Reader Question: What would be the best approach to make a whole Flash Web site indexable for search engines? I have thought of generating a database driven, artificial HTML structure-hierarchy with the right meta tags and content which would redirect the user to the appropriate Flash page/content.

Answer: In spite of all the hoopla surrounding the recent developments of Google and Yahoo being able to index Flash sites, I usually do not recommend building a Flash site if the business owner wishes to use search engine optimization (SEO) as an online marketing strategy. Additionally, some redirects are often considered search engine spam.

The following article explains the various search marketing strategies available for Flash sites.

Flash site with multiple pages

If a site only has a few, non-competitive keywords, then optimizing the Flash site can work. However, before actually creating the Flash site: do NOT create a single Web page with a giant Flash movie.

On the surface, it might seem a Flash site consists of many separate Web pages. Unfortunately, this assumption is wrong. Many Flash sites consist of a single Web page with a single Flash movie. Most sites have multiple means of entry. A Flash site often has only one means of entry.

The same optimization strategies apply to Flash sites. Optimize each movie and page with appropriate titles and content. In the absence of indexable content, make sure the pages have appropriate meta tags.

Unless your Flash site has a few targeted keyword phrases, split it up. It will help your optimization efforts.

Think Flash movies, not Flash sites.

Must a site absolutely, positively be formatted in Flash. All too often, designers and Web site owners want to use Flash, but the target audience might not want it. In fact, Flash can often be used on part of a site and still have the "WOW" factor of a 100% Flash-formatted site.

For this strategy, utilize Flash movies whenever appropriate, and put the movies on HTML pages with text for the engines to index, and a navigation scheme they can follow. For example, we might create a "Take A Tour" section of a site in Flash. We then create a page named tour.html and put the Flash movie in a pop-up window.

On the actual Web site, we will feature the "Take A Tour" link on the main/global navigation, and we might add some embedded text links or self-promotional banners as an extra incentive to click on the link. We will optimize the tour.html page for the search engines as well.

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