There is a great case study available on Acquia.com that details the development decisions that were made for the family of Lifetime Network sites, all of which were built in Drupal. If you’re interested in issues of Drupal scalability, and how a Drupal site can be built to handle 50 million page views a month, and large spikes in traffic, it is definitely worth a read.

myLifetime.com was, at the time of this case study’s writing, the 500th most visited website on the Internet. It is very excited to see Drupal handling this level of traffic so seamlessly. As the authors of this study point out, Drupal does not come out of the box with this level of capability, but because Drupal provides a very flexible architecture, developers were able to make the choices that would best suit the Lifetime Digital sites. These choices included multiple databases, extensive caching, and having Drupal 5 and Drupal 6 sites cooperate as necessary.

You can read the case study here.

Let me begin by saying that Adobe Flash is very far from falling out of use. Conservative estimates say 95% of Web users have Adobe Flash Player installed. The number of websites that employ Flash is harder to estimate, but most would put the number between 25% and 50%. And as this website so succinctly indicates, Flash is still alive and well.

All that being said, I do believe that the use of Flash on the Web is about to decline, if it hasn’t already (again, very difficult to estimate). Here are a few reasons why I believe the presence and importance of Flash on the Web will decline over the next several years:

Last Wednesday, the Apple iPad joined the growing list of devices that do not support Flash. The long list of mobile devices that do not display Flash should concern Adobe. If people are forced to choose between the mobile Web and Flash, mobile will win every time.

The use of Flash, especially in 100% Flash sites, can have a limiting effect on a site’s success in search engines. Many people will try to convince you that search engines can handle Flash without an issue, and in fact, search engines have made great strides in “reading” Flash files. But Google and others engines were built to crawl Web text. If Flash animations limit the amount of text that appears on your webpages, I think that you may be hurting yourself from an SEO perspective.

Flash is prohibitive to regular site updates, especially if site administrators are not technically savvy. Static content is growing increasingly less acceptable on the Web. Users now expect regularly updated content on the sites they visit, and a static site limits how you can engage your visitors. Compared to text, or even HTML, Flash files are difficult to update, and will limit what site owners can do on their own site.

HTML5 is definitely a hot word on the Web right now. This next standard for HTML may not be fully accepted and standardized for years, but already it is promising to step on the toes of Flash with its increased emphasis on embedded media. YouTube, for example, is now offering some videos in HTML5 format in addition to the traditional Flash. As another example, Google recently circumvented Apple’s ban of Google Voice in the App Store by building an online HTML5 application that iPhone users could access through the Web. As mentioned, the iPhone does not support Flash, so the choice of HTML5 was a critical one.

Flash doesn’t fit into the W3C’s plans. The World Wide Web Consortium was founded in 1994 by Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee to maintain standard practices for Web publishing. This organization commands quite a bit of respect, and was instrumental in instituting the separation of content, design, and functionality (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) on the Web. Flash doesn’t fit very neatly into this model, and you have to jump through a few hoops to insert Flash into a web page and maintain its W3C validity.

Adobe Flash stands in direct opposition to the open source model, which is gaining momentum on the Web. Open source has developed a strong following, and it seems like it will continue to gain force for the foreseeable future. Flash, as a proprietary, paid software, simply does not fit into the philosophy.

Flash violates traditional usability rules. As the Web gets more competitive, usability is the means to stand out from the crowd. And an important part of usability is obeying accepted standards of use. For example, Web users, and computer users in general, are accustomed to using the right-click menu for certain functions. Flash does not allow this. People also rely on navigating with the Back button of the browser, which is not possible in full-Flash sites.

In conclusion, I didn’t mean for this post to be a rant against Flash, or a directive never to use it on the Web. Rather, I simply see all of these factors predicting the decline of Flash’s use in the coming years. Only time will tell if I am right or wrong.

Almost daily we help people evaluate Open Source resources for use in their projects. We’ve found that there are a lot of myths and misconceptions out there that make reaching a decision harder than it should be.

