Flash and Google

[alfawolf7]

In the old days there was something called .TXT over UDP .... now we have on UDP endless file extension amongst which are the 2 FLASH types which are read just as everything else by Google.

The only difference is the refresh rate can not, at least I do not know where and how it is controled and so FLASH is the same as TXT.

With this view one can say that ALL IS READ but there are no proven controls.

[edited by: alfawolf7 at 5:06 am (utc) on Dec. 29, 2006]

[tedster]

You are probably correct that "all is read" but search engines today cannot tell, algorithmically, which part of the file that they read will actually be shown to the end user if they click on a link -- hence the problems with getting Flash pages indexed well. Search engines do not trust the experience they will give their end users if they return Flash pages in the search results.

In my experience, most Flash developers come from a "pretty graphics" background rather than a programming or SEO direction. I'd be very interested in hearing how you combine actionscript with search engine friendly websites.

For example, you mentioned in another thread that by combining a Flash application with an xhtml page, you can give users a complex, application-like interface without hurting the rankings that the xhtml portions achieve for the URL. This sounds like a brilliant way to avoid the problems of other some approaches - sort pages and so on. Have you been able to do this?

[alfawolf7]

In the past 4 months I have been trying to move my sites (I have 45 contracted and 5 private sites) into the age of "FLASH WITHOUT FEAR OF RANKING HELL" but I have ONLY STARTED TO DISCOVER ways to do this and so I would not wish to indicate that I actually am or could be an "expert".

That said what is working is to BREAK APART THE FLASH into small portions that are pasted in sequence onto the HTML.

In other words doing about the same thing as people often do to boost their keywords on a page by breaking apart images on that page so that each puzzle piece has its ALT text ...

Ted: To try and answer your question fully ... I would hope that someone else posts ... soon! At this date I simply have not learned enough to start expressing anything with detailed opinions --- so I started this subject to get viewpoints on FLASH and GOOGLE ....

A last note: What I have found of interest is that ALL of the clients with flash sites who have come to me for ranking ideas have all told me that they used black hat tricks on their sites. This may be a general trend. If this is the case it may account for the factor of low ranking flash, in part.

[tedster]

I'm also working with a client on a Flash site right now -- we're finding that the SWFobject code is extremely helpful for placing some alternate xhtml content on the page in a way that keeps googlebot happy and still gives Flash-enabled user agents the "flashier" version of the same thing.

The key is serving the xhtml version by default, then testing the user agent to discover if it is Flash enabled. If it is, we use javascript and the DOM to overwrite the div content with a Flash version of the same content. That approach sort of turns the usual logic upside down -- most sites would serve the swf by default and then offer the xhtml in a noscript element. That approach is a lot weaker, in my experience. You never know how the algo is going to be treating noscript elements from month to month,

[alfawolf7]

In my view: flash is a download not an "enabled" factor. For the version/type that may or may not be enabled can not be under-rated as a notion - so one should force download once one can tell if it is possible to do so --- by 1) seeing if it is already enabled and 2) placing the code into an alt .css (NOT JAVASCRIPT) format as the JAVASCRIPT MAY BE TURNED OFF and for larger firms such as banks JAVASCRIPT will rarely be active on user system posts - as part of security basics and only .css in alt version can be seen by all browsers that are 4+ types.

What ever the case I WOULD NOT REPLACE SOMETHING WITH SOMETHING - it is like "old lamps for new" and part of the .php (black hat) game of watching IP location which ends up like BMW.de anyhow.

My view is that one should have one thing for everyone just making sure that everyone is using the same one thing by forcing download of the right flash viewer.

The question for the next poster is HOW TO PLACE KEYWORDS ON FLASH ....