Monday, June 14, 2010

Boost Search Engine Rankings with Flash SEO

Boost Search Engine Rankings with Flash SEO

Conventional wisdom sounds out that if you apply extensive Flash in your web site it will harm your search engine positioning. This is owed mainly to Search Engines facing a difficult time to index Flash content. Google & other Search Engines will find it hard to index your swf files. But with a bit of ingeniousness we have got a tendency to use that very problem to our advantage.

FLASH SEO

When using Flash, there are a few objectives to satisfy:

  • Clean & readable design
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Code validation and standards compliance
  • Accessibility for a wide variety of browsers, including screen readers and mobile phones
  • Correct functionality with IE

To understand these objectives, you need to understand where Flash is used in the phases of web development, i.e. Content, Behavior, and Style. As we have made up our mind that we don’t wish Google to index our swf files, but rather desire it to index the content exhibited inside them, what makes up the most proficient way to go about this?

We need to understand that, when building Flash sites professionally, you probably impress all the given content out of your Flash picture and into an XML data file or maintain it in a database. This works much smoother to provide Google & other Search Engines to index the content provided, simply by using progressive enhancement.

Progressive enhancement is a technique of web development that operates hand in hand with online website criteria. You kickoff by taking the content, then add together CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) that gives the look and feel, then supply an additional behavior (Javascript, Ajax, Flash, any remaining interactivity that isn’t addressed automatically through the browser).

The most effective method to add Flash progressively is by utilizing Javascript, or more specifically, a script similar to FlashObject. Start by giving lay out of the page assuming you aren’t using Flash. If you’re using a database for the content, you’ll be able to spit out that data as HTML format, where the Flash film will fit on the page. After this, you’ll be able to exercise FlashObject to substitute this content only when the user lets Javascript enabled and the called for Flash plugin version is code clean.

SEO for FLASH files

Here’s a FLASH example of what that code might look like:

==================================================================================

This is replaced by the Flash content if the user has the correct version of the Flash plugin installed.

Place your HTML content in here and Google will index it just as it would normal HTML content (because it is HTML content!)

Use HTML, embed images, anything you would normally place on an HTML page is fine.

==================================================================================

From the coding, it tells Google along with other Search Engines to skip the Flash swf files and merely index the HTML content you identify on the page. You will also be able to post links to additional pages, pictures, whatever you desire to help Google to index the content provided in browser that supports Flash. This hands FLASH developers total control and practically a much better predictability over what content Google will index. Also, whenever your content is plucked from a database that’s editor moderated, your pages will update and also get better chance to be re-indexed as the content alters without the demand to re-publish your swf files.

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