Showing posts with label Flash SEO. Show all posts

Adobe Says, Flash Now SEO Friendly

I wrote a post back in January "Google can Read Flash" discussing some comments made my Matt Cutts which 'hint' at the fact Google was working with Adobe to make Flash files SEO or Search Engine friendly. Here is a quick excerpt:

In a recent interview with Stephan Spencer, Matt Cutts admits that Google is using Adobe Systems' Search Engine SDK technology to 'read' flash website content.
That fairly definite confirmation of how Google reads text within Flash files makes it possible to create Flash .swf files with some level of search engine optimization.
With the launch of a Flash-reading tool from Adobe, marketers can factor Flash into their SEO efforts, instead of compensating for the presence of Flash with extra text.

Marketing Vox released a story today discussing the development of a product that interprets Flash applications for web crawlers, making it possible to index that data for searchers. Adobe, the creators of Flash technology, released the product to Google and Yahoo.

Text and links from Flash apps will now appear in search engine results for users querying relevant keywords or phrases, just like ordinary HTML content, Adobe wrote.

Flash software is used to build interactive banners, applications, games or eye-catching graphics on a site. Google is already utilizing the Flash-indexing service; Yahoo "has some work to do," according to Adobe's VP of marketing Michele Turner.

For more information, read the SWF file format specification on Adobe

Flash Sites and Search Engine Optimization

As an Internet marketer that provides both services to an agency as well as consulting services, the question (or challenge) of Flash and optimization often arises. Most business owners love the flash elements and the interactive abilities it provides but never consider the implications the design will have on SEO.

To be honest, I often find it difficult to explain - why is it not SEO friendly? Why can't a search engine read flash coding? I have an awesome site why am I not ranking?

I found a definitive article - finally! - on BruceClay.com telling the ins and outs of why NOT to use Flash, and if you have already, how to turn it into search engine spider food!

Here is an excerpt:

The search engines have made some pretty impressive strides when it comes to indexing Flash elements, the problem is they’re still not perfect. While they can pick out links and text, they can’t yet put it into context. It’s a bit like having a conversation with your 3-year-old nephew, or trying to engage Susan. They hear the words; they just don’t know how to process them. But search engine optimization issues aside, designing your site entirely in Flash isn’t even good from a user perspective.

Think about the sites you visit and how you interact with them. Do you enjoy landing on sites solely constructed in Flash? Sites that often make you sit through a 2 minutes video before entering, sites with “clever” navigation that only a 3-year-old can use, sites with lots of things floating around? I don’t. It takes away from the content, and that’s the last thing you want to do. I’m definitely the type that unless I’m really invested in your content, I’m not going to waste my time trying to click on the funny button at the precise angle needed just to get to a new screen. I’m going to go somewhere else.

When it comes to Flash, it’s best to think of it as a complement and not a replacement to a good HTML site. Incorporate Flash elements, but save your need to dazzle people with bullshit for your offline relationships.

If you are going to use Flash on your site, realize that you’ll also have to create HTML elements for everything you’re representing in Flash. Typically, we recommend designing your navigation, home page and important site pages in HTML. These are the mainstays that must be easily accessible both from a user and a search engine optimization standpoint. I should point out the obvious and say, yes, I realize that the Bruce Clay site uses Flash navigation. However, if you’ll notice, we also include text links at the bottom for each of our silos. And even though we have a Flash site map that I think is pretty sweet, we’ve also included a basic HTML version that is easily spiderable. Being somewhat well-versed in search engine optimization, we’ve decided to cover things from every angle. :)

If you are going to create a Flash version of your Web site, make sure that the content you’re rendering in Flash also appears within a noscript tag, otherwise the search engines won’t be able to spider it. Doing this gives both the search engines and your users access to content and will either show the Flash version or the non-Flash version based on whose visiting. If you would like to have Flash, and add content that is visible to the user, you can do that too. Generally, the population of noscript sections of the site have been done by reading the XML that also populates the content into the Flash. This is the preferred way as it guarantees that what is rendered in the noscript tags is the same as what is being rendered in Flash.

