100% flash page to optimise for google

will this idea below work

[Dino_M]

I've had this idea - all flash sites have a flash detection page, true?

This page just sees if you have flash enabled and whips you straight onto the home page, yes?

could I not make the flash detection page full of content / keywords etc and get this page ranked highly in the engines when people click on it they go straight through to the flash.

Before you all scream spammer at me, I'm out of other ideas sorry and I don't want to use any form of clocking!

Before you suggest having an html site and letting the user choose that was my first suggestion which was a deffinate no, from the client!

[onionrep]

you could do what this guy advocates....

[searchengineblog.com...]

[Dino_M]

I just finished reading that.

I don't really think I will be taking his advice, I'm even less kean on his new plan for easy creation of doorway pages.

I can't believe he still has a page rank on his home page google should kick him.

[edited by: NFFC at 3:09 pm (utc) on Nov. 15, 2002]
[edit reason] Edited for politeness [/edit]

[onionrep]

I agree, glad the irony was <added> not</added>lost on you :)

[martinibuster]

Where's Dave_N?

How did this finally get resolved?

[Dino_M]

It got resolved by me having to do the complete site in html and place it under the flash site using CSS. Everyone's a winner

I get good content and therefore good rankings.
The client keeps his poncy flash site.
The user's without flash can see the site.

But I still need to know how to controll weather a hyperlink works through the flash. If anyone knows please tell me or suggest someone I might sticky for the answer.

[onionrep]

Im interested to read about this css solution. Did it have a big impact on file size/loading time?

[Dino_M]

They are not bothered about loading times, so thats not really a concern, i'm keeping it a simple as possible all the same.

Main problems so far are that when the site is view with different screen sizes the html tends to leap about a bit and pokes out from under the flash.

Other problem is still the hyperlinks being active/inactive under the flash!

[onionrep]

Have you considered using a layer and setting the default visibilty to hidden?

Although thinking about it, this approach could have spam filter implications and is not fully cross browser compatible.

I would have used a frame approach and put the html in the noframes tag myself.

Sorry I cant offer any other pointers.

Good luck.

[dhdweb]

Dino_M

I had the same problem, check the site in my profile to see the way I solved this problem.

I have a very good ranking in Google with this setup.

dhdweb

[born2drv]

Just wondering --- would your client let you even put a line on the bottom in small CSS font with "Copyright 2002, <company name + short desc with some keywords> All rights reserved." ...or something like that? Make it in H1, but small with CSS. That would still look professional.

Then use company name and short desc in title too, and inbound links --- if you get enough, I think it would do well.

[hutcheson]

>They are not bothered about loading times, so thats not really a concern.

Yeah, that's my tautology.

"Do you have a drinking problem?"
"No. I drink, I get drunk, I fall down and lie in the gutter all night, no problem!"

The proper question is not "do they have enough of a clue and enough of a brain cell to be concerned?" but "do they have a REASON to be concerned? and should their professional advisor be able to communicate that to them?"

[Visit Thailand]

I went to a flash site yesterday, waited 5 or so minutes for it to download, then played around with all the lovely links that move around and make noises when you put your mouse over them, I even went to another page to see if there were any more toys to play with.

Stayed about 10 childish minutes messing around and I have not got a clue what the site actually sells, but I did enjoy it!

[darnbarn]

I just made a website for a client that is blind, I found that the client's screen reading program, which reads all of the text on a page, can read all of the text in a flash page, a flash intro and even buttons. My question is, if a screen reader can pick up all of the content inside of a flash movie, why can't google? There is obviously something in the .swf file that carries the text and delivers it to a screen reader, it seems like the next logical step is that SE's would be able to do the same. It would seem to be in Macromedia's best interest to help this happen, I have a lot of clients that have requested flash intro's, most of them I talk out of it, because they NEED to have good SE ranking too and I explain that the flash intros look nice, but complicate thing on the SE front. I would imagine that if the content and text insdie flash were to be picked up by the SE's, it would increase the popularity of flash sites, but would also open up another can of worms, such as hidden text and other sources of spam. Hey, wait a sec, I think I just confused myself... I think I'll stick with dual versions for now, until someone smarter than me comes up with a solid solution... and they will.

[tbear]

I've been asked a couple of times to push rankings on 'Flash' sites, when they refuse to listen to my suggestions to change the site I'm afraid I get poncy and refuse the job.
Works a treat :)
And I'm happy - poor but happy.