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Back in 2002 Google tried to tell us they actually could index flash, but it turned out to mean nothing more thanthey could see the SWF file but not read the content and rank it in a way they did for HTML pages.
Again last year, Google made noise in the market that the issues were now solved, flash could be indexed, flash was good at last. But this turned out to be a half truth and not all the problems were solved as flash sites rarely if ever appeared for competitive terms without underlaying them with an HTML version. But looking back, it seems that Google were onto something last year when they decided to start making noise again. They have been working hard to solve some of the problems and I think I can finally confidently say flash can be optimised for organic search engine results.
Information from the Google Webmaster Blog confirmswhat Google can do:
- Index textual content displayed as a user interacts with the file. We click buttons and enter input, just like a user would.
- Discover links within Flash files.
- Load external resources and associate the content with the parent file. (On 18 June this year Google added external resource loading to their Flash indexing capabilities).
- Support common JavaScript techniques for embedding Flash, such as SWFObject and SWFObject2.
- Index sites scripted with AS1, AS2 & AS3, even if the ActionScript is obfuscated. To expand on this list a little more, at the SMX Advancedconference this year Google confirmed the following:
Links within flash files can be followed and do pass link juice just like regular links. This means links within flash files pass all the same value and juice that a normal web page link does.
Another important confirmation from Google:
- Links within flash that are like a bookmark, denoted by the hash symbol, are not added into the Google index, so this is not a method you should use to try and get multiple URLs indexed from your flash file website.
What needs to be understood is that it's now possible to optimise flash websites, but it's going to be reasonablycomplicated. Not only do we need to understand what Google can now do, we need to be realistic in that it's still a handicapped approach when competing against non flash websites.
Another thing to consider is that flash still requires the same basic ingredient for success that an HTML website requires. Content! If the designer or client thinks they can just place lots of videos and images and moving features on the site without any supporting words, then the flash optimisation will not work. Optimisers need to discuss this with their client and make the client fully aware of the issues and the techniques to overcome those issues. Then ask the question. Can we build the site without relying completely on flash? If not, then continue with your flash optimisation strategy.
To optimise a flash website for organic search results you will need to:
- Have a well thought out strategy with a high level of understanding of what Google can actually do andhow they do it.
- Do your standard SEO keyword research that identifies your target keywords.
- Map your target keywords to your content.
- Use a Flash developer who knows how to build using Flash best practice. This may require them to spend more time on the development than they normally would.
- Create a separate flash file (the equivalent of one HTML page of a normal website) for each target keyword and then link your navigation between these files so that each file sits on its own URL (has its own html page with the flash file embedded on it). Content that is not important can sit in another flash file that makes up the rest of the site.
- Have content that supports your target keywords andpreferably feed this into your flash files using another file such as XML and allow Google to read this content.
- Not spam Google by being tempted to vary content between the flash file and other external files.
- Do all the normal link building and external promotion a website requires.
If there is one tool to create astonishing websites, that's Macromedia Flash. However, it is not that easy to learn and is difficult to use. But the results are incredible: web pages that mesmerize us with special effects, including image and sound, animations that make us feel like we are in a theatre, interactive applications and so much more.
Inexperienced online entrepreneurs ask web design companies to create Flash websites. Many of these firms are indeed able to design an amazing website, but how many are able to optimize its pages for the search engines? What about the other obvious difficulties: long loading time, firewalls that block Flash, lack of usability – and the statistics that show more than 80 percents of online users prefer non-flash sites? Considering that search engines cannot read Flash, what are the chances for such a website to be indexed anyway? Ergo what's the point in having an amazing website if it's difficult to use and no one can find it?
A well designed Flash website is beautiful, not so difficult to browse but very difficult to optimize for the search engines because it lacks scannable content. Fortunately, difficult is not synonymous with impossible.
To get higher rankings for a Flash website you should start with META tags and linking strategies.
Write proper META tags for the opening page: title, description, keywords. Use the most important keywords in the title tag and the description. That's all the on-page SEO you can do for a Flash site. It doesn't sound much, does it? It is not. Because many search engines disregard these tags and look for content. While visitors can read the content of a Flash site, for the search engine spiders it's a blank space. So the second thing to do to boost SERP for a Flash website is to build link popularity. To boost link popularity you need to link with websites that have a Page Rank 4 or higher. In time, this may bring the desired results. The importance of text links is, in this case, obvious. A text link is generally keyword rich, so search engines will know, by reading the link, what topic is treated on a website. Submit the website to directories and try to get one-way links by submitting articles and press releases.
Another method to boost SERP placements is the page re-direct. As META tag redirects are blacklisted, you might wonder what else is left. Well, Google allows redirects and using a 301-status code means that a site has been permanently moved. You could easily create a plain html page, respecting all the ethic SEO standards, and then redirect it to the Flash site. Avoid creating layers of text that should be delivered to the spiders instead of Flash. Although you do provide unique content, search engines might mistake the method for cloaking and ban your website.
That's all the SEO you can do for an entirely Flash website when you don't want to develop an HTML version.
Sites that are partially Flash and partially HTML have more chances to achieve high SERP placements, as they can be easily optimized.