To help even more people out there, CommonPlaces has developed a new, concise 9-page white paper titled “Using Open Source for Your Website.” It highlights the benefits and responsibilities of using open source software for your next Web project. You can download it for free, here.

For anyone that reads this blog regularly, it will come as no surprise that we are big proponents of open source software, and use it to develop our clients’ web applications. More specifically, we develop most of our Web projects in the Drupal CMS. We’ve spoken at length about the strengths of Drupal, here and in other places, but for many of our potential clients, the biggest obstacle to overcome is choosing open source over more traditional proprietary solutions. For those not familiar with open source, the entire model can seem very different at first, and in many ways, it is.

We created this white paper to help people who are weighing the benefits and drawbacks of open source software, and hopefully help them reach the right decision for their needs, regardless of whether they end up choosing open source or a proprietary solution. While we believe strongly in the open source model, we do recognize that it may not be right for all people in all cases. Download our white paper to learn more.

Download “Using Open Source for Your Website” for Free, Here

Life has trained us to believe that anything worth getting must cost money. But in the world of citations and local search, this just isn’t true. You really CAN get something for nothing.

If you aren’t familiar with the term, “citations” are online references to your business and its location (address, phone number, etc.). The term exists because many people believe these “citations” are more valuable than links in optimizing for local search. People started talking about citations a couple years ago, after David Mihm wrote an very influential post on the subject, which you can read here. For now, the least you need to know is that citations are not always links, and links are not always citations.

But let’s back up a bit. If you own a small, local business, you may feel intimidated by the size and scope of the Web, and you may feel as if you are at a disadvantage going up against major corporations. And to some extent, Google agrees. That’s why they built local search into their results pages. If you type “books boston ma” into Google, you’ll see something like this at the top of the page:

Although in this case we included a geographic location (Boston, MA) in our search query, in some cases Google will return local results even without this identifier. “Pizza”, for example, will return pizza places near you (or at least near where Google thinks you are). So in this way, even if a local pizza shop will never show up in the regular search results (hard to compete with Domino’s and Pizza Hut, after all), they will still have a place on the first Google search results page.

While the pizza place down the block will likely never get to the top Google result, getting to the top of the local results is a much more manageable goal. This brings us back to citations. Citations (along with geographic location) are the primary means Google uses to select the businesses that will appear in local search results. Where can you get citations out on the Web? Here are a few ideas:

• Directories of local businesses (chamber of commerce sites, tourism info sites, etc.)
• Yellow pages sites and other business directories
• Yelp.com and other business review websites
• Search engines. Make sure you are listed in Google LBC, Yahoo Local, and in other search engines’ local business listings.
• Social media profiles (Twitter, Facebook, et al.)
• Industry directories (like a directory of plumbers or wedding planners)
• Your own site! Include your address and contact info on every page (perhaps in the site footer).

Make sure that your business information is consistent (identical) in all of these places. Even if you are already listed in some of these places, you will need to edit your info if it is not consistent. Just remember this: Google has made all of their money by returning accurate search results. If they see inconsistencies in your information, they simply will not risk listing you over a business with consistent details across the Web.

On most of the websites listed above, a citation will cost you nothing but a few minutes of your time. Yet their value is very real, and the potential gain is substantial. If an Internet search isn’t the very first thing that someone does when they need to find a local mechanic, florist or bike shop, you can bet that it will be near the top of most people’s lists. Fortunately, Google has been kind enough to provide your small business with the opportunity to appear on the first page of search results for people in your area. You should take advantage of it.

As you get settled back into your normal routine after the holidays, it may be time to review your site’s search engine optimization health. It’s always a good idea to review these basic aspects of your site every now and then just to make sure your site is as optimized as possible. SEO is no longer the knowledge of the few; the basic concepts have made their way into many people’s vocabularies, and almost every industry, even the least technical, have become highly competitive.

So let’s get started.

Check your title tags. Let’s start from the top…literally. The <title> tag determines the text that appears in the title bar at the top of the browser window. For example, this blog post has a title of, “New Year’s SEO Review >> CommonPlaces Gazebo”. This title should accomplish three goals: 1) Tell visitors where they are, 2) Entice search engine visitors (this is the page title displayed in search engines, after all), and 3) Contain the keywords for which you are optimizing your site.

