How do I optimize Flash code for SEO?
There are two major ways to improve your flash code for SEO purposes:
- Add descriptive metadata to the Flash presentation.
Although metadata might not be as important as a couple of years ago, skipping it for Flash sites is not recommended.
- Provide alternative pages that describe the contents of the Flash presentation.
If your site uses more than just a flash advert, or rollover effect, you should consider using alternative html pages. This is not only because they are text that can be indexed by search engines, but also because there are users who might not be willing to see the Flash movie.
More frequently asked questions about flash accessibility
“Should I put the most important items in a Flash presentation on the home page?”
This is the ultimate SEO killer as it may decrease the spiders penetrating the rest of your sites pages. Textual content styled by CSS is much faster loading and doesnt require a plugin.
So a flash filled homepage is something that must be avoided always, when possible. Unless of course you are a flash designer. However good flash coders know all about making their code accessible for all users in mind.
“Its OK, because I have a good keyword density in the Flash presentation”
This is wrong, because no matter what the keyword density in a Flash presentation is, since it is not accessible to search engines, it is irrelevant.
Finally, remember that search engine spiders cannot click, read image or flash files, or type such as into onsite search engines.
Flash movies come in a proprietary binary format (.swf) and spiders cannot read the insides of a Flash file, at least not without assistance.
Resources - SE-Flash.com is a tool that visually shows what from your Flash files is visible to search engines and what is not.
Further reading - An excellent article on optimising flash sites
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