Flash and Search Engines : Getting Indexed With Flash

The relation of Flash and SEO could be a disuniting topic. I found a combination of confused, angry and excited looks after just putting a single thought of flash during my discussion with our clients about their SEO initiatives.

It is almost admitted that the flash can’t be so good if you are willing to use it for SEO. There are thousands of website who has employed
flash content and failed to get the proper results. But, I really want to make a big shout here as I am not at all agree with such assumption.

Today, I will try to introduce you with the prowess of flash and SEO. We have a panoramic background for flash development as we have developed number of flash applications and movies. It is been engrossing to excavate intensely into
FSEO (Flash SEO) to check how it has bloomed. I have also been massively analyzing and testing how the search engines index the flash files (SWF files).

June 2008: Improved Indexing for Flash

On June 2008, there was an announcement from Adobe that its working with Yahoo and Google to
improve flash indexing. At the time, I was about to analyze and test how the search engines were indexing the flash part.

For the clarification, Google was already indexing the SWF files before this partnership, but not working with Adobe for improving and streamlining the process. My target since this announcement was to find out how the search engines index flash part, the best practices to follow when bringing out flash content, what things to look about for develop some more flash content.

So now Google is indexing flash, forget SEO and create everything with flash! But wait, take a moment. I memorize a comment of a flash professional on a blog post for flash SEO, It was like “Now this post is immaterial! Google is crawling Flash!”. My instant reaction on that was “Just hold on a moment buddy.” The things have not been consummated yet, and in fact, it was just an announcement! I was true and that was not perfected yet. The step was in the proper direction, but the factors affecting to crawl the flash were different, identically how you publicize the flash content.

Actually, all the flash part was apparently not being crawled or indexed; hence it might be hasty to think we could neglect providing the search engines with optional HTML content (the best practice for SEO). It is quite premature to think Yahoo and Google will instantaneously crawl or index all the flash on web.

At the time (July 2008), Google was already indexing the SWF files, with some limitations. As an example, the Google search engine was not crawling or indexing the SWF files publicized using some famous JavaScript-based methods. At that time, the flash files belonging to you weren’t being indexed and crawled, If you were one of the flash professionals using JavaScript to publicize the flash movies,. The work was in progress.

Flash Indexing: More Concerns

But, there are concerns which won’t stop with JavaScript publicizing methods. I was wondering what type of the content within the flash files was getting crawled and indexed? Was that only static text within flash files, dynamically loaded flash files, imported XML, FLV files, Action-Script code, text files, etc? Was Google searching and following links of flash files? Did flash files build PR (PageRank)? Did the links within flash files pass PageRank? What for no-follow? What for text that has broken during artwork of flash? Was the code being crawled or indexed?

The flash application is not so simple as we think. It is definitely tortuous (think static text, code, dynamic text, photos, object oriented code, videos, vectors, etc.) Gratuitous to say, I really had a bundle of questions.

Not Put A Back Step As The Flash Developers

There was a part of that announcement which really pinched me. Precisely, the actively loaded content should not be assorted with the parent flash movie (like XML, txt, etc.). I was interested because that was a general way for established flash developers to weigh their content. And in addition, actively loaded flash files should not be assorted with the parent flash movie.

Most flash designers and developers believe that breaking up the flash movies into adjustable pieces is crucial for keeping the scalability up and file-size down.

As per the explanation I give above, how could that announcement about crawling and indexing flash file content affect the best practices in developing flash? Should developers initialize loading content within single SWF rather than logically breaking the content apart? Should they avoid using XML data and deluge the parent flash with text? What to do about spammers? Could spammers make use of how the flash was being crawled or indexed? What should rank? Should the flash file rank or the parent web-page, or both?

These all questions were valid and that is why I admit that testing is crucial.

The Status Of Flash When Comes To Crawling And Indexing?

Deep inside my search, I was able to find that Google was crawling and indexing the flash content publicized using embed tags and object (known as “twice cooked” method). I also observed that SWFObject 2.x performing static publishing method (standards-compliant) was producing strong results. SWFObject 1.x depending on the JavaScript was neither getting indexed nor using external JavaScript to publicize the flash content. I noticed that actively loaded flash files were not getting assorted with parent flash movie (Google stated it in blog post).

As the time went on, Google started to support other forms of the JavaScript-based publicizing, I found more flash content being crawled and indexed, though it was quite tough to find why only some particular pieces of the flash content were being indexed and why others were not. In face, I saw that more JavaScript publicizing methods were getting indexed in the Google search engine, I also examined some websites that were not getting indexed for any of their flash content.

Some Commentary, Guidance and Findings

• Flash Indexing: Yahoo Is Behind Google ( Where is Microsoft?)

One finding is that Yahoo seems behind Google, if it comes to
indexing flash. I cannot tell why that is the case, but comparing website to website, and flash to flash, Google always did a complete job. If you have not noticed, Microsoft has not been a part of this. That is because they were not a part of this partnership with Adobe which was announced last July. I hope that Microsoft (also other search engines) will finally work with Adobe for crawling and indexing flash content. There is simply too much flash on internet to avoid crawling and indexing it! I can tell, Microsoft is neither crawling nor indexing flash.

• Text Content

I have found text content crawled and indexed from static and dynamic text fields. Using dynamic text fields, I saw some text indexed which was set using ActionScript variables. I could not find the text loaded with XML assorted with parent flash movie. Similar for dynamically loaded txt files. I have seen the text content from the components indexed. Text within the other SWF files which were loaded dynamically was not assorted with parent flash movie. They were crawled or indexed and assorted with its own flash movie. One more time, I think it will change, many of developers use such technique to get ensure that the flash movies are scalable.

External Files Loaded Into Flash

As Google mentioned in its post of June 200, I observed that Google was not annexing the parent flash movie with the dynamically loaded flash files. That considers other XML files, TXT files and SWF files. I have noticed separate XML files indexed though. Google is not indexing or crawling the FLV files, if an FLV file is not containing text in it. Now, you can enclose meta data into the FLV files, and the data can be employed programmatically into the flash, but it’s not being indexed or crawled by the search engines. The popularity of flash videos is getting increased day by day, So I must expect the search engines to bring out the better ways to crawl and index the flash videos. No need to say anything, I will definitely keep a close eye on its progress.

Here are the listing of flash publishing methods.

• Object and Embed

• A Quick Introduction to SWFObject

  • SWFObject 1.x (Older version of SWFObject)

  • SWFObject 2.x (dynamic delivery)

  • SWFObject 2.x (static delivery)

• External JavaScript

• Straight SWF

Links

I have received a bunch of questions about the relation of links and flash content. It is definitely an important topic for the most Search Engine Optimizers. I have observed the links followed within flash movies, including links in dynamic text fields, text fields and also in ActionScript. About nofollow, Google mentioned in their announcement (June 2008) that Google will value nofollow in the flash. Thus, you can employ it where possible. Since links are followed, people in the IT industry have amazed how it can be played. I have also expressed my anxieties about both the keyword stuffing and gaming the links.

One more time, flash is a multifarious tool and there can be ways that the black hat developers can try and play with the system. Of course, It is not easy to implement. I think the time will tell who try and play with the flash system and how the search engines react.

I know, this post is quite long and I hope you have stuck with me to the end! I hope it also helped you to understand more
flash indexing and how to proceed the best. Again, I am expecting this to evolved completely and become more transparent for both the Flash and SEO communities.

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