SODO DOJO / GREEN DESIGN

Jumping right in to the advertising/marketing (and more technical) conversations we promised early on, I’d like to cover a relatively common issue with Flash-based sites. Flash-based sites are great for interactivity and sometimes provide the exact look and feel you need that can’t be accomplished through static graphics. The challenge is thus: while I was surfing for “DC Shoes” the other day in Google, I noticed something:

Now, if you were looking for DC Shoes, which result would you click on? My assumption is probably not the one that says “Adobe Flash Player Not Current.” But this is the DC Shoes Web site. Not good for business! So, how does this happen and could it happen to you?

It’s actually a common issue for any company that is doing what’s called “Flash player detection” on their home page…since the search engine bot that visits the site to crawl it (for the search engine’s index) does not have Flash player, the Web site redirects it to a page that basically says “You don’t have Flash, so you cannot view our site—but you can click here to download it.” The search engine (which doesn’t care about downloading Flash, it just wants your content) crawls the latter page and indexes it. The title of that page is “Adobe Flash Player Not Current” and so we have the result (literally).

Flash player detection is a tricky thing, but we would solve this by simply creating a Webmaster Tools profile in Google and using the “Remove URL” tool to remove the URL from search results. Then we would go into either the page itself or create a robots.txt file to disallow search engines (*) indexing that page and following any links to that page. That should fix the problem. So why doesn’t DC Shoes do this? They may have already attempted the latter fix, but that doesn’t remove it from search results…Webmaster Tools is a great program that we use for all our clients to manage some of the search result snafus that sometimes come up in the process of indexing a site. We’re convinced not enough people are using this awesome resource yet…are you?

…and we’re back. Hope you all were able to participate! We shut down everything except for 1 energy-efficient bulb in the entire place. And now for something about us “going green” in a much different light…

Today I picked up these shoes from DC Shoes…they were meant for SODO Creative use so I couldn’t resist:

Tonight from 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM (PST) SODO Creative is shuttin’ down the shop (computers, equipment, lights, and all) for Earth Hour. We’re psyched to be donating to energy off-setting programs like Native Energy, but everything we can do to help reduce the amount of energy spent daily is massively important. Something to keep in mind is that even if your equipment is turned off, it’s still sucking energy out of that there wall device. Unplug that thing! All the cool kids are doing it.

It’s going to be tough to step away from our little devices, but maybe in the meantime we’ll put the “vice” back in device (Guinness makes you strong!) and celebrate the fact that all over the world people are combining efforts that very moment.

Since this blog is in its early stages (who are we kidding, right?) it might make sense to talk a little more about what green Web design really is…

First off, we love to read TreeHugger. (Any fans out there?) The folks at TreeHugger have a great section on How to Green Your Work which is a great read. So today, I’d like to present “Oops, we greened ourselves!” and look at just a few of the things we’re doing here at SODO Creative to make sure we’re keeping it real (green) based on the Top 10 tips from TreeHugger:

More work, less energy. We in the Web design and development industry work a lot. It’s no secret. Nights turn into mornings very fast around here. But even though we might thrive in the night, we’re not energy vampires…we leverage offsetting programs and 100% solar powered Web hosting to significantly reduce the amount of energy used. Energy reduction and the migration to renewable energy resources is extremely important to us…and there’s no bad garlic aftertaste.

Digitize. To say the least! We’re strong advocates of online over all other forms of marketing…it’s not only better for the trees, it’s an easier way to track conversions!

Don’t be a paper pusher. We try to use the least amount of paper around here as possible…but flying cars aren’t coming off the line quite yet and the need for paper hasn’t completely diminished. We have contracts, proposals, and marketing materials we have to create to for our customers and in our business…but everything we print is printed on recycled materials and shipped with the least amount of distance as possible.

Greening the commute. How can I put this…basically, we have no commute! SODO Creative encourages the “work from home” mission. It works for us, our clients, and our attention-starved pets.

How green is your business? Did you know that we offer green business consulting? We can help you not only organize and prioritize around making your business more earth-conscious, we can also set you up on the right path with the right tools and resources. Contact us to find out more!

That’s right…SODO Creative is live at Budakai and rocking our new blog. The SODO DOJO blog will be a place for our clients and anyone interested in the work we’re doing to check in…on the work we’re doing. Cool, eh? (Yes, we speak Canadian, too.)

So what happens next? Well, you stay tuned…click on one of the RSS buttons to subscribe, or bookmark our page so you can come back again soon and check in on things. Note: This blog isn’t going to be another, “Hey look at us!” diatribe…think along the lines of BoingBoing or MyOpenBar. We’d like to actually offer you something with every post…interesting facts, an amusing picture, or perhaps, just perhaps, a little humor. (We could all use a good laugh every now and again, right?)

For today, let’s just start with this: The daily Google Zeitgeist. An amalgamation (wow that’s a long word to type) of the most popular search phrases happening on Google. Right now. Useless? Cool? We find it interesting to look at the patterns not only in what people are searching for but in how they’re actually searching for it. Do you look at how people are searching for your site? What terms they’re using? Do you know how to use these to your advantage in SEO and PPC campaigns?