Search Engine Optimization and Flash
Flash content is fundamentally different from HTML on webpage URLs, and being able to parse links in the Flash code and text snippets does not make Flash search-engine friendly.
Some Reasons Why Include:
1.) Different Content is Not on Different URLs
You could have unique frames, movies within movies, etc. that appear to be completely unique portions of the Flash site, yet there’s no way to link to these individual elements.
2.) The Breakdown of Text
Google can index the output files in the SWF to see words and phrases, but in Flash, a lot of your text isn’t in nice clean <h1> or <p> tags, it’s jumbled up into half phrases for graphical effects and will often be outputted in the incorrect order.
3.) Flash Gets Embedded
A lot of Flash content is only linked-to by other Flash content wrapped inside shell Flash pages. This line of links, where no other internal or external URLs are referencing the interior content, means some very low PageRank/link juice documents. Even if they manage to stay in the main index, they probably won’t rank for anything.
4.) Testing ‘Crawlability’ with Hope
That’s what you’re doing with Flash content for SEO – hoping. Google’s Flash-crawling technology is proprietary, and while we all know and can test what search engines see from a content and link perspective in HTML, there’s no “test my site’s Flash file crawlability” feature.
5.) Flash Doesn’t Earn External Links Like HTML
Etiquette on the web simply doesn’t lend itself to Flash media earning link love. An all-Flash site might get a large number of links to the homepage, but interior pages almost always suffer.
6.) SEO Basics Are Often Missing
Anchor text, headlines, bold/strong text, img alt tags, and even title tags are not simple elements to properly include in Flash, and 9 times out of 10, the designer won’t build them in properly.
7.) A Lot of Flash Isn’t Even Crawlable
Google said they don’t execute external javascript calls (which many Flash-based sites use) or index the content from external files called by Flash (which, again, a lot of Flash sites rely on). These limitations could severely impact what a visitor can see vs. what Googlebot can index.
Of course, it is nice to see some Flash content ranking at Google (like for the query “break apart flash letters,” which illustrates point #2 above quite nicely). Just don’t let a Flash developer who just found out about Google’s new ability to crawl their work talk you into doing anything rash.
Related posts:
- Local Search Engine Optimization Tips
- How to Block Search Engine Robots
- A Peek at On-Page SEO Optimization
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