SEO with Flash will it work?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by CircleOfLinks, Nov 14, 2007.

  1. #1
    Hi guys,

    Im in the process of building my new site and its a full flash site. I was wondering how the SEO would work in terms of flash. I heard that flash sites don't get indexed by google and that they perform really bad for SEO work. is that true?? if not what would be the best way to do seo for it, is it the same as a normal HTML site with meta tages, keywords etc ???

    Thanks everyone
     
    CircleOfLinks, Nov 14, 2007 IP
  2. astup1didiot

    astup1didiot Notable Member

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    #2
    Search engines read sites like a text browser or screen reader. They do not see Flash at all as it currently stands. Flash is great for design, poor for SEO.
     
    astup1didiot, Nov 14, 2007 IP
  3. sundaybrew

    sundaybrew Numerati

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    #3

    100% agree there is no value seo wise for sure
     
    sundaybrew, Nov 14, 2007 IP
    ssandecki likes this.
  4. Styxbowl20v

    Styxbowl20v Active Member

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    #4
    There are methods to present content to the search engines that is crawlable while still displaying Flash to users. I'm not talking about black hat techniques either. There is the SWFObject method, which I have used on dozens of sites with good success. As long as you aren't stuffing keywords or content that isn't in the flash, you will be fine.
     
    Styxbowl20v, Nov 14, 2007 IP
  5. astup1didiot

    astup1didiot Notable Member

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    #5
    I'd be interested in viewing this site, can you provide a URL and SERPs?
     
    astup1didiot, Nov 14, 2007 IP
  6. astup1didiot

    astup1didiot Notable Member

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    #6
    +rep since we finally agree for once! :D
     
    astup1didiot, Nov 14, 2007 IP
  7. raven1083

    raven1083 Banned

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    #7
    i agree with them flash site is very poor in seo because search engine spider dont read flash document and having a flash site is not that good for people that are still using dial up connection or for people using slow connection
     
    raven1083, Nov 14, 2007 IP
  8. fonque

    fonque Peon

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    #8
    As per my concern flash is good for design and poor for Search Engines. But the fact is that someone has told about the success he made with the flash site. I too wanna see the site. Can you plz send me the URL?
     
    fonque, Nov 14, 2007 IP
  9. astup1didiot

    astup1didiot Notable Member

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    #9
    We probably won't see a URL ;)
     
    astup1didiot, Nov 14, 2007 IP
  10. narenderpalsingh

    narenderpalsingh Peon

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    #10
    Frankly SEO for a flash site is a very difficult cup of tea . Flash will be hard to become search engine friendly as there is no text for it to be spidered, just script. Your meta tags will be the only importance, so you may want to research your keywords for your site. You'd be much better off focusing your energy on other methods of marketing rather than try to beat out other flash sites in google's ranking. If you still have your heart set on it, it may be in your best interest to create either a "non-flash" alternative that visitors can go to, or create a "hybrid" site that showcases a lot of flash, but with information in normal HTML tags as well as an HTML layout.
     
    narenderpalsingh, Nov 14, 2007 IP
  11. CircleOfLinks

    CircleOfLinks Active Member

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    #11
    ok thanks guys for the adive, I thought that flash wont be good for SEO, not sure where I red it...

    Can i ask something thoe, with a flash document aren't there still meta tags? As long as that i set up right wouldnt that get indexed by google? Would it help if I make a clone of the site but have it html aswell, where users can choose between flash or non flash?

    Thanks
     
    CircleOfLinks, Nov 15, 2007 IP
  12. mansijoshi

    mansijoshi Peon

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    #12
    For yr site design, look n feel its good wid flash but u want to do strictly SEO activities overthere so its vry poor n not useful, considerable by most potential SE.
     
    mansijoshi, Nov 15, 2007 IP
  13. maahan

    maahan Banned

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    #13
    flash is not good for SEO.. maybe google will have some idea very soon.
    (the normal search results are showing the texts from inside a SWF file now.)
     
    maahan, Nov 15, 2007 IP
  14. Styxbowl20v

    Styxbowl20v Active Member

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    #14

    Well I would say that is a challenge.....

    Dominos.com (I can't post actual links yet due to me being new here). Check out the homepage. That homepage was invisible/worthless before the addition of the SWFObject alternate code. Disable Javascript and refresh the page to see the alternate code. I'm probably not allowed to share actual SERP's with you but I promise that they jumped dramatically for the words we targeted in those few lines of alternate copy. Nothing black hat, just a few lines of text that are about the site with some links to other pages of the site. Nothing crazy, but very effective for Flash pages.

    There are plenty of other sites using this technique. I'm surprised you guys aren't aware of this.
     
    Styxbowl20v, Nov 15, 2007 IP
  15. thunderbolt007

    thunderbolt007 Active Member

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    #15
    You can create flash and also a non-flash for it and promote the non-flash version....

    There is also process on how to SEO a flash....But SEs as of now don't read flash sites...

    I have seen many flash site that rank well it's because they optimize it well....:p
     
    thunderbolt007, Nov 15, 2007 IP
  16. acentec

    acentec Peon

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    #16
    Do you think this would work for full Flash sites?

    Unobtrusive Flash Objects (UFO) v3.22
    UFO is a DOM script that detects the Flash plug-in and embeds Flash objects (files with the .swf extension). It has its roots in the Web Standards community and is designed to support W3C standards compliant, accessible and search engine friendly web design.
     
    acentec, Nov 15, 2007 IP