Optimizing A Flash Website.Need Help

Everybody says search engine optimization for Flash sites is too difficult.

[pratima]

In recent past, I got one client who owns a Flash website and requested me for his site's SEO[Link removed]. In my first Pre-SEO Report, I advised me him to prepare one HTML version of his site as search engines can't crawl through Flash images. But he denied to follow such modifications. Later on I found one solution that can help Flash site without changing or creating HTML version. The solution is Flash Search Engine SDK. The SDK is in C++ format. You can get the detailed information at Flash site, if you search for this SDK. I need experts help hos to use that Flash Search Engine SDK, desperately.

:( :( :(

[vincevincevince]

The Flash Search Engine SDK is for search engines to use to decompress flash files, not for a webmaster to use.

Your initial advice was correct and probably a legal requirement given that flash is particularly inaccessible unless done really really well.

[pratima]

Thanks for this nice help, but what is that "...really really well." Can you give me some insight in this matter. I don't know where to start! And I'm getting bored asking those useless so-called SEO strategies.

[Baron Higbee]

I have dealt with this many times myself, and frankly there is no good way to make a pure Flash site search engine friendly. If you want to improve your search engine hits, but are determined to stay "pure" flash then here's what I suggest...

#1 - make movies link to separate pages not just separate movies

pro: this creates multiple pages for search engines to look through and find any text on your page as results (currently page title and any website copyright info, I imagine)

con: this slows down your flash movie loading process

#2 - use CSS to create invisible text on each page that is relevant to the content of the page

pro: this works well with crawlers

con: this is considered very bad design form and does not fit the W3C standards. Additionally you will have to essentially double your work to be most effective because you will be retyping content from your Flash movie onto the HTML page. Obviously this also breaks away from "pure" flash, but you had an HTML page already anyway.

So to conclude, yes this can be done, however the most globally-effective way to use Flash in a website is to have it just be one of many elements. If you are determined to use pure Flash, then just be cool with fewer search engine hits and figure out another way to advertise your web URL :D

Hope that helps Prat

[phranque]

i would suggest looking at swfobject [code.google.com] which is a javascript flash detection and embedding script and makes the presentation of alternate/accessible content very simple.