Flash Optimization-How Flash Websites Kill Your SEO Efforts
by Bill Parlaman
Filed under Bill's Blog, Google Search Engine Optimization, Website Design Tips
Today’s SEO tip comes courtesy of Edwin Soler. Edwin wants to know how exactly Adobe Flash hurts a web site’s 
ability to be found by your buyers in the search engines.
Edwin also wants to know best practices for optimizing a website built in flash.
First, Wikipedia defines flash as:
- Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash) is a multimedia platform that is popular for adding animation and interactivity to web pages. Originally acquired by Macromedia, Flash was introduced in 1996, and is currently developed and distributed by Adobe Systems.
Flash is very popular on the web these days and was built as a competitor to HTML. ( Check out my post on SEO Basics-How HTML is used to structure websites. This will give you a good idea as to why it’s easier for search engines to crawl an HTML website versus a site built in flash.)
Flash creates a very nice user experience, however, it usually comes at a cost to your search engine optimization efforts.
Here’s the problem, search engines cannot always index the content displayed on web pages built in flash. ( Flash website examples)
Two years ago Google announced they were improving the way they indexed flash. Google says they can index text content and find and follow links within flash files, but they can’t see the images contained in those files.
Below are five additional reasons why Flash is not yet totally SEO friendly:
1. Flash does not play well with text. The search engines LOVE text! In fact, most times when your buyers go online they are hoping to READ about things. Now while everyone touts the SEO effects of video, I’m here to tell you text blows away video every time from an SEO strategy.
2. Text rendering in Flash is much slower and less clear. In flash, your text is not seen by the search engines the same way it is in HTML. Flash does not use the website structure search engines prefer such as your <h1> tags or your <p> tags. Many times text inside flash files broken up into mini phrases and often display in the wrong order.
3. Flash websites don’t gain a ton of external links. Now granted, a very cool looking flash site might get a lot of links to it’s home page but that’s about it. If you’re looking for deep internal linking to your other pages it’s probably not going to happen. Website users want information. Fancy videos and animation only go so far.
4. Flash site miss basic SEO standards. It’s very difficult to add title tags, headlines, anchor text and bold/strong text characters to flash. It’s a much bigger headache developing an SEO friendly website in flash. In addition, it take a lot less time to build a site in HTML then it does flash.
5. Much of a flash website is still not crawlable by the search engines. Google can not crawl JavaScript calls or index the content from external files called by flash. Many Flash based websites call on external JavaScript. What happens is the visitor can see all this great video and animation content but the search engines do not.
So there are a few reasons why a website built in flash is not such a good idea when you have SEO in mind.
My recommendation to you is to stay away from websites built in all flash. Stick to websites built with HTML and “accessorize” your website with flash and video. This way your buyers can still find your website in the search results while enhancing their experience while on your site.
Now go dominate Google, Bill Parlaman
P.S. If You Want Your Website Dominating The Search Engines Get Your Hands On My FREE Report, “How To Get Your Website On The First Page Of Google, Attract More Buyers And Eliminate Your Competition Online Forever” simply fill in your name and email in the boxes on the header of this website. You’ll be given specific instructions on how to order your report!
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Bill, thanks a million for this post. I’ve been looking for a decent explanation for over three years and I finally have one that will help me continue building my site correctly. Looking forward to more posts.
No problem Edwin. I hope this helps. Remember, if you’re serious about SEO and SEO website design there are a ton of options for you outside of using flash. If you want a more detailed explanation of how to optimize your Flash website for SEO, check out the book “The Art Of SEO” in your local book store. It’s $60 but well worth it if you are optimizing your own site.
Bill
Bill, thanks again. I have a small list of upgrades and features I am currently working on, one being the blog you recently recommended. Fortunately, my site is not Flash based. It’s just that once in a while an added feature comes up and Flash is thrown in there as a requirement. I am also a student of Craig Garber and Craig NAILS IT when he talks about vaugeness and people assuming we know these technical things when in fact we don’t. Your post is excellent! As far as a DIY for me, not right now. Too technical for me unless someone teaches me or I can learn it myself. Any additional suggestions? I will definitely look into the book; hopefully it will clarify more questions that may arise. Right now, I’m focusing on some of the techniques Craig speaks about to make my site more compelling and irresistable to walk away from. Then that’s where I call you for a SEO check up and do some serious business. I’ll be in touch.
Great points! Additionally, flash is not supported by the iPhone/iPad (not to mention the much greater percentage of other mobile phones out there), and that means many of your mobile fans won’t be able to properly see your page.
Finally, it slows down page load, which means less chance of Google indexing you at the top of the search results…
Love your site, btw!
Liane,
Thanks so much for checking in! I really appreciate it and I appreciate your comments. You’re right on the money with your comments. I debated adding an addendum to my original blog post adding the part about apple products not being able to view flash. One other thing to consider is the cost. It’s much more costly to develop a website in flash then it is straight HTML.