Search Engine Optimization And Flash

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 17 of May , 2008 at 4:40 pm

Search engine optimization and flash do not go together and at present search engines cannot read and index these files. This doesn’t mean you cannot use flash files within your web pages, what it does mean is that you will need to act carefully.

Flash is popular for making web pages look dynamic, exciting and attractive to visitors. However, if the search spiders cannot read these files then using flash in pages that have a heavy search engine optimization program maybe counterproductive. The following guidelines for the use of flash may help.

• Make sure your Flash code has been validated using the W3C Validator, search spiders may decide to leave before indexing if they detect invalid code.
• Don’t use a flash based navigation system on your homepage, search spiders cannot determine links, text or images in a flash file.
• Provide a non-Flash text version for search engines and visitors who may not have flash enabled.
• Use Flash sparingly and only when really required, for example, to provide media content.

Follow these guidelines and your search engine optimization strategies wont come undone due to poor use of Flash. The use of Flash can improve the visitors experience on your page, however used incorrectly, and your page will not rank highly and you wont receive visitors to enjoy the experience. Search engine optimization is all about getting that traffic, don’t spoil it by getting all flash.

Category: SEO

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