The constant buzz about Web 2.0 technologies, might lead one to believe that all Web 2.0 technologies are well suited for ideal search engine optimization. That’s not entirely true. One such technology that comes to mind is AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). As you browse the web these days, you will no doubt encounter many web sites implementing AJAX technologies. AJAX is basically a set of web technologies, based on JavaScript, that allow parts of a web page to communicate with the web server without refreshing the entire webpage as a whole. The end goal is to allow web applications to behave more like traditional desktop applications. Although AJAX can be used for many other things, that is what is was designed for, and in my opinion, what it is best at.

Since AJAX is based on JavaScript, you should be aware that like JavaScript, AJAX and most search engines don’t play well together. This means that you need to consider whether or not AJAX is the right solution for your needs. Consider this issue that we faced not too long ago. We have a client who wanted to display tabular data. When you clicked on a tab, corresponding information would be loaded into the panel below. There are many common ways to achieve this using AJAX, but the thing is, the search engines are only seeing whichever panel of information is displayed when the web page is initially loaded. With this kind of solution, when a tab is clicked, a request is made to the server and the data is returned just to that panel, without refreshing the entire webpage. So if you have 5 tabs, only the first one will be indexed, and the other 4 will not. A spider will not execute the JavaScript call that loads the information for the other tabs, so, that content you wanted to get indexed, well, just won’t.

We realized that AJAX was not the best solution for displaying tabular data and explored another search engine friendly alternative, JQuery, which proved to have better SEO results. I am by no means slamming AJAX. I actually love and use it all the time, but I don’t think it’s applicable in every situation. You should not choose to implement a technology because it is a buzzword. But rather, make sure you are using the right tool for the job.

With the continual advances in the search engines, especially regarding blended search results through Google’s Universal Search, Yahoo’s Blended Search, and Ask 3D, images will appear with even greater importance in the search engine results. In blended search, the user is provided with results from across multiple vertical databases that can include videos, image results, book results, news, blog results, and more. The search engines have taken their usefulness to a whole new level, and as a result, are able to provide more relevant information to the searcher even if the searcher doesn’t know exactly what he or she is looking for. With this being said, it is very important to take advantage of every opportunity to expand your reach on the internet through multiple types of search engine optimization (SEO).

In order to give your images relevance (so that they will be found by the search engines and included in these blended results) they should be considered as part of your ongoing SEO efforts. Below are a few tips regarding how to best optimize the images on your site.

1. Take a look at your image file names. They should be identified in a descriptive manner by naming them exactly what they are. Often, people try to get creative with their naming, but if the image is of a black iPod nano, name it just that, “black-ipod-nano.jpg”. Without taking the time to address the names of your images, they may end up with the name automatically given to them by a camera or editing software (i.e. image001.jpg). Keep in mind, when naming these images that it is best to use dashes instead of underscores when separating words.

2. Make use of “alt” attribute of the image tag. As with the file name of the image, keep this relevant to the actual image. This alt attribute is also useful for anyone using screen readers to understand what the image is or what the page is about.
3. Are the actual images and the names of the images relevant to the content on the page? Including images for the search engines is appealing to visitors to your site.
4. The search engines will need to have access to your images. Make sure that a robots.txt file does not block search engines from the folder storing your images.
5. Another good idea is to make your images available in other locations if possible. Some of the most common ways to do this is through Picasa (which is owned by Google) and Flickr (owned by Yahoo!) or by uploading them to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

As the search engines make changes to provide the best end-user experience possible, it is important that we do our job to adapt our SEO efforts to these changes. This will help to keep your site positioned in the best way possible and be visible to your targeted audience.

As Mike Buczek pointed out in a recent post, the need for websites to be mobile ready is increasingly important. The advent of new mobile phone technology making the mobile web more accessible has big implications for how websites are targeted to position in natural search results. Users of the mobile web are increasing daily and besides using different technology, they are also likely to have different search behavior than those on the regular web. Someone surfing the web from their phone is likely looking not just for a website but a location and this means that the rise of number of users on the mobile web makes good rankings in local search results even more important. Having a local search marketing strategy now could make sure that your site is not left behind. So, what can you do? Well, start by making sure your site is listed in local search listings. Here are four top ways to help boost your local search rankings:

1. Make sure you are listed.

• Look for your listing in the local search sections of Google, Yahoo, MSN and any other top search engines. If it’s not there, submit it.
• Make sure the address and phone number on your site is complete and matches what the local directories like superpages.com and any other sites like www.alexa.com or www.aboutus.org are listing.

2. Match your listing to your site.

• Make sure there is a link to your website in your listings. You don’t need a website to appear in local search but internet visitors will be more likely to visit your site and then visit you if they have easy access to your link.
• Put your full address and phone number on your website in a prominent position – either on the homepage or at the very least, on your contact us page.

3. List your site on local search engines like:

• www.superpages.com, www.yellowpages.com, www.citysearch.com
• MSN Local & Maps
• Yahoo Local & Maps
• Google Local & Maps
• And any other regional or industry-specific directories that your customers might use to find you.

4. Encourage your happy customers to give you a good review. This may or may not get you a better ranking but visitors who see a good review are more likely to click on the link and visit your business.