Comments on: Flash Web Sites and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) http://www.spinfield.com/2008/08/07/flash-web-sites-and-search-engine-optimization-seo/ Online marketing blog produced by IdeaStar, Inc. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:43:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Stevie Black http://www.spinfield.com/2008/08/07/flash-web-sites-and-search-engine-optimization-seo/#comment-827 Stevie Black Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:33:28 +0000 http://www.spinfield.com/?p=301#comment-827 Your assessment is dead-on. I have done a lot of research on this subject as we are an SEO-friendly web design firm. It appears that the difficulty with Google's approach lies in the way the content is extracted from the Flash module - it is pulled and dumped in a bucket (when it can be extracted) and the context is completely lost. As a result, there is no way to gather hierarchy across the content and to "inform" Google what was important about the site. Further, as the entire module is dumped en masse into that bucket, Google recognizes the entire module as the equivalent of a single page and the narrow deep silo is lost. For now, we are developing sites in SEO-friendly ways and adding Flash to amp-up user experience and, where warranted, to communicate better. Stevie Black McDougall Interactive http://mcdia.com sb@mcdia.com Your assessment is dead-on.

I have done a lot of research on this subject as we are an SEO-friendly web design firm. It appears that the difficulty with Google’s approach lies in the way the content is extracted from the Flash module - it is pulled and dumped in a bucket (when it can be extracted) and the context is completely lost. As a result, there is no way to gather hierarchy across the content and to “inform” Google what was important about the site. Further, as the entire module is dumped en masse into that bucket, Google recognizes the entire module as the equivalent of a single page and the narrow deep silo is lost.

For now, we are developing sites in SEO-friendly ways and adding Flash to amp-up user experience and, where warranted, to communicate better.

Stevie Black
McDougall Interactive
http://mcdia.com
sb@mcdia.com

]]> By: Greg Lane http://www.spinfield.com/2008/08/07/flash-web-sites-and-search-engine-optimization-seo/#comment-811 Greg Lane Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:39:29 +0000 http://www.spinfield.com/?p=301#comment-811 We completely agree with your assessment. I regularly am contacted by people with Flash websites who want to know what they can do to be found on the search engines. It is painful to tell them we will need to rebuild their website so the search engines will find them. They have usually been told by inexperienced Web developers that Google can index Flash websites ... but, we all know the reality. We expect it to be a good long while before Flash websites are on an even playing field with HTML websites. Greg Lane Graphics & Motion, Inc. www.gmotion.com greg.lane@gmotion.com We completely agree with your assessment. I regularly am contacted by people with Flash websites who want to know what they can do to be found on the search engines. It is painful to tell them we will need to rebuild their website so the search engines will find them. They have usually been told by inexperienced Web developers that Google can index Flash websites … but, we all know the reality. We expect it to be a good long while before Flash websites are on an even playing field with HTML websites.

Greg Lane
Graphics & Motion, Inc.
http://www.gmotion.com
greg.lane@gmotion.com

]]>