Hits vs Visits, or “How to ask for website stats without sounding old”

“How many hits do we get?”

This question is almost as prevalent as the “How do I make a site” thing, but it’s a lot more dated. If uttered by a marketer, it instantly shows their age as nobody actually asks about ‘hits’ anymore if they know what they’re talking about.

I’ll break down the terms first so you know what I’m talking about, if you don’t already. Continue reading

Google learns to read text in Flash files – What’s it mean for SEO?

Google have just announced that their world famous flagship product… you know, the search thing… can now read text elements inside flash files embedded on websites. They’ve been working hard alongside Adobe to get their new algorithm working, and Adobe seems to be similarly open to the idea as I’m sure it’s one of the most requested feature updates from web developers ever since the term SEO actually started standing for something. Continue reading

Google is not a person.

I’ve been using the term ‘Google’ as a personification lately, and until today I hadn’t realised just how often I think or speak as such. For those not in the know about my job, I’m in the business of making websites. Most of my sites involve some degree of Search Engine Optimisation (or Optimization for you yankee’s, or site-make-get-traffics for you Bernard Blacks out there.) and its been getting more and more ingrained into my thought process than ever lately.

Continue reading