Many clients come to us asking for that highly sought-after first page of Google or some other search engine. They expect it cheaply and want it yesterday. They couldn’t be more wrong or mislead.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is not a quick job. It’s not for the weak-hearted, because it’s not something that miraculously catapults your website to the upper ranks of Google within one day, one week, one month, or even several months. Website owners had better commit to the long haul and expect a long term relationship with Dogpaw Studio to gain valuable search engine rankings - especially for competitive keywords.

Even up to a few years ago, web developers could employ fairly basic methods to gain some higher search engine result placement (SERP), but now everyone and their dog wants to be No. 1 on Google. Well, guess what folks … there’s only one No. 1 spot, and you fight for it or lose out.

So what does it take to gain in SERPs? It takes content optimization and link management (both internal and external) over the course of months and in many cases, years. Yes, years! Don’t expect to hire someone to optimize your site and forget about it. You may temporarily gain some higher SERPs, but it probably won’t last long, and you’ll come knocking again asking for more SEO. Remember, there are new websites and newly optimized websites cropping up every day, and if you snooze, you lose!

Ready to SEO? Let us know by filling out our FREE website consultation form or calling Dogpaw Studio at 503.670.7035 in Portland, Oregon.

Adobe has been working with Google and Yahoo to allow both search engines to search inside and index dynamic content and links in Flash file format (SWF). This is extremely exciting news for web designers! They are providing the Adobe Flash Player technology to these major search engines to allow them to “see” inside Flash animations, which was previously impossible on rich content websites.

In my humble opinion, search engine optimization (SEO) concerns have limited rich content websites to a large extent. I’ve had to tell many clients that SEO and rich content such as Flash animation on websites don’t play nice. It used to be an “either/or” situation, but our clients’ websites can now benefit from rich content alongside SEO measures.

Google and Yahoo are already cruising the web with this Adobe Flash Player technology, so benefits will be immediate. Web developers will not have to lift a finger, because all past and future SWFs will be searchable without revisions to live sites. Your recently launched site full of rich Flash animations may already be indexed for dynamic text and links.

Google Docs touts: Create, edit, and upload quickly. Access and edit from anywhere. Share changes in real time. It’s free.

Wow. No more hassles with emailing documents as attachments and worrying about document versions. Now you can work on a centralized document with all of your team members or clients.

What a great idea; leave it to Google to implement it. True, it’s another account with a username and password to remember (see my tips on picking passwords), but it might be worth your while if you work in teams.

I’ve tried it, and it works great. You can even upload existing spreadsheets or documents and store them securely. Invite others to log in and make updates to your documents together - in real time. All you need is internet access.

Isn’t the world wide web an interesting and useful place? This is just another example of how you can make the internet work for you.

You might want to give it shot - Google Docs.