Do you want to have a feature rich web site with animations, sound, and an opening splash screen?

Do you want to use Flash extensively on your site but and its most important to understand if you are afraid of hurting your search engine positioning?

Do you require an opening splash page but were told that the search engines would not index your site if you or someone you know had one?

Well there are ways to have the benefits of Flash on your site and still be attractive to search engines. It is all in how the Flash is used. Some of the methods are simple while others require more programming experience. But we all can use Flash without driving away the search engines.

first let s look at the problem. Search engines index a site by looking at the content. In this case we are talking about text content, not pictures, video, sound, or animation. A basic fact to keep in notion on having a very search engine friendly site is, have high quality, targeted content in text form and limiting the use of anything that can get resource within the way of the search engines analyzing this content.

But what about Flash? Flash converts everything into a Flash file, or SWF file playable by the Flash Player plug-in. All the text in this Flash file will be converted from text to vector graphics, and since the search engines cannot read text in a graphic, they will be unable to read the text in a Flash file. Therefore they will be unable to index the information element within the site.

So how to we obtain around this seemingly insurmountable problem? It is all in how we use Flash in our site. The trick is, either wrap the Flash inside typical html coding, or by using xhtml you can easily have Flash display text from an external source. I will limit this article to the easier methods for using Flash in a search engine friendly manner.

Let s look at the three main ways we can want to use Flash on a website:

1. Splash Page
2. Flash navigation
3. Flash content

Starting with the Flash Splash page there are a couple of ways to handle this. If we just have the Flash Splash page as the opening page to our web site there will be no way aside from the meta tags for the search engines to index the page, let alone learn any more pages in your site.

The trick here is, give the search engines something to work with. This can be easily done in two ways. you can most defiantly put a text only navigation bar just below the splash screen, this way the search engines can at least establish the other pages in your site. But to allow the search engines to index the actual splash screen here is a neat trick. Place the Flash file in a layer, you can most defiantly then float that layer over the web page allowing you to hide all the plain html text you want underneath the Flash layer. This has the added benefit of giving content to visitors who do not have the Flash player installed on their system.

With a Flash navigation bar things are much easier. As long as only the navigation is in Flash the rest of the page can use search engine friendly text, plus you can easily put a text only navigation bar across the bottom of the page so that the search engines can Uncover the rest of your pages. This is a good idea anyway and one that I always follow. Plus when a visitor reaches the bottom of your page they have some links to follow without having to scroll back up the page to your navigation bar.

Using Flash content in your internet site follows the basic principles outlined above. As long as you have some text based content for the search engines to index you will be OK. I have found that having Flash animation resting on the top of my page where it fills the screen, followed by additional text is a nice hybrid approach. It gives your visitors the content rich experience you want to provide plus gives the search engines all the text based content they need for proper search engine indexing.

if you or someone you know really want or need a complete Flash site there is one more thing you can easily do. This requires more work, but it will keep your site highlight within the search engines. Create two versions of your online business, one in Flash and one using regular HTML. Have a simple home page that allows visitors to select either the Flash or HTML version of your site. Include on this home page your main keywords and navigation links to at least your site map and main pages so that the search engines can Uncover their way around your site. This gives you the preeminent of both worlds, the fully feature rich Flash site, and a search engine friendly HTML web site.

One final note, Google now is able to index Flash files, pulling out the text content from the SWF files. This is a magnificent advance and allows us to use Flash more freely on our web sites, but note that they are pulling the TEXT out of the Flash file. So in order to make your Flash files Google friendly you would include your search engine optimized text as text inside the Flash file, just like you would in a regular html web page.

So with proper planning and a few tricks we can have a very rich Flash site and still benefit from easy search engine indexing.
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* Plan it, visualize it, and foresee it in your minds eye. Now break it down into manageable chunks. The hardest part of writing is the beginning. Once you begin it with a positive mind set, we are sure you will come up with an interesting and readable ebook planning; so, even though at first may it seems like an impossible task be confident and be sure to fill with useful and valuable information.

* If you really want to write you are going to write it. So, make sure you give yourself enough reasons to write an ebook. It may be for financial gain, promoting a business, advancing your career, education, self satisfaction or something entirely different. Whatever are your reasons, write all of them down and please don t skip this step.

* Before you write your first line, choose your subject and organize your thoughts. Ideally you should spend 70% of your total vested time in to research and development .You can always use 30% of the remaining time writing down this informative ebook. Think about this! Your ebook is circulating around the world. Does that give you enough push to write it better?

*Choosing a subject and choosing a title are two different things but both should go hand in hand while deciding on content and title. Soon you will realize that you can t cheat your readers. You should deliver the same stuff they are expecting after reading the title of your ebook.
 
* You do not have to necessarily be a writer to write an ebook. All you need to do is become a little imaginative, little creative about the collection of some particular information. If you are ready to do this you are ready to write an ebook. You must gather, organize and outline your information. Always add resources and links when applicable. A good ebook for giveaway can be as simple as a collection of your articles or even the articles of other authors.

* Beginning your writing in MS Word is a good choice. You will get lot of time to check and re-check your document. Choose the format and layout of your document, including chapters, headings and introductions. Dependent on your subject, you may wish to add photographs, anecdotes or testimonials that will keep your readers interested.

