36 replies to this topic

[synergytheory]

I'd love to get some expert opinions and tricks on good SEO with flash?

The only draw back with Flash IMO is the lack of SEO ability. From a design point of view, Flash kills all the browser compatability issues, colour, alignment etc. Well I guess one other drawback is that some designers get excited with animation and we end up with awful UI's.

But if you keep it simple, Flash is great. It caches great, for quicker downloads [i.e one file rather than 100 images and html docs] as mentioned above it just about nulls all browser compatability issues, and now it has CSS and html support.

Most flash designers have a 'splash' page, I believe to get in the SERPs, I know more SE's hate that, but what else can a flash designer do?

Any tips or tricks for flash?

[SearchRank]

Don't make your entire site in Flash but rather use Flash inserts or else provide a html version not only for SEs but for end users who do not have a Flash plug-in. There is no substitute for good old html text that search engine can index. A site can combine these two elements and still have plenty of pizazz that Flash can bring to a site.

[synergytheory]

I forgot I was going post this link:

[http://max2003.rr.com/flash/index.cfm]

Site is done COMPLETELY in flash, the backend is great, no other has come close dynamic content with flash as FI have here. From one of the greatest flash design firms in the world Fantasy Interfaces. Nice eye candy and great backend, I wonder if they did any SEO work.

Edited by Jill, 17 December 2003 - 02:38 PM.

[synergytheory]

Don't make your entire site in Flash but rather use Flash inserts or else provide a html version not only for SEs but for end users who do not have a Flash plug-in. There is no substitute for good old html text that search engine can index. A site can combine these two elements and still have plenty of pizazz that Flash can bring to a site.

This is what I do at this point in time. Sometimes I use flash for a menu, and perhaps a submenu...and the rest of the site is html.

I just wonder what advancments Macromedia are working on to have better SEO.


BTW searchrank are you located in Scottsdale? I actually have a interview today for a junior SEO position...I have no idea of the name of the company, a recruitment agency got me the interview.

[websage]

The only draw back with Flash IMO is the lack of SEO ability. From a design point of view, Flash kills all the browser compatability issues, colour, alignment etc.

At least one more drawback of Flash is that you cannot copy and paste text from it. It essencially is the same reason why Flash sites have problems with SEO.

If you insist on having a Flash site, here is some relatively good news:

There are companies have bought the Flash Search Engine SDK (software development kit) and use it to enable their search engines to search Flash sites: Lycos and FAST (AllTheWeb).

For more information go to http://www.searcheng...cle.php/2200921

[SearchRank]

BTW searchrank are you located in Scottsdale? I actually have a interview today for a junior SEO position...I have no idea of the name of the company, a recruitment agency got me the interview.

No we are in Phoenix and aren't currently doing any hiring. There are not that many SEO firms here in Arizona but there are plenty of design firms and interactive agencies. Could be that you will be interviewing for one of them.

Good luck and howdy to a fellow Arizonian!

[synergytheory]

At least one more drawback of Flash is that you cannot copy and paste text from it. It essencially is the same reason why Flash sites have problems with SEO.

If you insist on having a Flash site, here is some relatively good news:

There are companies have bought the Flash Search Engine SDK (software development kit) and use it to enable their search engines to search Flash sites: Lycos and FAST (AllTheWeb).

For more information go to http://www.searcheng...cle.php/2200921

Actually you can copy and paste text from Flash, if the designer chooses a dynamic text box instead of a static one.

But that's great news about the Lycos and ATW buying SDK.

[synergytheory]

No we are in Phoenix and aren't currently doing any hiring. There are not that many SEO firms here in Arizona but there are plenty of design firms and interactive agencies. Could be that you will be interviewing for one of them.

Good luck and howdy to a fellow Arizonian!

I figure it probably is a design firm, or perhaps a large online company with in house SEO.

Thanks, hopefully I'll do well.

I just moved from Sydney Australia to Arizona 18 months ago, I love it here So I guess I am an Australian-Arizonian hehe I do miss the ocean but the weather is great here, it's getting cold now though!

[mcanerin]

One thing I've discovered is that if you look at the code Flash puts out during the publish, you will see that the very last part looks like:

</noembed></object>

You can put static content from your Flash movie in between the 2 tags and it shows up properly for text only browsers (and presumably googlebot)

Spammer alert: Obviously putting content between those tags that is not in the movie is a Very Bad Thing. My condolences to your website and it's rank loss if you start keyword stuffing here.

Usually Flash puts all the content in the comments section - I'd pull that out (since you know it's the same as the movie) and put it in between the tags. Format it to look pretty and viola! You are done. Don't leave it in both places (duplication = spam).

BTW, this is the "official" way to do it (according to W3C). I've already made the <noembed>,<noscripts>, etc arguments in search of an answer, and tested them all on every browser I could put my hands on, and this is the best I could come up with (with some help from fellow forum members, of course )

Example

</noembed>
Welcome to our site. Here are our links and what we do...etc 
</object>

Ian

[websage]

Wonderful post, Ian! Following the W3C standards will make your site friendlier to users, forward-compliant so that when a new browser version shows up you do not need to redesign, and very likely will help with SEP. In fact all web designers should read "Designing With Web Standards" by Jeffrey Zeldman and start heeding the W3C calls to follow standards.

[William Cutting]

Not sure if you guys agree to this, but you could cloak it on the server side. Point googlebot (uses a few different IPs can't remember off hand) to a text rich page and links, and point everyone else to your flash site.

Or

You could just provide an HTML version of your site.

[Scottie]

You could just provide an HTML version of your site.

So much easier- you're doing the work anyway. Just let users see it too. No worries that way.

[Jill]

Cloaking it would be a risky proposition. If you do that, you should be prepared for whatever consequences might come your way.

Better not to cloak it for just Googlebot, but to create it simply so browsers without flash get the text version. This would include Googlebot.

Jill

[peter_d]

Offer a "print this page" option. Link this to printer friendly text pages of the information contained in the flash files. Optimise as usual.

This way, you retain the branding and offer the visitor something more.

[Scottie]

Very practical solution!