There were many reasons why Flash isn’t considered the best method to create a website despite all the cool interactivity and animation you can do with it. Primarily, it was because the search engine’s incapability to index Flash files and since a website’s number reason to be online is to be found, Flash couldn’t take the place of HTML.
Surely, search engines, especially Google, are trying to find ways to resolve this. Good news is, Google IS already indexing Flash files but only to a certain extent. This matter is still evolving and may take a while before Flash becomes an acceptable part of website creation with the main purpose of attracting traffic via content.
Here are basic tips on how balance using Flash and implementing SEO for Flash.
- Enhance web fonts in Flash files by using slfr, per a suggestion by SEO Zombie Blogger Justin Briggs. Because the Flash styles enhance the HTML content rather than replace it, the engines can still read titles.
- Don’t use Flash as the navigation.
- Embed Flash files into HTML pages.
- Use descriptive page titles and meta descriptions.
- Don’t include an entire site in one Flash file. Instead, break the content into multiple Flash files with different HTML pages.
- Use Flash for design elements and less-important content, and use HTML for the most important page elements.
It was in the summer of 2008, Google has announced that texts in Flash files are crawlable. Focusing on this, there are currently five (5) things to consider in regards to SEO in Flash.
1. Google can crawl and index text content users can see while interacting with a Flash file.
That is already a great improvement for the dilemma. It is important to remember the following though:
- Google sees the text in Flash files similar to text in HTML or PDF files.
- If identical content is used in both Flash and HTML, Google will likely see it as duplicate content (which is not a good thing)
- If a Flash file is embedded in HTML, meta information can be added but the content will be indexed as a single item.
So let’s say a Flash is embedded on a site. One has meta description and the other without. See the improvement below:
2. Google can discover links within the Flash files.
That being said, if a Flash files has links to your web pages, increased probability of Google finding and crawling more of the site is possible – similar when links that appear in HTML and other files.
3. Google can index external content a Flash file loads and associate it with the said Flash file.
As stated above. External content loaded by a Flash file is now crawlable by search engines.
4. Common Javascript techniques for embedding Flash is now supported by Google.
Before, if a page loaded a Flash file using Javascript, Google wouldn’t mind it. That is not the issue now.
5. Google can index sites scripted with ActionScript.
This is inclusive of AS1, AS2 and AS3 versions. Google maintains its status that it does not decompile Flash files or expose ActionScript that are not visible to users.
For other Flash SEO tips, you may view the following links:
- How to SEO Flash
- 2009 Google Flash SEO
- Top 5 SEO for Flash Tutorials
- How do Flash Sites Rank Well?
- SEO Tips for Flash Site
