This article was co-authored by Navneet Virk, search engine strategist, Roundarch.
Companies are harnessing the power of broadband and RIA technologies, such as AJAX, Adobe Flex, and Laszlo, to build rich online immersive experiences. The old "click, wait, and view" page experiences can now be transformed into "engage, aggregate, and thrill" online experiences.
A Forrester survey noted that 70 percent of users agreed that interactive applications greatly enhanced their web experience, and examples like Google Maps, Nike ID, Ford's Interactive Showroom, and Dulux Mousepainter demonstrate the ability and power of RIA to engage and thrill users.
These technologies, if correctly applied, can help companies acquire and retain more customers, but there is a catch.
Like Kryptonite is to Superman: RIA is to search engines
Okay, maybe RIA is not as fatal, but sites built with RIA technologies cannot be indexed by the major search engine providers, such as: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask.com. In fact, the mere mention of RIA makes them wince.
Why? RIA sites are developed using either Javascript and/or Flash and the search engines have limited ability to execute Javascript or retrieve content from Flash. The search engines have built their business around good old HTML pages and are still playing catch up in the new RIA world.
Companies face the dilemma of building a RIA site, which can increase brand loyalty and customer retention, but holds the threat of losing acquisition and brand awareness from SEM. Furthermore, you could end up paying higher pay-per-click (PPC) on Google if your landing pages are RIA. Luckily, it's not a zero-sum game and there are six steps you can take to develop a rich immersive experience that supports SEM.
The six habits of highly successful SEM (in an RIA world)
1. Respect search engine rules:
This may seem obvious, but it is very easy to build RIA architecture that could unintentionally get you blacklisted from the search engines. For example, it may seem elegant to identify an incoming search engine bot and then serve pages that are search engine friendly, while redirecting actual users to a rich immersive experience. This is an example of cloaking and it could get you banned from the major search engines. Conversely, following certain best practices will help search engines index your site better, such as:
- Deep Link Flash Movies: Generally, RIA, using Flash, will not have all the content built into the Flash movie. The content is usually served up dynamically from a server via web services. However, in some instances, you may include static content within Flash, and the search engines can deep link into the Flash movie and index that static content within the Flash movie.
- Formulate domain strategy: It's important to create a strategy that follows the "unique content on unique URL" rule. This will require your Information Architects (IAs) to work closely with your SEO expert and your RIA architect during the site planning phase.
- Develop Sitemaps: Create a search engine friendly sitemap and submit sitemap feeds to search engines.
2. Budget for the additional work:
You will need to display the content in two different formats, one for search engines and one for your users (of course, without cloaking). Based on how much of the content is in RIA and needs to be indexed, the incremental could be anywhere from 5 to 20 percent of your original budget/effort.
3. Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate:
Creative departments and agencies can create great engaging experiences but if SEM goals are not embedded from the start of the project and the site is not coded in a structured format, then you will have issues with SEM. Ensure that your creative resources, SEM experts, and technology developers are all involved in an iterative process from conception to implementation. Follow the typical agency waterfall methodology at your own risk!!
4. Pay attention to your PPC landing pages:
Often, companies run paid campaigns and create engaging and immersive landing pages to increase their chances of conversion. In the past this was fine, but now as Google tries to determine the quality of your paid campaign landing pages, your paid campaign may suffer because the Google adwords bot cannot read your RIA landing page and may give it a low quality. This will in turn increase your PPC.
5. Avoid the Blinking Magenta:
Blinking Magenta is a term that describes the overuse of the blink feature in the early days of the web.Why Magenta? Because a blinking Magenta background on the page was the worst. This term means just because you can build it, does not mean you should! Similarly, in RIA, do not make the entire site rich just because you can. Carefully detail which areas and functionality of the sites will be "rich" and within those rich areas, which features of RIA will you use. Then build prototypes of the functionality and conduct iterative usability tests. It is preferable to build a functioning static prototype and use that as a guideline for building the final site. This will allow you to identify, quickly, the rich functionality of the site and whether the content in that functionality needs to be indexed. Based on that information, you can design a better technical architecture to support RIA and SEM.
6. Partner with experts in both RIA and SEM:
Choose a partner that has expertise in both RIA and SEM. The upside of RIA is huge, but so is the downside if you have partners or internal resources who do not understand the technicalities of integrating RIA and SEM.
There are processes, architectures and design that will allow you to create engaging experiences on your site while maintaining or increasing your SEM efficacy. It requires knowledge of search engine algorithms and of RIA techniques and technology. Once you find that perfect intersection of RIA and SEM for your company, you will truly be able to positively impact every user touch point-- from awareness to decision.
Aman Datta is vice president at Roundarch. Read full bio. Navneet is the search engine strategist at Roundarch.
