Flash and SEO: Getting the Balance Right!
September 15th, 2009 | by BillEgan |Why Install Flash?
Companies favour using flash on their website for a number of reasons. Flash can offer a dynamic and visually attractive experience for visitors. Flash can be particularly useful in a number of situations including:
- Ecommerce catalogues that show how a product works. For example showing a 3 dimensional view of a catalogue product such a baby’s folding push chair with front, back and side views and a demonstration of how to erect and dismantle it.
- Virtual tours
- Music and entertainment content
- Directions or maps
Most brand marketers tend to place the greatest emphasis on shaping and enriching the brand’s image. For them, visual appearance is more important than organic search concerns.
From a practical standpoint for many websites, the question is not whether to use Flash or not, but rather how to best use Flash on a website to meet user objectives, and still have that website that works well for SEO.
Not surprisingly, choosing between SEO and Flash can create a tough dilemma for brand marketers.
Why is Flash an issue for SEO?
Flash enabled sites can look very attractive, but Flash presents some challenges for search engines, since most search engines have little or no ability to read and index content within Flash files.
Flash files are not structured to enable the content to be crawled by search engines. The files are basically program code that is executed and displays moving images and sound effects.
What this means is that a site consisting entirely of flash files can be practically invisible to a search engine unless specific techniques are use to get around this.
This Causes Two Main SEO Problems:
- With an all Flash website you cannot optimise individual pages for different keywords. In this situation the website is usually seen by search engines as a single page. That means you will not have the benefit of a multiple page website with each page capable of being indexed separately. Thus you will not be able to optimise individual pages for seperate keywords.
- External links cannot point at interior pages within your site – they are forced to link to the top page. What this means is that you will not be able to take advantage of these deep links that will drive more traffic to your site and improve your search engine ranking. Deep linking is when other websites link to pages within your site other than your home page. For e-commerce websites with an online shopping component, deep linking is much better than home page linking because visitors can be taken to the exact page containing a product they are searching for.
So What Are The Options To Fix This?
Option 1: Use a Mix of HTML and Flash
If you really need Flash in your site you should ensure that the site is not all flash. Consider building a HTML site with Flash movies and interactive content that is placed inside of the HTML documents.
This way the site will not be an entire Flash site and can also contain textual content that can readily be indexed
Option 2: Have Two Separate Versions
Alternatively you could have a site that consists of two versions – a HTML version and a Flash version. The Home page can have the links for these versions and the visitors can select the version of their preference. But if you go with this option remember to submit only the HTML version to the search engine.
Option 3: Keep The Site As Flash And Optimise It Using Special Tools.
If you use Macromedia, consider Macromedia Flash SDK to analyse the Flash content and help the indexing by the search engines.
If you have more than a few keywords that require optimisation you should consider splitting the site into multiple pages with keywords optimised for each page.
Where you do not have content for some pages, then be sure to make use of the appropriate Meta tags.
Accessibility features are aimed at enhancing the visitor experience of disabled web surfers. These can also be used to improve the search engine visibility of your content inside Flash.
Flash accessibility programming is probably one of the best ways to get your Flash content recognized by spiders, Shockwave Object 2.0 (SWF) has become an industry standard and is increasingly used by many web designers.
It allows search engines to see and digest the same important Flash content as users, and as a result, websites may experience increases in search engine visibility on keywords contained in the Flash replacement content.
Flash Replacement Tips:
- Consider using Flash content that contains keyword-rich messages that can be “replaced” in text form for search engine spiders to crawl.
- If possible, leave images out of your Flash content and focus on content that can be replaced and recognized by engines. (Images can be optimised separately.)
- Finally, if possible try and include links in your replacement content.
What’s your experience of using flash? Are you a brand marketer that has struggled to get the right mix between building the brand and getting organic visibility?
Do your clients understand the mix between aesthetics and keyword visibility?
Let us know your thoughts…
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8 Responses to “Flash and SEO: Getting the Balance Right!”
By Roberta Balder on Sep 15, 2009 | Reply
I am currently developing a website for a niche retail boutique where the balance of flash and seo is critical. My client understands it, the designer understands it, and yet its not an easy mix. The industry standard is flash: fashion is a visual art, after all. But, if you are using the web as part of your marketing strategy, keywords mean everything. Thanks for the post and your objectivity.
By SeoNext on Sep 16, 2009 | Reply
I think it is very difficult to make a balance between SEO & Flash.Thanks for sharing this informative post with us.Thanks for the post.
By Petri Koski on Sep 16, 2009 | Reply
Unless you’re working on a contemporary campaign site or similar, an all Flash site isn’t really any option from a SEO perspective. Though the mix of HTML and Flash is certainly an option. Essentially Flash content is there to enhance and complement the HTML, not to replace it.
Read more on Google indexing Flash: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/06/flash-indexing-with-external-resource.html
By Recruitment SEO on Sep 16, 2009 | Reply
Good article – I was part way through writing a similar article for my own site but I think I’ll just point to this post now!! The one thing that repeatedly comes across to me is that the reasons that people often ‘want’ flash (I said ‘often’ !) is that they want a design bringing to life with a little bit of movement or animation. I’m so glad that ajax carousels etc. have now come of age and can be used for simple slideshows with fade effects nicely – this seems to be the solution for a lot of the people who were after flash in the first place. It’s not the flash itself – it’s just something that ‘moves’ for a good deal of clients.
By Brent Friar on Sep 16, 2009 | Reply
IMO a full Flash site is rarely ever necessary. Many effects can be achieved with ajax to give sites the motion site owners desire without having to compromise on the SEO.
Yes, Google has made advances in indexing Flash, but it is far from perfect and I can say with pretty good certainty that all things being equal, an HTML based site will rank higher in organic searches than a Flash based site. That’s an awful big compromise if you are serious about driving traffic.
Lastly, a full Flash site completely excludes all mobile users at this time. Is excluding the fastest growing market segment a good idea? Up to you, but it seems like another huge compromise.
Flash is great for enhancing a site with bits of multimedia and animation used if places where it doesn’t affect the more important goal of driving traffic to your site.
It doesn’t matter how amazing your Flash site is if it’s on page 36.
By Linda Sevier on Sep 17, 2009 | Reply
Very nice post. One of the most objective I have read. I am an Internet Marketer and web developer. I recommend that my clients use Flash sparingly, embedding Flash elements in an HTML page rather than creating full Flash pages. I avoid Flash navigation at all costs. As you pointed out, accessibility is important so include a text alternative Flash contnet for search engines, the visually impaired and mobile devices such as iphones.
From an Internet Marketing perspective the problem I have with Flash is that the web site owner is not able to edit it or add new content easily or quickly. So, even if search engines were able to read it, the site tends not to be as successful because adding good quality content on a regular basis is a critical component of Inbound Marketing. An artistically beautiful site that no one finds in the SERPs isn’t a good business too, IMHO. If, on the other hand, you are using your website to communicate only with current customers go for it. However, if you want your site to be a lead generation tool, go with less glitz and work on fantastic content that the search engines can index.
By SEO Sheffield on Mar 26, 2010 | Reply
I avoid Flash like the plague. Not only is it difficult for search engines to index the content. But with Google planning to(or perhaps already)take into consideration page loading speeds, Flash falls even further down the ranks in terms of designing with SEO in mind.
As a few people have already said, Flash is rarely necessary, if you have a talented designer. You can make a ‘flashy’ website with clever graphics and innovative design techniques. No need for Flash.