Forum Moderators: open
Present Factoids:
1) In the normal way, google or any other search engine cannot 'deep link' into our present Flash site as each url is dynamically created. The only thing that a search engine can index is the main landing page and the first link up to the pop-up (Flash pop-up inside of a equally sized html container)
2) Even if the .swf is 'deep linked' by a seach engine, would this be acceptable? The .swf would be brought up in whatever sized window the user was previously in during the search... ie. the banana [etrata.home.attbi.com] ... not in the properly sized pop-up container.
3) If the site is entirely flash on an single html page, then you really only have a single page site as far as search engines are concerned, and this will be exceptionally difficult to rank on anything but the least competitive keyphrases. More here. [webmasterworld.com]
Ways to Possibly Get Around This?
1) Hide content and links 'underneath the Flash piece. This can be done in a variety of ways:
a) use CSS and layering to give information a lower z-index than the Flash piece ulitimately hiding it from the user. This can also be done using an external css style sheet in combination with a robots.txt file that 'hides' the stylesheet.
b) create an folder called 'noflash', and create a basic.html version of the site. Then create a index frameset 0,100% then and use the noframes tag to direct none flash browser like google to the content. More here. [webmasterworld.com]
c) use a method of putting xml on the main landing page linking it to other sub-landing pages (optimized to that specific subject). This method could also pop-up the relavant flash piece if a user got to that via a search engine.
2) Create an alternative site in HTML optimized for search engines. This site could still pop-up or embed certain flash modules. (I understand this, but I am looking for new alternatives.)
3) Create a link to a site map off the index page that indexes optimized landing pages as well as direct links to flash pieces. (also understood)
I realize that some of the methods mentioned above may be considered negatively by search engines, but to what degree? Building a html version of the site is a possibility, but I what I am really looking for is inventive ways to portray a really great, content rich Flash site in a search engine friendly manner.
Any suggestions?
cheers.
If you are absolutely convinced that Flash is going to force the customer's hand to the order button, go crazy with it. Otherwise, you would likely serve yourself (or your client) well by creating an html version. Also try to consider the importance of the "index" or "default" page. If you can offer a Flash version as an optional "treat" while maintaining an html index / default page, you should see a notable increase in SE rankings.
It may sting a bit, but the SEs best friend is still a plain old static html page with a lot of text and a little imagery.
I know how hard it is to discern proper credentials with regard to SEO, but this is from pretty solid experience (e.g. vsix.org).
Mark
In most cases I dont like flash sites. They take too long to load, are slow and choppy, offer no real beneifit over the html sites, and are annoying. So my vote on the topic of flash sites is 86 it all together, but thats me.
Oh, by the way the bananna site was annoying and now I have a head ache and I dont want a PBJ sandwich....