Are your URLs readable? Does the URLs on your site look like http://www.greatshirts.com/shirts/yellow-t-shirt, or so they look like this: http://www.greatshirts.com/product?id=1vsfg42353. With the first URL, you have valuable keywords in place if someone is looking for a yellow t-shirt. Also, your users will know what they will be seeing before the even see it, giving them added confidence in clicking through to your page.

Are you using the keywords your customers use? This tip sounds obvious, but many people violate this rule without even realizing it. It is critical to optimize your site to target the keywords your customers are using. For example, you may have optimized your site for “automobile repairs” but the fact is, the vast majority of people will enter the search query “car repair”. Use Google tools such as the AdWords Keyword Tool and Google Trends to research the most popular keywords in your field.

Is your site’s content well-organized? Is your site easy for users to navigate? As a general rule of thumb, if users can’t figure out how to navigate through your sites, search engine spiders won’t either, and will either miss content, or give up halfway through. Map out your site on paper, and develop a clear hierarchy for organizing content. Ask others to try out your site, and see if it makes sense to them.

Check for broken links. Links on your site that go to 404 (”Not Found”) pages are never a good thing. Not only does it represent a dead-end for search engines spiders, but it means potential frustration for your users as well. Use an online tool such as Dead-Links.com to scan your site and identify any broken links that may exist.

Do you have a sitemap? A sitemap most often takes the form of an XML document in the root directory of your site which tells search engine spiders how your site is structured and which pages they should be looking for. Some question the effectiveness or necessity of sitemaps, but considering they take very little time to create, they are easy to justify, and definitely cannot hurt. Ultimately, if they made no difference, why would Google provide an interface for identifying them in Google Webmaster Tools?

Review your meta data. The most common attributes of the <meta> tag that you will use are “keywords” and “description”. You can use the description attribute to provide the text snippet that appears in search results. The keywords attribute is a little more controversial, but personally I place it in a similar category as sitemaps; that is, it might help, and it couldn’t hurt. Provide a few (not thirty) keywords that capture the message of the page in question.

Check the your web analytics (You have analytics, right??). Web analytics are a critical part of SEO success. They will clearly show the success or failure of any changes you make to your site. These stats will also be helpful in identifying potential dead-ends in navigation where visitors leave your site. There is really no limit to the amount of information analytics software can provide to the diligent researcher.

“The Cloud” has become a major buzzword over the last year or two, and cloud computing promises to play an important role on the Internet and in business over the next few years. If you’re still a little confused by all the buzz, here are some helpful resources to take you from Cloud-confused to Cloud-conscious.

• If you’re completely new to the concept of cloud computing, this video from Common Craft is the best place to start. With a simple style, Common Craft does a great job explaining things in plain English. Check out their site for videos on a host of other topics.
• No quest for knowledge would be complete without a trip to Wikipedia. Start here for a basic overview of cloud computing.
• This article from InfoWorld is also a great overview of cloud computing technologies. It explains SaaS, PaaS, and lots of other pesky acronyms.
• Computing in the Clouds – The Cloud concept in a nutshell. This is yet another friendly introduction to cloud computing.
• “7 Things You Should Know About Cloud”, a two-page PDF resource from EDUCAUSE.
• This Cloud Computing blog is a great source of current information in the Cloud world, offering informative articles such as “Cloud Security 101 – What are the risks? Benefits?” and “Cloud Computing as a Necessity”.
• IBM offers a small library of Cloud resources on their site. Included in this library is recent news, multimedia, white papers, case studies and product demos.
• Lastly, here is the section of Amazon’s site dedicated to their Cloud services. You will notice Amazon’s name pop up repeatedly in the any discussions regarding the Cloud. Amazon is a major player in the Cloud world, and this link will take you to a wealth of information on their services.

