On April 18th 2005, Adobe announced that it
was going to acquire Macromedia.
Besides delivering a critical blow to
competitive balance of two highly recognized
and respected companies, it has inadvertently
created a new form of optimization.
That's right. PDF optimization.
The main technology that Adobe wanted from
Macromedia was Flash. Now that they have it,
they will be able to incorporate all the power
of Flash into a PDF. With one fell swoop, they
have changed the face of search engine
optimization.
As a site owner, I can now potentially have my
entire site reside within the content of a
PDF. Sure, it was textually available before,
but now I can even have compressed video,
dynamically generated content and visually
appealing content conveniently wrapped up into
the web's only cross-compatible portable
platform.
No more worries about having a Flash player
installed - that will be incorporated into the
PDF reading software. No more worrying about
needing Quicktime and Media Player versions of
video clips. They'll all be in Flash.
Not only is the PDF web friendly, but it is
also PDA and Kiosk ready. Now content can be
delivered anywhere to any device that can read
a pdf. It can also be included on CD's, DVD's
and even your cell phone.
From a user perspective, this is awesome. From
a search engine perspective, it is great to
push boundaries, but we may also see the end
of optimizing for client sites, instead a
client will pay a one-time fee to optimize a
pdf.
Anyone who makes a living optimizing sites can
see the potential loss of revenue as companies
move forward and place their marketing efforts
into promoting a pdf instead of a web site.
Why would a company not embrace this? While
it's a true a site like Amazon would not be
able to take full advantage of this, they
could embed pdf optimization for dvd's and
cd's sent to your cell phone, based on
previous selections you've made.
It's a marketer's dream, and it makes a buzz
agent's job even easier. Word of mouth
marketing will be coupled with a portable
demonstration of the product or service being
sold.
While the general public may not become aware
of this technology for a few years, those who
reside on the cutting edge will find great
ways to use this in promotion.
Now instead of just watching a movie trailer,
you could also have the script, actor bios and
studio contact information. Maybe even after
the movie gets released, you could get your
pdf updated with box office results.
The benefits of storing information in a pdf
are huge. Instead of storing all of that
information in a database, you have everything
you need as a portable document. No worries
about server stability, access to the database
or even an internet connection.
By embracing this new development, it will be
another service you can add to your seo
repertoire and allow for your business to
adapt to this emerging technology.
Paul Bliss
www.seoforgoogle.com