[Chubster]

OK...some people hate them others love them but you cant get away from the fact that if used properly you can make some very nice looking sites using Flash.

What techniques can be deployed to maximise your Flash sites chances of getting indexed by the search engines?

[Alvin]

Well at the moment the problem is that Flash is a graphic package and search engines can not read a graphic except for an alt tag.

Whether engines will be able to read text in Flash in the future ,It would not surprise me.

But at this moment in time they read text,so by all means use a limited amount of Flash but make sure there is plenty of HTML text on your page for the engines to read.

My experience is that people are not interested in how your site looks.There concern is for your product or service.

Alvin

[An Oasis]

Originally Posted by Chubster

OK...some people hate them others love them but you cant get away from the fact that if used properly you can make some very nice looking sites using Flash.

What techniques can be deployed to maximise your Flash sites chances of getting indexed by the search engines?

The big boys use cloaking but you need deep pockets if you want to go down that route.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by An Oasis

The big boys use cloaking but you need deep pockets if you want to go down that route.

And strong nerves,google never forgives fully.

Alvin

[RayB]

There was an interesting post and link from Nua about the next generation of Flash and SEO that is well worth a read

[ken_uk]

Even if you get round the search engine problems with flash, you still have all the accessibility problems, and usability problems.

Screen readers, enlarging the font size for visually impaired people, unusably slow sites for people without fast broadband, lack of content (most flash sites are just that, flash looking, but no real content to speak of). Chances are most flash sites are illegal with regards to accessibility laws in the UK, running the risk of a lawsuit should the site be large enough to attract attention.

Then there is the fact many people just dont like flash, so you turning away all those people from the site, along with any users with accessibility needs that cant be met in flash, and all the users on dial up or slow connections.

[RayB]

Originally Posted by ken_uk

Even if you get round the search engine problems with flash, you still have all the accessibility problems, and usability problems.

Screen readers, enlarging the font size for visually impaired people, unusably slow sites for people without fast broadband, lack of content (most flash sites are just that, flash looking, but no real content to speak of). Chances are most flash sites are illegal with regards to accessibility laws in the UK, running the risk of a lawsuit should the site be large enough to attract attention.

Then there is the fact many people just dont like flash, so you turning away all those people from the site, along with any users with accessibility needs that cant be met in flash, and all the users on dial up or slow connections.

Hiya Ken

I couldn't agree more. Personally I simply won't use a Flash site - they are mostly awful - let alone all the accessibility issues like you say :sad1:

[Fuzzy]

I have to say that since Fuzzy is a keen Flasher fan, I have seen some sites with Flash and they look fantastic.
That said, I have been told time and time again about the problems with Flash and SEO

[Chubster]

I too have seen some fantastic sites that both look and work brilliantly...OK not everyone likes them but then not everyone likes the internet.

With regards speed issues how long do we try to optimise sites for people with slower connections, when will the time come when we say "sorry your just gunna have to upgrade " to see the the best the internet has to offer. Even graphic rich sites are mostly a no no for people on dial up arent they.

So What do you think the next web evolution will be ?

[Alvin]

I would think that may be speech control and instant reading of site text.


seem that would be usefull to me,very hard reading computer text.

Whatever you think of flash it is a million miles behind the cinema.

a bit from goole on some problems it has crawling sites.

Data that may be included on this page includes:

Title problems: Potential problems with the title tag on your pages, such as missing or repeated page titles.

Meta description problems: Potential problems with duplicate or otherwise problematic meta descriptions. This one is interesting as the SEO world have now decided description tags are unimportant

Non-indexable content: Pages containing non-indexable content, such as Flash files, video, or images.


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