Happy New Year, everyone! What better time is there than New Years to set resolutions and make predictions about what’s to come? For a blog post this week, I thought I would make some predictions about the future of online marketing and how it may change over the next five to ten years. It will be an exciting time, to be sure, but will also present a unique set of challenges. Here are my predictions, along with some advice as it is applicable.

Online Marketing Will Become More Like, Well, Marketing.
Perhaps the biggest trend in SEO over the last decade was to make it continually harder for people to “cheat” or “game” the system. Google’s emphasis over the past ten years was to deliver the best content for a given query, not the best-optimized content. This trend will continue in the years to come, to the point where Google simply cannot be fooled.

What does this mean? It means that to get to the first page of search results, you’ll have to earn it by delivering quality content, driving traffic to your site, and building a following. Marketing 1.0 just may be the key to success on the Web 3.0

The Major Players on the Web Will Become Even More Established.
Sites like Google, Amazon, eBay, Facebook, and Wikipedia aren’t going anywhere. In fact, they’ll become only more established in the years to come, as they continue to receive massive traffic and gain brand loyalty.

In many cases, up-and-comers will have to take an “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach, and work with these established players. This may mean opening an Amazon store, or building a Facebook application. It will definitely mean optimizing your site for the Google search engine. Even Wikipedia presents unique opportunities, as this great article from WordStream can attest.

The Search Engine Will Provide Much More to the User.
Google doesn’t just return search results anymore. They are continually trying to return information that the user might be interested in. This might mean maps, business reviews, weather data, or sports results. For example, here’s the search result page (SERP) for “New England Patriots”:

No need to go any further if you’re looking for the score, or the team’s next scheduled game. But Google isn’t the only one trying this. Bing refers to itself as a “decision engine,” attempting to provide all sorts of valuable info to the searcher. This trend will continue in the search engines of the next decade. More and more often, users will stop at the search engine result, finding what they need before clicking through to your site.

To get a better idea of what’s to come, try out a Google prototype called Google Squared. You’ll find that it’s pulling a large amount of content from each of the websites in the results, and displaying it in one matrix. In this model, it will become even more critical to format your content in a way that is easy for Google to process and scrape. If users can’t find what they’re looking for in the results page, they may not bother clicking through to your site.

Web Applications Will Become More and More Popular, at the Expense of Traditional Web Browsers.
Today, many organizations are reaping the benefits of the “mobile app” craze. As people become more accustomed to using these apps on their mobile devices, I believe this trend will extend to the desktop/laptop world (in fact, the line between mobile device and laptop is likely to become blurry). The result will be more time spent using the Web within the context of a specific application, and less time spent in traditional browsers like Firefox or IE. My advice on this one? Start building applications or risk getting left behind. A website, though a necessity, is no longer enough.

One Final Note
I’ve already used the word “Google” nine times in this post. Pay close attention to Google. It doesn’t take psychic ability to know that they may have the single biggest influence on the course of the Internet in the decade to come.

Data security was in the news in a big way last week. First, major news outlets reported Thursday morning that Iraqi insurgents were using $30, off-the-shelf software to hack into the video feed created by U.S. spy planes flying over the country. Apparently the data these planes were capturing was being sent back to the base via an “unprotected communications link.”

Then Thursday night, an unknown group of hackers took over Twitter.com, replacing the familiar Twitter home page with a page touting the “Iranian Cyber Army.” Twitter quickly rectified the problem, later reporting that their DNS records were compromised by the attackers.

Though both the U.S. military and Twitter claim to have resolved any vulnerabilities that led to these problems, both groups faced major embarrassment in light of these attacks. This begs the question; Is your site secure? There is no doubt that there are very talented hackers out there who can exploit almost any vulnerability, no matter how small. What are you doing to ensure your site is safe from attack?

CommonPlaces offers a wide range of security services, ranging from security scans to test the integrity of your applications, code reviews to assess the quality of your code, remediation planning to mitigate your existing issues, and actually resolving the issues themselves. The security scan solutions we offer our clients are best-in-class, identifying both syntactical and business logic flaws, and offering an unlimited number of scans for the length of your subscription. Lastly, we build secure Web applications, always following best practices for coding.