* Don’t forget to run a spell and grammar checking, and proofread your own work or ask a friend to do it for you. You are judged by something as minor as correct punctuation, so don’t mess up a great book by tossing out semicolons randomly, or stringing sentences together with commas.

* Finally, create an index and a bibliography. Congrats! You have just finished writing your first ever ebook! Don t worry this sound unbelievable to most of the writers.

* After you finish your ebook, you must start promoting it. You must add it to your website and also submit it, as many websites and directories that you can find, add it to your article resource box, announce it on message boards and email discussion. Even you can choose to make a separate web page for it and submit the page to search engines.

* Note down that an ebook is a very valuable resource and everyone will find your ebook useful if it is how it should be, informative ! Ebook can even give you solid reputation and earn lot profit too. Many have achieved this seemingly impossible task from a carefully and honestly written ebook.

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The famous Puma leap or the big yellow “M” reminds all of us the famous “PUMA” and “McDonalds”…

No matter how young or how established a company is, they need to make their brand accustomed to their customers. With so many similar kinds of products and services, what makes a company so unique and stand out from rest of the crowd? Or in more simple words “How will your potential customer remember you? The answer is “YOUR LOGO”. It s the company’s logo that makes all the difference.

Logos are a unique way of pictorially representing what can be said in a few words or a sentence. Logos can be simple, from a simple dot to a more complicated conglomeration of colors and patterns. Company logos could represent the company’s products or services in a single image. It could be unique enough to be differentiated from the rest, but special enough to be remembered by the company’s potential and existing customers.

Companies make their logos using a combination of icon and text or a simple icon. The text new aspect element within the logo can have the company name in full or abbreviated text and the icon or even just a symbol or a brand mark. A logo can or can not have the company’s name, but having the company’s name is an added advantage. Also there are magnificent logos that just contain the company initials, for instance Y! of Yahoo.

The size and color could not be a rampart to the functionality, effectiveness and the attractiveness of a logo. Identity of the company would be properly portrayed. Logo designers would always substain in consideration the basic design principles of color, size, clarity and consistency when designing logos. Companies would hire professional logo designers who will understand your company and your mind set.

Companies going for professional logo designers could make sure that their professional logo designers are equipped with the latest skills and well informed with the latest trends in designing. Designers would be aware of copyrights and trademark issues and one would make sure that his designers are not copying from any other logos. The use of third party fonts, too many shadows and glares are also not recommended. Another important thing to be kept in mind by designers is that the logo would be flexible enough to detain its original color and shape when transformed to a different medium.

There are now thousands of designers of logos. It is always advisable to hire professional web designing firms who are very skilled in logo designs and equipped with proper logo designing softwares.

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 Will you believe me if I tell you that if you are thinking to start designing your web page you can do the following as your first steps:

Open up a new fresh document in-
    Adobe Photoshop
    Macromedia Fireworks or
    Dream weaver

and go straight to start working on your first ever web page, I am sure you will not believe me; but if You come to know that all you need to start designing is sheet of paper and a pen will you believe me?

 Why not outline your needs to make a webpage first? Asking yourself some important questions like this will surely help you find out your unique requirements.

    What are your expectations from the visitors?
    Do you want to sell them an online product?
    Will you allow them to personally call you and even meet you?
    You just want them to know your business?
    Are you going to promote a business from your website?
    How you want to communicate with your website visitors?
    Are you going to tell them who you are?
    Are you going to tell them what you specialize in?
    Are you going to tell them what you do?
    Are you going to tell them what you sell?

Which are the ways you want your business to come across?
 You want it to be Faster or Slower, Novice or Professional? You are the one who can answer this question.

Don’t you think you need a map before you start your journey?

Let us explore an example:

And let s set our goals-

What are my main expectations from this website?

May be your answer will tell you that you want to raise awareness about your business, you have started a new Marketing Consultancy business and you want to encourage website visitors to contact you online and also you are hoping to build a client base by using may be a contact form. Potential customers should find this information useful and it should tell them why they should make use of your services.

Which people will attract to visit my website?

and your answer will again tell you about your potential customers, may be Professional people from various size of organizations who are looking for marketing services because they want to increase their exposure.

What will be the expectations of my potential customers when it comes to the feel of my website?

May be your answer to this question will tell you that your visitors will expect a professional look. They will also expect a logical navigation and lots of info about the services you are providing them. It will also tell you the nature of website; here they will not appreciate playful things like music, pictures, movies etc. They will expect information served quickly.

Other services:

Which are the services your business is going to offer them? In this Particular example you will probably offer copy writing, advertising, Public relations, brand promotion and product marketing. If these, you feel are your core services, you should have links these services or buttons on your homepage.

From the point of view of website design and structure, try to visibly separate services and other stuff.

When it comes to Deciding between Horizontal and Vertical Navigation try to choose Vertical Navigation as it is easier. Try to limit the width of your website into 760 pixels limit. this is the standard width of 800X600 resolution screens also these does not includes scroll bars.

While selecting horizontal navigation you should think of the navigation options and categories, such as “products”, “services”, “company” and “downloads”.

Why Footer is necessary?

Footers have many advantages as it includes copy write tag and also tries to help your visitors by actually ’spoon feeding’ and not letting them search the required page by themselves. After all you want to make a user friendly website don’t you?

In a nut shell:

A website which is suitable to your needs is the best website. Try to avoid the pit falls of making an unsuitable one will be the best advice for the starters.

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