The Flash vs SEO Conundrum
Ranking sites with a full Flash home page is one of the more difficult tasks in search engine optimization. I always try to steer clients away from it, but some insist. The content can be dropped below the fold, but this is not the most elegant method, and often the designer will object.
So what’s an SEO to do?
According to Wysz’s Popular Picks October 4 Google Group discussion on hidden text:
“When trying to figure out if a page may have hidden text that Google would consider malicious, start by thinking about why the guideline was written in the first place. Google wants to see what the user sees.” 
If:
Google wants to see what the user sees.
Then:
Why can’t text that appears in Flash be placed in a div tag without penalty, in the same manner as z-index, per today’s discussion at SEO Roundtable? The Blitz Agency does this, and blogs about it how successful they are, but I’m aware of sites that have been penalized for doing so.
To quote Wysz again:
“If we detect that this text is intended to deceive search engines, there could be a negative effect on how your site is indexed and ranked in Google, including removal from our index.”
Fair enough. Again, I am talking about identical content to that which is in the Flash presentation.
Wysz one more time:
“When trying to figure out if a page may have hidden text that Google would consider malicious, start by thinking about why the guideline was written in the first place: Google wants to see what the user sees. If the text that Google sees is the same that a normal user is supposed to see, then you should be good to go. If Google is seeing text that is intentionally hidden from the user in an effort to manipulate search engine rankings, you have some work to do.”
Therefore:
If my Flash movie contains content, and I place the same exact content in a div tag within my source code, Google should have no problem with it. This would be such an easy, elegant solution to the problem, and doesn’t constitute hidden content.
However:
Without Google’s blessing, who wants to take the chance of getting their own or client sites penalized or banned for hidden content?
Tags: content, div tags, flash, Google, hidden content, source code
Great point Kay! Say your comment on SEO Roundtable, and I think Ill start reading some of your blog posts. Flash is such a hairy beauty ain’t she!
Thanks for stopping by my blog, Erika. You’re certainly right about Flash!
I guess that is the million dollar question, which can only really be answered by testing it with non-client sites that don’t matter then reporting it back here to share with us all!
Maybe those A/B testers at Seomoz could test this for us!
KRONiS
I agree with your thinking, that if Google wants to see what the user sees, then duplicate content in should not be penalized. BUT, Google’s bots have no way of knowing whether that hidden content is valid (the same as shown in the Flash) or not. They’re certainly not going to take our word for it… they know what we know… that if they give us the benefit of the doubt, pretty soon SE spammers would be out there embedding Flash movies of porn with Check out these great silver-plated teaspoons! Full Flash, bad. Flash/HTML CSS-driven hybrid, beautiful!
You have provide such an important information in such a decent way that make sense for every one. I really appreciate explanation of important points like Google see the page as searcher do.
You are absolutely right. Although flash can be utilized for a very visually appealing presentation, it is tricky to optimize for search engines.
Brett Young
High Ground Realty
New Paltz Real Estate>
I personal do not work with clients who want flash designs. Before I got into SEO I did freelance design work. I had one client who just HAD to have flash. I hated working on that site so much and they rank on page two for their keyword. If only they went with a text design, they’d have first page status.
I think moderate hidden text is safe. I think a good way to go is to have a text only version of the site available. Not only is it good for SEO, but also accessibility.
I agree with Nashville.
The solution to this is to simply embed flash content in real web pages like we did on our AURA site -
http://www.aura.net.au/
This is the correct use of Flash in my opinion.
There are also tags OR using a javascript to determine if Flash is installed and hiding the placeholder content if it is (I have seen Flash sites optimised this way) or syndicating your content in XML/SQL Database and having a Flash and an html version of the same site (this should be done for accessibility reasons anyway).
Hey, now google can crawl a flash files.
yes Dragon
I just tell people. Flash is good for Design Elements. But just for that. A simple Ad on a page is fine. But to let me do my job.. The Flash and Google integration isn’t perfect yet. We can revamp when it is. And then they sign the contract.
Now Google started to crawel flash based website. But still it is diffcult to do SEO on a puerly flash based website.
@Ayush Kumar – it is difficult, especially since most flash doesn’t really contain much in the way of keywords. It’s more graphic-intensive, which is what makes it so cool. I’m not so sure Google crawls it that well, either.
Yup I am agree with you. As because flash doesn’t contain any keyword (relevant keyword), so it’s really tough for the crawler to crawl a flash based website. Flash is just for look & feel.
From my perspective, flash and SEO are not fighting each other.
The have to work with each other just like many other things. SEO it itself is not really a golden ticket. It has to work with a sites usability and overall marketing/branding efforts.
A site with excellent SEO can leverage flash to communicate and interact with the user to in order to facilitate their experience or search.
Interesting post. I am still pretty new to SEO but have read several times to stay away from flash for good SEO. Like you said it might be ok is some situations but until you know for certain, who wants to risk getting banned or penalized by Google.
As controversial as this comment is, i would say if they want flash they can have it, if they want it to rank then they had better start getting some ANCHORED links to it sharpish. With no content the anchored link is the only way google has to determine what the page is about. Not forgetting the page title which in this situation is paramount.
I still believe that Flash should be avoided, although Google has started to index it partially. Nevertheless, we don’t have the facilities to optimize a website properly in Flash. In Malta, very few people use it.
SEO Maltas last blog post..Smart City Malta
I generally stay clear of flash but like you say some people (or more likely businesses) demand flash homepages regardless. It can be done, but is much much more difficult – which is why i stay clear lol
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When is Google going to be able to search content inside of Flash – that would make all of this go away.
Its all about depend on google.
We always consider google.com, yahoo.com, find.com, msn before we start doing SEO for our websites. Then why shouldn’t we try to resolve one issue of flash when we start building our website???
I don’t recommend creating sites with flash for two users, the first is obviously SEO. Although descriptions can be added for Google to read html based sites still beat them by far. Second reason why I wouldn’t use flash to develop a site is because many web surfers out there just don’t like flash sites. (I am one of them, whenever I enter a site that is all made of flash I just quit it immediately)
Stuffing many flash features on the home page of a website will just create obstacle for search engines to optimize its ranking. Not only this it will also drive away visitors. Its usage should be restricted as far as possible.
I’ve always found on-site seo for flash sites to be very difficult. Unless the keywords are particularly uncompetitive, I try to avoid them, as they take a lot of work. If you can get enough back-links, then it’s not much of an issue – but an awful lot of backlinks are needed!
With regards on-site seo, these methods work pretty well:
1) Ensure the flash file is embedded in HTML so that meta tags and title tag can be read by bots.
2) If possible, add an HTML H1 tag to the top of the page.
3) If possible, use HTML links.
4) If possible, add a HTML keyword-filled footer.
Basically, try to get as much HTML into the flash website as the flash designer will allow
nuneaton web designs last blog post..Google Local: Address Alteration Destroys Ranking
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