Optimize flash site

[seoug_2005]

Hello,

How can we optimize a site like this -  http://www.ziba.com.au/ . The whole site is in flash. What are the alternatives ?

[Dan-Petrovic]

I'll be looking forward to reading the full article.

[IKT]

It goes like this

1. you have to extract all of the text content and picture into external source first, for example the text all put into mysql and the pictures are on separate jpeg file

2. you can then program your flash to load that data externally

3. after that you can create a HTML version that utilize those text data (from database) and images (from that jpeg files) , this way whenever you change the data inside your HTML , the data on your flash changes too

4. You have to try display EVERYTHING in html first

5. for example , when people go to xyz.com it will open the HTML first, with all navigation menu available... you optimize this site first ....

6. after the HTML is working perfectly, you can then simply put all of that html under a div that we will override using SWFObject (when a flash player detected)

for example

ALL HTML Content goes here, it will be safely overriden by SWFObject when Flash is detected..

that is all i can say for now... I really wish my blog post has been approved so that you can read the detailed method with picture to guide you through your mission on making your flash movie seo friendly..

REMEMBER to make a site SEO friendly, you have no other choice but to create a HTML Site first, after that override it with FLASH (when flash is detected)... and remember to put all data on EXTERNAL SOURCE, NEVER EVER inside the flash movie

http://ikt.co.id my site has ranked well on many keywords like "bikin website" , "flash seo" , and many others (only on google.co.id) , so i know this method works PERFECTLY

[IKT]

ups... that means only i can read it for now xD

[seoug_2005]

When i opened the URL, it says post not found !

[ReneReinholdt]

A quick google search revealed this document, http://www.otterball.com/NET191.tut_flash.pdf and this one: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=72746

But I would think again about the flash thing atleast make an alternative option, why? because more and more traffic is moving to tablets, phones etc. And since iPhones and iPads don't understand flash, because apple are frigging idiots (very biased and angry statement i know   you wouldn't want to lose potential clients. I recommend going for a javascript/HTML5 + flash solution. Provide a flsh site for old desktop/laptop computers with old browsers and a HTML5/javascript solution for the iPhones and iPads.

Simply put:

• If HTML5 support redirect to HTML5/Javascript site
• If no HTML5 support redirect to flash site.

Hope it helped. To end my rant here a clip from googles faq:

Q: What are the current technical limitations of Google's ability to index Flash?
There are three main limitations at present, and we are already working on resolving them:

1. Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript. So if your web page loads a Flash file via JavaScript, Google may not be aware of that Flash file, in which case it will not be indexed.
2. We currently do not attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files. If your Flash file loads an HTML file, an XML file, another SWF file, etc., Google will separately index that resource, but it will not yet be considered to be part of the content in your Flash file.
3. While we are able to index Flash in almost all of the languages found on the web, currently there are difficulties with Flash content written in bidirectional languages. Until this is fixed, we will be unable to index Hebrew language or Arabic language content from Flash files.

We're already making progress on these issues, so stay tuned!

[IKT]

you can not open that page?

i can already open that page and read the content xD

[seoug_2005]

I will be eagerly waiting for that.

[seoug_2005]

Thanks.

Can we prepare html version of the flash site ? The client is o.k with this.

[IKT]

or you can read my soon to be published blog on seomoz for this

http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/how-to-make-your-dynamic-full-flash-website-seo-friendly-case-study

[Dan-Petrovic]

OK, I was going to discuss some techniques which can be employed with Flash but this site hardly has any content and it's all very visual. User experience / navigation could be improved as well.

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=site%3Awww.ziba.com.au shows a few URLs in index. What confuses me is why go from index to main - what does that achieve?

Options you have are:

Focus on TITLE & Meta description in combination with inbound links.

If you can add some descriptive text under flash which would explain to search engines (and users who do not support flash) what the site is about including basic contact information.