Google started to index Flash files in June 2008. Before this time a heavy reliance on Flash, such as the use of Flash-only pages, was very detrimental to SEO. Since that time Google search has improved its algorithm to ’see’ and read Flash files better than ever. Eventually, I believe Flash will be read as easily as any page of text today. Staying on top of how Google reads Flash is especially important for people using or would like to use Flash in combination with SEO.
Recently the Google Webmaster Central Blog has announced another improvement in its Flash indexing capabilities which is important to note:
Microsoft launched its new search engine called Bing on May 28, 2009. It is a rebranded and far superior search engine than their previous one, Live Search. I think the marketing ($80 million worth) and functionality of Bing will help it gain significant market share. Let’s face it, not many people used Live Search because of the unsexy brand name and lack of differentiators against competing search engines.
With the introduction of Bing, I think Microsoft will make significant headway in the market. Increased and innovative competition in this space can only help us, the consumers. The worst thing that could happen is for Google to actually completely monopolize the search market, and this makes that less of a possibility.
So how does Bing compare to Google? Surprisingly well. The gap between Google and Live Search has closed with the launch of Bing. Here is a head to head comparison of Bing VS Google in terms of speed, brand, functionality, and quality of results.
Google and Yahoo made up 85% of US search engine queries in April 2009. Google owns 64% of the search engine market in the US, while Yahoo comes in at 20%.
The search engine results can be quite different because of the different search algorithms each one uses. It’s important to know what these differences are so you can incorporate them into your optimization strategies.
Here are three important differences between Google and Yahoo’s search engine algorithms:
Google has the lion’s share of the search engine market. If you’re trying to drive website traffic from search engines, spending more of your time optimizing for Google makes sense. Bear in mind the following factors and tips will work for other popular search engines such as Yahoo! as well.
Here are 55 Google SEO Factors to improve your search engine rankings in Google.
Google Webmaster Tools optimize your SEO efforts to improve your site’s visibility in Google search. It shows you how a search engine sees your website, so that you can make necessary improvements. It provides you with any errors it is experiencing on your site that reduce its visibility. It shows you how many people link to your website, how it is structured, and many more important details to drive traffic to your website.
This post covers the first four of seven reasons I think Google Webmaster Tools is essential for SEO.