If you would like to learn more about our security offerings, please contact us today. Our security experts can work with you to determine the right solution for your individual needs.

Yes, Google announced today that every user, signed in or not, will be receiving personalized results based on their search history. Users still have the right to opt-out of this service, but realistically speaking, very few people will do so (it turns out most people don’t care about search results nearly as much as we do – go figure!). Personalized search stands to deliver better results that are more, well, personal. Some are raising privacy objections, but Google is going to keep all of your search history regardless, so they might as well put it to good use.

Sounds like good news, right? Well, not necessarily for SEOs. Here are some of the ramifications of personalized Google search results:

• Potentially bigger delays from action to results. As any good SEO professional knows, results don’t happen overnight. The changes we experiment with can take weeks to deliver a measurable change in your search rankings. With personalized search, a site may need even more time to build up momentum. Personalized search has the potential to represent a vicious cycle – users will click on the top results because they’re at the top, and these results will continue to be at the top because users clicked on them.
• A steeper climb for new sites. I see personalized search representing an even bigger hurdle for new sites. Google already values older domains because it believes (rightly so, in most cases) that these sites are more dependable and authoritative. So new sites were always at a disadvantage in this regard. But now those older sites have time and user clicks on their side – meaning a steeper climb for new sites.
• Sites are more accountable for user experience. This is perhaps the most positive result of personalized search. Sites will need to impress users, and give them the information they’re looking for, to stay at the top of the SERPs. If users stop turning to your site, Google should start to devalue you.
• Increased importance of Marketing 1.0. That brings me to my final point. To my mind, the most important lesson in all this is that we can’t forget our Marketing 1.0 principles (branding, experience, etc.). They are as important as ever. Stated simply, Google does not like people manipulating their rankings. For that reason, they employ some of the brightest minds in the world to continually improve upon the “integrity” of their rankings. SEO is important, don’t get me wrong. But don’t place all of your eggs in Google’s basket.

The marketing experts at CommonPlaces have great insight into what makes online businesses successful. To talk to them, contact us here.

Building online word of mouth isn’t easy; don’t let anyone convince you that it is. Word of mouth, online or offline, takes time and effort. But when you succeed, you’ll be rewarded with the best and most cost-effective form of marketing out there. If you have a successful business, you know the power of word of mouth. Here are six tips for building WOM online.

Give them something for nothing. Everybody loves getting something for free. People love it so much, they will even tell their friends about it. Whether it’s offering people an informative white paper, or a free sandwich, if you give them something for nothing, they will start talking about you.

Hold a contest. Another thing people love is competition, and most of all, winning. Perhaps you can have your customers submit videos or essays, and give a prize to the best. Or you could do a random drawing from your Facebook fans or Twitter followers. Get creative. The prize doesn’t necessarily have to be a big-ticket item, but it doesn’t hurt, either. A free car wash will draw in a few people; a free iPod will draw in more.

Do something extraordinary. Doing something that will get people talking doesn’t have to be hard. It just means you have to do the unexpected. A great example of this comes from Hyundai. A couple months ago, there was a viral video going around of a large SUV that inexplicably runs over a small car in a gym parking lot. When Hyundai saw that the crushed car was theirs, they found the owner and presented him with a brand new Hyundai. This sort of thing doesn’t happen everyday, and it got people talking…for far less than the cost of a TV spot.

Provide exceptional customer service. Good customer service gets people talking, mostly because so few businesses do it well. Your customers want you to give them a good product at a good price, but good customer service is what will get them writing reviews and tweeting about your business.

Build a community. This basically means giving your customers an experience online that they will want to share. If your product is a cool new gadget or a beautiful work of art, it’s easy to get people excited about your business. If your product is something like WD40, you’ll need to get a bit more creative. See how WD40 did it.

Facebook and Twitter are tools, not solutions. This one isn’t really a way to build online word of mouth so much as it’s a warning. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that all you need to do is set up a Twitter account and Facebook page and do some occasional posting. These sites are tools (very powerful tools), but they are not a solution in and of themselves. As with offline marketing, you still need to be creative.