Flash Tip: Search Engine Friendly Flash
April 1st, 2009
If you are a web guru, you may be just waiting to pounce on me. If you are a marketing director, business owner or any non technical person looking to invest in a web site, you may be wondering why this article is important to you. I invite an open mind by all, as you may pull something from this post. I have talked with many novice to expert level developers and designers who still seem to support the blanketed idea that Flash simply is not search engine friendly. Not necessarily, and this article could be important to them for obvious reasons. For those that do not understand code but are interested in how this applies to a business at a high level, it simply means that you do not have to sacrifice aesthetic quality in order to gain performance. That has been a myth for too long and it is my goal to put an end to that idea with this article.
How can Flash be integrated as part of a search engine friendly web site?
First of all let’s go ahead and get it out there and say that Google can index Flash content. However, I believe that a site programmed in 100% Flash will struggle in rankings, given the same case scenario. To me, an integrated approach, utilizing HTML/CSS/Flash/JavaScript is the best approach if SEO plays a large roll in the success of your search engine rankings and you are not utilizing a blog (such as this one). I especially recommend this approach if your site holds a large amount of content. Your site will load much quicker and you will still have elegant, interactive or animated elements to accentuate your site.
Speaking of images, I hear often web site designers and web programmers say that even with an integrated approach, it is better to use an image in a web page, because the image code is cleaner than the mess of code Flash generates when importing the file directly into the HTML document. That’s what the JavaScript method is for. All this requires is calling in an external .js file via a simple command below the </head> tag of the document and then in the appropriate place in the body. For an example, view the source at this site. The code is very clean and you get all the benefits of Flash.
Navigation in Flash is OK as long as it is utilized in a sub-navigational sort of nature as a part of an integrated approach as mentioned above. The utilization of Flash movies to call out sections of your site is a great alternative to static images for driving users further into your web site or calling them to action. Stick to HTML/CSS driven menus at the top and bottom of your document. Use keyword oriented text links throughout your content.
To summarize, utilize JavaScript and CSS to create a cleaner document structure, don’t use Flash for tier one navigation without having it some where else on the page (preferably the top) and use Flash in place of images to drive users further into your site or call them to a specific action. Your site will perform even better on the search engines, as Google will realize the value of the content within your Flash files that are nonexistent in images, as it easily spiders through the rest of your well written HTML document.
Written by Jesse Olive, Owner of Pixel. Paper. Plus.
6 Responses to “Flash Tip: Search Engine Friendly Flash”
1John Taylor
April 23rd, 2009 @ 4:53 pm
What an excellent blog, I’ve added your feed to my RSS reader.
2P. Smith
April 26th, 2009 @ 9:48 am
found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it.. i bookmarked it and will be back to check it out some more later ..
3Emo Boy
May 3rd, 2009 @ 6:17 am
I don’t comment often on the posts, but just wanted to congratulate you for this one. Subscribed to your feed!
4Emo Boy
May 3rd, 2009 @ 8:54 am
Hey, I found your blog while gathering info about this. I must admit this is quite new to me, so your blog is really useful. Can you explain me how can I subscribe to your rss?Like for emo dorks like me
I’ll be grateful
5admin
May 3rd, 2009 @ 4:14 pm
Everyone,
Thank you for the responses and commendations. Your opinions are flattering and encouraging. Emo, there are a couple RSS links at the bottom of this page for entries as well as comments!
6Larry Luke
May 13th, 2009 @ 5:14 pm
Do you do all your own writing? Or do you outsource some of it? I’m looking for some similar content for my blog! These are great posts!
Leave a Reply