the flash problem?
- Started
- Last post
- 10 Responses
- Bullitt
Can someone clarify to me that flash sites are a bad idea because of search engine optimization and the reassons why? Got a client whos going with this theory, we need to persuade them otherwise.
- Rand0
seems to be what everybody says
- Llyod0
depends on the content
- glu220
Flash sites are said to be bad for SEO because all the pages on a flash site are within the flash movie as opposed to being seprate page like on an xhtml site. There are methods to improve this but it still can be a problem.
Flash still at least in my opinion creates a much richer experience for users if used properly for the right type of content. Not all sites are about consuming a ton of content.
- F_180
this can be overcome by strategically buying keywords, and thereby buying better search rankings.
- monNom0
or serve non-flash content for users/bots without the flash player installed.
though that might get you blackballed on google, I don't know their policy.
- MediaPimp0
There are other ways to get around this as well. For a good example... check out the Fila site (http://www.fila.com/us/eng/home... Turn off JavaScript when you go there and reload the site. What we did, was simply use the same content within the Flash (which was XML based) and generated html pages so the site could be indexed by search engines. These pages basically live "under" the Flash site. SEO problem solved.
- doesnotexist0
ive always thought if you want to do flash, you dont give a shit about seo, so i never worry about it.
that seems to solve it every time.
- russdogg0
Search engines use many things to decide a site's page ranking, one of which is the importance of title tags. Flash can be crawled by google, but basically all the text is stripped out as plain text and keywords can lose certain value. This can be overcome for the most part by using something like the SWFObject. Basically you build all the HTML site content for the search engines in a DIV tag, then on load the javascript will replace that content with your flash content. Search engines and people without the flash plugin see the first stuff, those with the plugin see the flash.
- mikeim0
you could always do a hybrid that includes flash animation and interaction embedded in an xhtml page where the eye candy is separated from the important SEO friendly content.
- cram0
There are workarounds for seo and flash but it is harder to do. Of course seo can be just as high as any site on the first page pretty easily using tags and such but for the interior, html is sooo much easier.
you can do anything with flash that you can do with html but it might not be worth the effort. in my opinion, blash is best for brochure type sites, portfolios, mini sites, etc.
here's my metaphor. you are google. html is a book. flash is a dvd. you go to barnes and noble and are browsing the shelves. while there, you can look at the cover and back of a book but you can also flip through a book to see if it is what you need... high seo. with a dvd, you can only see the cover and back. you have to put the disk in the player to browse the content... low seo.
ok, that was lame. sorry. just trying to help.