Flash do really cool things had no clue in the art of storyboard creation or really had any artistic skills to speak of. On the other hand the artists that could tell a wonderful story, and get their message across to the masses were frustrated beyond reason as how to make Flash do anything useful.

You see at first when Flash was first designed it was aimed at the artistic crowd. The same people that know how to communicate ideas through design. In the beginning Flash was much easier to use and this in turn allowed artistic types to pick it up without too much hassle. But then Flash had bigger and better dreams of becoming something more. Flash became more powerful by means of its own scripting language. More and more complex programming techniques were needed just to create the simplest effects. Unfortunately this left the artistic types in the dust, grumbling on how difficult it was to do anything with Flash. Adobe, the company behind Flash made a bad judgement that enough users would continue be able to use Flash as it became a more powerful Web medium. This idea was simply before its time. The only ones remaining to develop with Flash were the techno geeks, able to go boldly where no man has gone before, but you know geeks communications skills - NADA! If you question this I suggest you turn on the television and watch Big Bang Theory, and you start understanding the rift in geek communication skills. ~~ afterall isn't the reason for a WebSite to communicate a message?

In essence the majority of Flash proliferating the Net back in 2007 and still today in mid 2011, is a montage of screaming babies, pitiful and annoying. Restraint is a crucial factor in Flash usage. Too much and it becomes overbearing, used as accents it becomes a worthwhile tool. Along with proper usage is proper understanding of the tool. There is a future for Flash. As more and more graphic arts departments in colleges and universities start teaching Flash and the new medium in general, slowly but surely respectable Flash WebSites have taken their place alongside the pure HTML standard.

Even with the tenaciousness of Apple to bar the technology from its portable devices, new portable device platforms like Andriod are wholeheartedly embracing Flash. Only a year ago Flash was doomed to obscurity due to Apples dominance in the portable device market. Perhaps by sheer pressure the all-mighty Apple will give in, but even if it doesn't, they are no longer the only platform in town.

So there is still life in Flash; it is that the tool is utilized properly by gifted artists that make are able to communicate a message through it, as well as the growing number of portable devices that support it.

File names using a date code

Just like paper files, electronic files need to be organized, or else they get hopelessly lost. As an added benefit organizing your files reduces confusion and helps keep your sanity. Efficient management of your files begins with something called file naming conventions. One of the easiest ways to start organizing your files is to incorporate dates into file.

You may ask why should I put the date into a file name when my computer automatically associates the date into a file. One thing to consider is that you may update a file and thus changing the original date. By adding a date into the file name you are ensuring the file will be associated with the date you intend. Also if revisions of a document are made it is makes a lot of sense that files with an earlier date are earlier file revisions.

Some people find it more useful to have the date at the start of the file name, while
others might prefer it at the end. Either way, it is a useful sorting tool when the files are organized, and the same rule is consistently used.

The best way to list the date is based on an international standard following ISO 8601. This international standard date notation is: YYYY_MM_DD or YYYYMMDD.

Don't fret its not all that confusing when you understand these simple concepts. YYYY are the numbers used for the year, MM is the numerical month of the year between 01 (January) and 12 (December), and DD is the day of the month between 01 and 31. For example, the day that this post was posted, April, 23 2011 is written as 2011_04_23 or 20110423.

Why not just use the format you are already used to? Well this particular format allows ease of sorting and comparing files by date and prevents confusion with other date formats (especially in other formats that use just two digits for the year).

For example, this blog entry could be named:
Abacus_20110423
to reflect that this entry was created on April 23, 2011.

Likewise a document containing the content (words & images) for a WebPage could be named:
20110423_WelcomePage.txt
This way the files are more easily sorted by date. All of the files and their revisions can be placed in the same folder.

Abacus believes that communications is paramount to understand the needs of its clients. There are many forms of communications that are simply not used because of impracticality. Faxes are one such impractical way to communicate. Information in within Faxes can not be easily transferred as they contain only low resolution images of the sender's intent. For this reason Abacus does not accept Faxed documents. We realize this may be an inconvenience for a small minority, but it is necessary to ensure that all of our clients receive the best service possible.

What your clients cant see will hurt you

Did you know that one in twelve people interpret colors they are seeing incorrectly due to some sort of color deficiency. When Abacus designs for WebSites, we keep this in that a small section of the population will not be able to see the site as intended. That's a lot of people that most other companies completely ignore.

