Does web page size matter to SEO?

seo, optimization, web page, size

[versasol]

Hello guys,

I have 1 website, which is hosted just before 2 months. It is having flash on almost all pages.

As much i know, for new websites, flash images are not good to put on as it takes long time to load and even web page size gets increased.

Now, my website's home page size is 1.24MB. Do i need to reduce the size of webpage? Also let me know what is preferable size of any webpage according to search engine algorithms.

If its not possible to remove flash form the webpage then is there any other option to further with this same thing?

eagerly looking for solution.

Thanks!

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

1.24Mb is more than 1Mb too much for a typical web page. It sounds like you have no text content in which case you are unlikely to ever gain any significant traffic. If I were you I would ditch the Flash and get a lot of content on there.

[versasol]

Hey BeeDeeDubbleU,

Thank you so much for your reply.
I know this size is too much, but its client's requirement, he is not ready to remove his flash and other images. Can you please tell me what can be the max. size of any web page?

let me tell you, there is no single line content on the site.. only images, flash and scripting... thats it.

with this type of design, client wants me to bring his site on top rank of google SERP.

So suggest me how do i proceed further. And that's not static site. Its dynamic site. Even its brand new site, so no PR available.

please suggest me something.

Thank you
Ankita

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

It cannot be done.

[tangor]

All flash sites rarely rank well. There SHOULD be some kind of text available to assist the se's with the site content. It is reported that google does read something of swf files... but not sure how much. As far as "max" size what will depend on your host. Most have a largefile timeout, many browsers do as well. Where large downloads are available I've managed 200-500mb sizes with no trouble, though these are binaries, not flash pages. YMMV

I do echo BeeDeeDubleU that your index page AT THE VERY LEAST should be 100k or less.

If this is the client's requirement, all you can do is follow instructions, but DO tell client your reservations.

[canadafred]

I'd sugest to your client to consider budgeting for a search engine ad campaign (Adwords). Show him how he'll get first page rankings but it might be expensive to maintain for long priods of time. Do it in short bursts (2 days on 5 days off kind of thing).

The other responses are accurate. Even if you tried to manipulate the off-site factors (link building strategies) you'd fair little chance at getting a decent rank because of the lack of content.

Go with the Adwords angle. It may be your only option.

[buckworks]

no single line content on the site.. only images, flash and scripting ... with this type of design, client wants me to bring his site on top rank of google SERP.

With a site like that it will be a challenge to even rank for the company name. If that's all the client has in mind, it should be doable. But if he's thinking of ranking for anything competitive, he needs to think again.

It might be a wonderful site for a hundred reasons, but search engine friendliness isn't one of them.

[Leosghost]

You could also look into a "flash optimizer" ..the eltima one works ..you may well be able to shave your swf file down considerably ( and that will allow you some kb for text ..spider food ) ..

Even so the way search engines work you have an uphill job.

[versasol]

Hello Guys,

Thanks to all of you for suggesting me various options.

I think the only way is Adwords... but i doubt client prefers to go for that. Let me try with this one.. else i will have to do find some other way.

Once again thank you so much...

one more question, can any one let me know what can be preferable max. size of webpage according to search engine?

[mattur]

Forget size! This is your problem:

there is no single line content on the site.. only images, flash and scripting... thats it.

[tangor]

max. size of webpage according to search engine?

Don't care... if there's no spiderable text they just ignore it... and take your bandwidth at the same time they ignore it. The pipe feeds the "streaming". Only thing that kicks in is large file time outs on sites not optimized to feed the Really Big (Bog Down) Ones.

[Marcia]

Take a look at the Google cache for Flash pages that are in the index because of inbound links. Know what you'll see in the cache? Nothing.

>If its not possible to remove flash form the webpage then is there any other option to further with this same thing?

Sure it's possible; but it takes some creativity and adjustment. Make the pages HTML with some spiderable text on them, and just imbed flash into the HTML pages. Sites were doing that 8-9 years ago, and the ones that did got indexed and were capable of ranking.

[phranque]

use swfobject or similar technique to provide alternate content to non-flash-enabled user agents such as search engines.

[Robert Charlton]

Here's a discussion about using SWFobject to provide alternate text content [webmasterworld.com].

Note the suggestions about resisting the temptation to embellish. If the text content is not on the Flash page (and chances are it's not), don't put it in your alternative html text.

Even with alternative content, the essence of most Flash pages is visual, so it's likely they haven't been conceived in a way that would do well in search. Chances are you'll also be missing the internal navigation structure, titles, heading elements, etc, that are important in optimizing a page.

[technologysales]

versasol,
To answer your question about max page size. (keeping in mind that if you only have FLASH and no text, you will not rank), the key would be speed. How fast does the page load? There is some talk of search engines using page load speed as one search engine ranking factor, but this is not verified to be true. But, from a user experience standpoint, the page must load in a (subjective), reasonable period of time.

Also long page loads, could be tantamount to a time out in the eyes of a search engine.