Hi all... My client insist to built a flash website and to get good results within google search results. Is there any way to built the website in a way that it will be possible for google to spider it and to rank it ? The domain has a good history in Google and it has a PR3. Thanks in advance for any help, Guy.
I would agree on that. Explain the rationale behind, Flash site can never have a good SERP because they do not have content for the bots to index (show them the Google Webmaster Guidelines if your client insists). The best alternative is to build two version of the site and have your robots.txt block out the flash site.
Make the index page a non-flash page that links the user into a flash site. Then you can atleast target a few terms.
The best thing is to educate your client and explain that he can't have a flash site. You are the one that is going to be blamed in 6 months time when he has a really nice looking site but no traffic.
You have 2 choices: 1) Create 2 versiions of the site. Excluding the flash site probably isn't really necessary, as it's really just one page anyway. The problem with this is that the search engine visitors will have to see the HTML version, which kind of defeats the purpose of the flash version if you plan a long-term organic campaign. A makeshift solution to that is to offer a link to the flash version, but you have to make sure that the flash link passes parameters somehow to the flash application to navigate to the equivalent part, otherwise you'll lose conversions (duh). You could cloak too, and redirect, using thinking along those lines, but I wouldn't do it unless I had to. 2) Redo the site using a blended flash/HTML approach. This is the idea solution. Flash will hinder SEO no matter what. Getting rid of it will do your client a favor long-term. Non-flash sites will always have an edge over you. But 1 isn't a bad idea either. Thing is, if you're going to do 1, you might as well just do 2, because you're already designing a new site.
That's a really good idea. The blended approach, probably easier than making two versions of the same site anyway. If that was the approach, you could still detect flash in the user's browser and may display heavier flash if they have it, more text if they don't. So he can keep a lot of the flash for the users that have it, and very little for those that don't. In general, all flash sites are a terrible idea. I pretty much universally despise them myself. So utterly annoying, they usually play sounds, and the navigation sucks, and they are slow (comparatively), and it's hard to read text on them in the way that it usually scrolls. I guess there could be a "good" flash only site, but I think it would end up looking a lot like an HTML site!
How much flash does he need? You can do a really clean flash site with only the header and footer being animated. A hybrid site looks 1000% better IMO. Also, if it was 100% flash, how would he update content?
I've had excellent results from adding some keyword-rich content just below the Flash code and making sure the page TITLE tag contained the keywords. Another technique is to add a keyword-rich sentence or two hidden within the PARAM area of the Flash code. This text is not displayed by IE but is displayed above the Flash content by Firefox. So, if you use this technique, make sure it makes sense to Firefox users.
I have a great techniqe for you my friend! You could just keep your FLASH SITE if necessary. No need to have HTML version. But ofcourse it's better to have. Anyways, here is a very simular techinique to IMAGE replacement. THIS ONE CALLED FLASH REPLACEMENT. I created a TEST folder with all files for you, zipped it Please do not worry it's not a virus! MAIN FOLDER: TEST INSIDE FOLDER: FLASH/FLASH-FILE.swf FILES: flashobject.js, index.html, main.css BY THE WAY IT IS BROWSER COMPATIBLE (Firefox, explorer, etc) CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FLASH REPLACEMENT TECHNIQUE
You should try and convince the client to make a flash + HTML site. Just use a flash header and maybe a flash navigation, and keep the page short. (Don't add so much content that it scrolls down). Keep the same format on all other pages of your site. Hope your client agrees to it.
You can check out this article - http://www.site-reference.com/artic...izing-Flash-files-for-the-search-engines.html
One technique to do SEO for Flash websites is use of <noembed> tag to list keyword rich textual representations of what is in the flash. For more info read it http://www.seobook.com/archives/001457.shtml
I use the "FlashObject"-technique to optimize Flash-Pages. In short you need a HTML-Version of every "page" within the flash movie. These HTML pages can be very basic since only peple without flash and javascript (but you can capture them as well with a flash/JS-Detector script) will see them. The HTML version of the pages is replaced with the Flash movie using Javascript, when someone loads the page. The SE of course only know about the HTML. Google for [flashobject seo] for detailed information. This sounds like cloaking but in my opinion it's not, as long as you put the same content into the HTML as in the Flash. It's the most sophisticated approach to optimze flash pages. Kind regards, Hans
In your flash file's code, you can use <noembed> tag. In that you can write keyword rich textual representations of what is in the flash file. So, search engines can know about your web page. Example: <OBJECT> <PARAM NAME="MOVIE" VALUE="file1.swf"> <EMBED SRC="file1.swf" WIDTH="100" HEIGHT="100" PLAY="true" LOOP="true" QUALITY="high"> </EMBED> <NOEMBED> holiday villas </NOEMBED> </OBJECT> Here i n <noembed> tag i have write about what is in the flash file file1.swf, noembed tag won't be displayed on your site.
Don't forget that in the UK at least, an "all-flash" website would actually be illegal under the Disability Discrimination Act as users of speech readers (the visually impared) cant "read" those websites.
You could also make a doorway page that is full of targeted keywords and redirects the visitor to your flash site using a meta refresh tag. (Please note the sarcasm in this post, this method is considered black hat)