Understanding color blindness is crucial in design for obvious reasons. Color vision is pretty complicated. If you're not color-deficient or color-blind then it's hard to understand what color-blind people see. There are four kinds of color vision:

Regular vision is Trichromatic, meaning it implements the three color receptors (Red-Green-Blue). In practice, the cone cells in your eyes are called L, M and S (for long, medium and short wavelength reception), but the colors they interpret is actually closer to Yellow, Green and Blue. The wavelengths eyes interpret are vastly overlapping, so green light hits all three in varying degrees (and all wavelengths hit your rod cells).

Anomalous Trichromat is when individuals use all three color receptors but reception of one pigment is skewed and less sensitive. A Dichromatic aberration is when vision is only two of the three light wavelengths is interpreted. When most people say color blind a Monochromatic vision abnormality is the most extreme case. Some might call this seeing in gray-scale where very low color recognition is experienced.

Now this might sound very confusing which is the reason many so called designers don't bother to consider it in their work. Abacus takes this very seriously since the wrong color combination can make a design seem completely uncomprehendable, let alone get your message across. If someone can't see your website, then it is useless.

Developing and Designing with productivity in mind

Productivity is key to offering better service. Much design work on WebSites includes working with multiple computer programs all running at once. On a traditional single monitor, the task of jumping back and forth between layered windows eats away at productivity.

Having a larger desktop to work with enhances productivity. The more that can be viewed at a single glance, improves the time it takes to work with multiple programs at the same time. Selecting a higher resolution for the desktop will achieve this. Implementing a duel screen solution further increases the amount of desktop space which can be viewed at one time.

Today my eMail inbox contained a sterling reminder and pun to this productivity concept. It might seem cute, even outlandish to some, having multiple monitors.



To me, it is a fact of life and a necessity as a developer / designer of WebSites to work with multiple monitors. I can relate to Alice in the third panel. I have worked in large tech companies where a single tiny screen was the rule. It was stifling to know that a short sighted decision, limiting users to a single monitor, holds back productivity. Its easy to shortchange workers; its only a small amount of time that is saved after all. Adding up those chunks of time convinced me that a multiple monitor implementation is simply the right thing to do.

This is why I employ multiple monitors in my business. It just makes sense to allocate resources upfront to a proven productivity enhancer. Making the right choices in the past has allowed Abacus to save countless chunks of time over the years.

Economic Downturn: Your WebSite in Jeopardy

We can all agree that the general economy in the United States is problematic at best. Here in Nevada, we are particularly hard hit. Your marketing WebSite efforts force you to ask some important questions.

Does your WebSite sell necessities? If your WebSite sells either a service or tangible product that is needed by people, regardless of the general economy, the WebSite needs to focus on selling the idea that your product or service is something worth buying in these hard times.

How do your prices compare to others in the Northern Nevada market? Regardless to how superior your service or products are, consumers have a tendency to price shop in a poor economy. Many business owners believe they know their competition, but in truth they spend so much time with day to day business activities, they are unable to effectively gauge the competition. You must understand what similar products and services that consumers might substitute for yours. With more consumer choices, your WebSite needs to be discourage price shop and take into account the overall value of your product or service.

Does the message on your WebSite clearly state how your product or services are unique from the competition? If you have a truly unique product you are at an advantage to those that have to deal with competition. But if there are competitors in our market, your WebSite must clearly reflect why a consumer would want to choose your service or product over the competition.

Even if your WebSite is in Jeapordy, sucsess is still at hand. You will need to make the commitment to continuously scrutinize your customers. Are they helping or holding back your business? Does it make sense to go after new customers within the current demographic or search for customers that may help build your business? Take the time to survey your customers to know what value they find in your product or service. If you don't have time to do this yourself, then you need to have someone do it for you. Otherwise you will find your customer base has shifted too late.

One of the misnomers about having a WebSites is that it should relate to everyone with an Internet connection. Trying to appeal to everyone only accomplishes appealing to no one. Your WebSite should appeal to your customer demographic. This is why it is important to know your customer demographic. Otherwise how else can you appeal to them.

Abacus can help you more than with just a good looking WebSite. We provide the WebSites that work for you and your business by taking the time to understand your customers. Did the person that designed your current WebSite, understand your customers? Does your WebSite still attract the people that make your business successful? If you even have a doubt it is time to take a look at a WebSite developer that does.

We all have trepidation about the weak economy. Abacus will ensure that your business WebSite helps your business achieve its goals. We will see your business through these tough times.