Flash/HTML Page (Just a Quick Questoin)

[andmunn]

I have a site which uses a flash logo up top:

[surplusnetworks.com...]

Now, the rest of the page is in HTML (no flash whatsoever). How much is this flash going to affect my status in the search engines?

Should i just convert the flash file to a standard JPG/GIF format?

I've read up on some of this, but most talk about a "100% flash site", which mine is not...any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
Andrew.

[bilalak]

Just add some text to describe what is in Flash. Be careful, the description META is very important in this case.

Also you should make sure that you have html href on this page cause SE does not index urls from Flash.

[dougmcc1]

Another thing you might want to do is change your links.

For example, 'Benefits' should go to [yoursite.com...] not [yoursite.com...]

And the links at the bottom of your index all point to [yoursite.com...] instead of their respective pages.

[andmunn]

Thanks for your help...

Quick questoin...

1) About the Meta Tags, do you mean the meta tags in the actual flash image? Have to figure out how to do those, or the meta tags within the index.html page?

2)

What exactly does "Also you should make sure that you have html href on this page cause SE does not index urls from Flash.".... im' confused what you mean by html href?

Thanks,

Andrew.

PS...from what i gather then, with the meta tags, there won't be much problems with the serach engines.

Thanks,
Andrew.

[dougmcc1]

Flash movies themselves don't have meta tags. The meta description tag goes in the head area of the .html document. And don't think this is a substitution for content in your page. A meta description isn't going to make up for the content you are replacing with the Flash movie. By the way, this is probably the only meta tag you need.

I think what he meant by #2 is that SE's won't index your Flash pages (doesnt look like you have any though, just a Flash movie on every page). By "html href" I believe he is referring to the href attribute of the link tag (<A HREF="">).

In other discussions I have heard that Google will follow the links in a Flash movie. I don't know if that's true (but I do know they have the capability), and I don't know if Google indexes the pages it finds from links in your Flash movie, but I think as long as you provide regular text links somewhere on each page which goes to the same pages as you link to in your Flash movie, you should be ok. Just get that extra stuff out of the URL if you can.

[shasan]

hey,

psst...you're not supposed to post URL's

but that's ok, it'll probably get edited if it's out of TOS.

In answer to your question, the effect of that flash logo on your site will be minimal from a search engine perspective, all else being equal (i.e. you're making sure that you're following basic SEO practices).

The only benefit that I would have seen of a normal logo, is it would be the logical place for you to put your main keywords in the alt tag of the image, which is one of the things SE's seem to look for.

That said, you can put those keywords in any alt tag on the page and you would still be ok. (correct me if I'm wrong people).

I guess the bottom line is that it's not HELPING you by any means, but it's not HURTING you either. IMHO.

[andmunn]

thanks for all your advice..i was getting worried when i saw posts about SE problems with Flash....so this makes me feel much better.

I'm attempted to edit out my URL, but unfortunately, i can't find the "edit" buton this post....can anyone point it to me? Or can an admin edit out my URL?

Thanks :)
Andrew.