SEO and Flash today (2007)

I had come across another thread from 2 years ago on the subject about Flash and search engine optimization.

Apparently, Google will index and follow flash animation text, but they seem to be the only one (according to the old thread).

The question is: does that still hold true today? Is Google the only SE in town that will scan text in flash files? Unfortunately, with SEO being so important for any site worth it's weight in computer chips, making a purely all-flash site is condemning said site to doom - aka, being buried at the bottom of or not existing on SE results pages. Even placing a single link out of the flash file will make most of today's top browsers go defensive - blocking the file and barring the JavaScript that checks for proper version/existence of the flash player.



Anyone have any updated information regarding SEO and Flash?

I am by no means an expert on this SEO stuff, but I am still hearing many of the same complaints. Albeit, google has gotten a lot better with scanning through flash files I am not sure if Yahoo and the other search engines have...

Realisticly not many people use yahoo, so i wouldn't be too worried

Lol. Well according to Alexa yahoo is the number 1 ranked website in the world... So I presume a few people use it

can't stand it
do you use it?

Nope. Hate it lol

Google all the way.

Don't really get how yahoo's still bigger than Google.... all the other stuff they offer I guess

I use yahoo. So do millions of others, ignoring it would be a mistake indeed.

Pete.

google all the way for me

Everyone, we're going totally off subject here!!

This has turned into a popularity contest between Google and Yahoo, NOT about how Flash affects SEO!

Can we get back on topic, please?

What he said ^^^

(who needs moderators with members like this)

This article may help...

http://www.456bereastreet.com/archiv..._optimisation/

and this...

http://blog.deconcept.com/2006/03/13...ach-flash-seo/

Absolutely GREAT links - everyone should bookmark them!

It's a heck of a lot less coding than what Flash MX spits out when you export your Flash movies. Plus (according to the article/blog) this will cause the Google bot (and I'm hoping other bots as well) to skip the Flash file and concentrate on the content.

1) It serves the purpose of having alternative content for those that either cannot display or choose not to display your flash content

2) It's good 'ole HTML that SE's luv to crawl!

The article had stated that pro Flash developers use XML in order to bring content into the flash movie, in which Google will crawl the XML databases - if I understood it correctly.

So I guess in conclusion is that Google will index the .swf, but it seems that a developer should NOT rely on this for SEO. The SWFObject JavaScript is what should be implemented so that those with the correct flash player will see the flash movie, but Google and those sans-flash will see a regular HTML page that has the same information as the Flash file. Therefor I would also conclude that one should build an HTML version of the Flash site, and use the SWFObject thing to make SE's and non-flash users happy.

Nice work. :-)

I need to start using xml