We"€™ve seen a lot of changes on the internet landscape and how people interact with content within it, mobile and tablet PC's being obvious examples. On top of that there's changing web standards, influenced by that changing technology. Things like HTML5 and CSS3 - as Mashable note, "more and more users are now able to take advantage of the latest and greatest features on the web". It"€™s tougher for SME's to stay on top or ahead of the game, but not impossible. It's also important than businesses do in order to remain competitive. Here's Mashable's 2010/2011 for design trends for SME's - summarised below: Drop the Flash - More and more sites and web developers are moving away from Flash-only solutions in lieu of video, animation and navigation.What does your audience need and value? Flash is not even accessible on most mobile devices, though great for rich applications,…

Google tends to favour larger sites belonging to larger companies with well-known brands. Since more authority and trust is conferred on these sites which have greater scale and more backlinks, smaller and medium businesses (SMEs) have to work harder on their Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to gain prominence in the natural listings of the search engines. But smaller businesses often have the advantage of being more nimble and dynamic, so if they can take advantage of this flexibility, how can they compete through SEO? To help answer this question, I asked Susan Hallam, a fellow-trainer and consultant whose clients include smaller businesses. My questions covered five key areas that SMEs should review for their SEO activities: SEO approaches SMEs can use to help them beat larger rivals in the search listings Tips on using the Google Local Business…