The StyleSheet - For businesses that use the internet

The Skinny on Search Engine Optimization and Flash

Posted July 8, 2009 By Kyle Greenan |

One of the hottest topics on the Internet today is Search Engine Optimization. When choosing an online strategy, it is important to consider what kinds of content (xhtml, JavaScript, Flash, etc.) can be valuable for getting traffic to your site from search engines. Optimizing your site for specific keywords and making your site accessible to search engines can bring added value and visibility to your brand. When it comes to Flash-based content however, it can be a challenge getting value from search engines such as Google.

In the past, Googlebot, which sifts through and ranks content to determine where different sites appear in different searches, was not able to pull information from any Flash content. As of July 2009, Google officially updated how it indexes Flash content. This is great news for Flash-based sites that have dynamic content being pulled in from outside.

Since updating its Flash indexing capabilities, Googlebot can now:

• Interact the way a user would, e.g. click buttons and enter text
• Include links within Flash files
• Associate external content (html, xml or swf) with parent Flash files
• Index embedded Flash content using JavaScript libraries, such as SWFObject and SWFObject2
• Index sites scripted with AS1, AS2, and AS3 even if the ActionScript (the programming language used in Adobe Flash) is obfuscated.

These are significant improvements, but until search engines are able to index everything contained within Flash content, it is important to consider only using Flash when it is necessary. Flash is great for interactive elements such as streaming video and audio. However, if your goal is to achieve SEO value with your site, building an entire site in Flash at this point won’t merit much in return.

References:

• http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/06/Flash-indexing-with-external-resource.html
• http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/07/best-uses-of-Flash.html

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