Are cross-site links in an embedded flash video counted as backlinks?

[AjiNIMC]

Hi to all,

We have Site A that hosts a game (in flash)
We have Site B that embeds the game
Inside the Game there is a link to Site C

Will Google be able to understand that Site B links to Site C?

In general my question is:
The real part of gaming website is when people embed their games. How can Google understand that these embeds should be credited to one website, which should boost the ranking of the website.

Any suggestion is highly appreciated.

Thanks,
Aji Issac

[tedster]

What kind of "embedding" code is used? In video embedding - from Vimeo, YouTube and the like - the code usually uses an iframe. Right now the content in an iframe is NOT considered part of the URL where it appears, so any links also would not be considered backlinks from that URL.

[AjiNIMC]

@Tedster, Currently there are different levels of embedding, some are iframe, some people copy the swf and put that in their own website to get better benefits.

Also what I see is, in Google webmaster it shows swf as backlinks, so it means Google is considering the backlinks from SWF.

I think still is considering it from the SWF page, not from the page where it is embedded.

[tedster]

Exactly - the backlink is considered to be from the swf page, not the embedding page. If the embedding page shows the swf page's URL, then it is a backlink for the swf page, but only a second level link (I sometimes call those grandfather links) to any page whose link is within the swf file itself.

With iframe embedding, as far as I can see there is no backlink counted from the embedding page at all.

[AjiNIMC]

does embedding give any positive effect for the website? If Site A's swf is emnedded on Site B in terms of iframe, that should carry some value as well (Logically).

Thanks,
Aji Issac

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

GWT tells me that one "link" is actually just a url used in the title of a flash file which strongly supports that no href markup is required to count as a link.

[tedster]

If Site A's swf is emnedded on Site B in terms of iframe, that should carry some value as well (Logically).

It does carry some weight in YouTube search - but whether that extends to Google or not isn't clear. How to handle any kind of iframed content, whether same domain or cross-domain, is a challenge.

Traditionally, iframe content was just a separate URL and that's that. However, last year Matt Cutts did make some comments that this might change. Haven't heard anything on the issue since that time, however.

[Robert Charlton]

We discussed some of the iframe issues mentioned above, including Matt Cutts' comments about iframe enclosed links, in this thread back in March, 2011....

Iframe Links: Do They Pass Page Rank?
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4282550.htm [webmasterworld.com]

Traditionally, it should be noted, iframes have very often been used to prevent the flow of PageRank from links visible to users... so, from the traditional point of view, a game embedded in an iframe isn't likely to be a good source of link juice.

Going beyond the traditional... if Google is parsing urls in javascript, it could certainly identify urls in an iframe. That doesn't tell us, though, that the identification itself conveys any ranking effects via traditional mechanisms.

It's hard to rule out, though, other tracking and weighting mechanisms... but I'm having a hard time imagining what they are. This isn't, e.g., "traffic" in the traditional sense.

[AjiNIMC]

my point is, if someone if adding a page from Site A as the iframe source, should Site A get some points for it.

[tedster]

The technical challenge for Google is that not every iframe is a user generated action - not even close. So using that as a ranking factor would start on pretty unstable ground with lots of edge factors to get figured out, if there is even any return on the investment for all those resources.

[AjiNIMC]

iframe no follow tags :)

My point is: If someone is embedding a page, this is a step ahead of linking, linking is just mentioning whereas iframe are fully displaying and endorsing.

Thanks,
Aji Issac