It is time to leave rich media browser plug-ins like Flash and Silverlight and start adopting HTML5. Here are the advantages and opportunities for why Franchise Marketers should consider leaving rich media browser plug-ins like Flash and Silverlight and adopting HTML5:

Future is HTML5

• Adobe and Microsoft have announced the discontinuation of their rich media browser plug-ins: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27328/
• You’re essentially using HTML5 today. Unlike the failed XHTML 2.0 specification, HTML5 is an evolution of HTML4/XHTML 1.0. You know most of it already. There are 28 additional tags and a few new techniques, but you won’t be using a completely new mark-up language.
• HTML5 is the future and is ‘mobile” friendly.
• Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera support HTML5 today.

These are some HTML5 Features you should be using RIGHT NOW without worrying about clashing with older browsers: JETBRAINS WEBSTORM.

Bottom line is that anything that allows simpler, cleaner code and cleaner simpler marketing is going to adhere better to SEO best practices, which the ElementsLocal software platform supports, and you should too.

I have a quick update about what’s been happening that affects our Franchise Marketing clients, SEO Clients and anyone with a website.  Big news - GOOGLE’S big changes last week.

Google has updated their local search results.  They have dubbed their newest twist on search engine processes:  Google ‘Fresh’ Update – Google changed its algorithm. The Grey pinned results and several other things are now live. This is how it affects us:

They estimate this will affect about 35% of web searches. The change is meant to provide more ‘weight’ to the most relevant recent updates.   This serves to keep active, predominant and frequently attended to sites fresh on the search list.

Most of our clients are service based organization rather than news sites.  Google wants to produce near instant results for searches that are best answered with timely information, like baseball scores or TV shows.  They are still planning on delivering “best results” for searches that do not need near instant results.  I don’t believe that the service industry businesses or their keyword targets are going to fall into that instant bucket.

“For evergreen results, like recipes or how to change a tire, Google said the algorithm would know to show the best results no matter when they were posted.”

However, we have seen some of our clients with up to date websites get a boost in rank from this change almost imediately.

Integrate more social media into your website and post regular blog postings with unique content to take advantage of this algorithm change. BAKE freshness into your website and benefit with better SEO.

The week also included Google announcing that they can now index Facebook comments that are embedded into websites. A blog plug-in that allows users to use their existing Facebook accounts to comment on your blog and more timely blog posts should be something you integrate into your current marketing plans.

See Blumenthals article and / or the Google Blog Spot for more about the Google changes.

Have you proofread your website copy lately? Not only do the typos and errors look unprofessional to your visitors, they also jeopardize your Google PageRank. Google announced last week that they’ve witnessed a correlation between sites with correct spelling boast a prime PageRank—and those that display poor spelling don’t rank as well. For further explanation watch this GoogleWebmasterHelp video. Need help? We have PPC and SEO experts eager to improve your PageRank.

Today, everybody seems to be talking about “the Cloud.” No, they’re not talking about some hot new indie band from Toronto-  they’re talking about one of the biggest trends to hit the tech world since the web itself. The term “cloud computing” is used to describe the practice of locating your software applications and data on a network of servers, where they can be accessed from anywhere, at any time.

Cloud computing is rapidly becoming the best way to do business, because it takes full advantage of the “everywhere, all the time” nature of the internet itself. With cloud-based applications, there are no worries about whether one of your company’s computers is running at the moment, or how to log into one of your data servers. There’s no more looking for application installation disks, or upgrade codes. All of these time consuming tasks can be handled automatically for you, freeing you to do what you do best- offering great products and services to your customers.

That’s exactly what the ElementsLocal platform can do for your franchising business. Our completely web-based software service can project your national brand directly into every market in which you do business. You can trust that your brand, with its unique look and feel, and its unique products, services, and message, will be a click away from anyone, anywhere, any time that they are looking for what you provide.

From the start, ElementsLocal was built as a cloud-based software-as-a-service product, designed to enable a franchising business to attract customers to its existing locations, and to attract new franchisees to open new locations. ElementsLocal gives you the power to create and manage an entire fleet of websites that look and work exactly the way you want them to. Combined with our proven Search Engine Optimization and localized marketing expertise, ElementsLocal can help you rest assure that your franchise brand will truly be “everywhere, all the time.”

It seems like Google is always changing things, but generally these changes are behind the scene changes in the algorithm that are generally too obscure and boring to people who are not search engine optimization specialists.  This time, these two new Google changes take place right in your face and they could affect how successful your website is when compared with your competitor’s website.

Sitelinks

The first change is a change to Google sitelinks.  When a website becomes popular enough Google adds additional links to your website below your website’s main listing.  This is supposed to help users more easily navigate your website by quickly locating the information on your website that they are looking for.  For instance, a search of a local museum may produce sitelinks that point users to hours they are open or contact and tour information as these are destinations that searches generally want to find quickly.

Google has now increased the number of sitelinks a website can have from 8 to 12 and also added and additional one line text snippet description of that page.  How can this affect your and your competitor rankings?  Well the new sitelinks now dominate the search results which is good for you should you rank at number one for the queried key term, but very bad for you if you rank number 2 or below.

The screenshot to the right (click to expand) shows the new expanded sitelinks as indicated by the red arrow.  The Google Place’s result for that specific company appears directly below the sitelinks as indicated by the blue arrow.  All of this pushes down all other rankings below the page fold.  As you can see indicated by the green arrow Yelp, the second place result it shoved way down to the bottom and this example only contains 6 sitelinks when the maximum amount available are 12.  When you think about below the fold results only receiving 10% of search result clicks, this is a major shift in how search results deliver traffic.

Google Related

Google is offering up a new extension for Internet Explorer & Chrome called Google Related.  This extension adds a bar to the bottom of your browser which should deliver additional relevant information to the web page you are currently on.  So the website for your local city may also include a map in the related bar, weekly weather forecast and cities nearby that you may be interested in travelling to.  Neat!

The thing is, Google does not distinguish between an information only website and a commercial website.  In the example website below I am at a local restaurant and when I hover over the additional data in the Google Related toolbar I can see a map to the location (purple arrow).  The next column lists reviews of the establishment taken from Google Places and links to more reviews around the web (green arrow).

In the last column of the Google Related bar, the column that commercial websites will take issue with, is a listing of “Related Places”.  That means when I simply hover my mouse that column I am exposed to local competitors who in this result all have a higher review rating than that of the restaurant whose website I am currently on (red arrow).  Say this restaurant paid a monthly retainer for SEO work or spent money advertising through PPC solutions.  That is an expense that can ultimately end up driving visitors with Google Related barinstalled in their browser to their local competitor’s Google Places page.  Not cool Google.