While you’re playing with your nonscript tags, don’t forget to include keyword-rich Meta and Title tags. And we shouldn’t even have to say this, but please don’t try and show the engines content that isn’t actually presented in the Flash files. This is bad and a great way to get yourself into a bunch of trouble.

The most important thing to remember when designing your site is that your visitors are there because they want to learn about you. Often too much Flash turns people off and will send them elsewhere.

Moral of the story: Flash elements, not a Flash site. Got it?

Optimizing Title Tags in Blogger

Update: see my updated tips on hacking your design code to transpose your title tag in blogger.

Optimizing Blogger Title Tags

One of the challenges when choosing a 'free Blog' is the SEO implications based on your decision. There is a host of choices out there - Wordpress, Blogger, Moveable Type, etc.

Personally, I chose Blogger as my 'free Blog' of choice without a lot of research. I figured, "Hey, Google, owns it. It must be good, right?" Well, the answer is yes and no. For a publishing platform it is easy to use, edit, incorporate Adsense, change templates, etc. From an SEO standpoint, however, it is very limited.

By default Blogger templates come with a “smart” tag inserted that automatically places the Blog Title before every post title in the title tags on the actual post pages. This “smart” tag also displays only the Blogger Title for the main page of the blog - meaning your Blog title is shown on EVERY page.

So, for most of you involved in SEO, I’m preaching to the choir when I tell you that title tags are important and that they could very well be the most important piece of your blog. For those of you not familiar, here are a couple of things about title tags.

Title tags describe a page. They are a one line summary of what the page is about. The common understanding of the tag is to wrap the title of the site. Unfortunately for many people, the title of the site is completely un-descriptive of the content of the blog. For example, my blog is called "Search Marketing Blog Online”. If I put this in the title tag, search engines really have no clue as to the content of each post on my site. It would be much better for SEO to place a keyword-rich description (e.g. “Optimizing Title Tags for Blogger”) in the title tag.
It’s the Title Used in SERPs! The content of your title tag is what will be displayed in search engine results.

So, yesterday, I made it my mission to find a way to fix/manipulat Blogger's smart tag. In doing so, I found another problem - there are two versions of Blogger templates still being used. There is a Beta version and the Classic version and nowhere did I find both 'fixes' listed in one place.

So, here you go!

Optimizing Blogger Title Tags - Beta Version

This is written for Blogger's Beta version and so it only works in Beta.

Installation

Find the following codes, near the top of your template:

<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

Replace with the following code:

<!-- Start Widget-based: Changing the Blogger Title Tag -->
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<b:section id='titleTag'>
<b:widget id='Blog2' locked='false' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'>
<b:includable id='comments' var='post'/>
<b:includable id='postQuickEdit' var='post'/>
<b:includable id='main' var='top'><title><b:loop values='data:posts' var='post'><b:include data='post' name='post'/></b:loop> ~ <data:blog.title/></title></b:includable>
<b:includable id='backlinkDeleteIcon' var='backlink'/>
<b:includable id='feedLinksBody' var='links'/>
<b:includable id='backlinks' var='post'/>
<b:includable id='status-message'/>
<b:includable id='feedLinks'/>
<b:includable id='nextprev'/>
<b:includable id='commentDeleteIcon' var='comment'/>
<b:includable id='post' var='post'><data:post.title/></b:includable>
</b:widget>
</b:section>
<b:else/>
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
</b:if>
<!-- End Widget-based: Changing the Blogger Title Tag -->

Optimizing Blogger Title Tags - Classic Version

<title><br /><mainorarchivepage><$BlogTitle$></mainorarchivepage><br /><itempage><blogger><$BlogItemTitle$></blogger> - <$BlogTitle$></itempage><br /></title>

Use the above code in place of: <title><$BlogPageTitle$></title>

That's all for now! Happy Blogger optimizing:) You can click through some of my other posts to see how the code transposes the title tags.

Google Can Read Flash!

In a recent interview with Stephan Spencer, Matt Cutts admits that Google is using Adobe Systems' Search Engine SDK technology to 'read' flash website content.

That fairly definite confirmation of how Google reads text within Flash files makes it possible to create Flash .swf files with some level of search engine optimization.

It used to be the case that we had our own, home-brew code to pull the text out of Flash, but I think that we have moved to the Search Engine SDK tool that Adobe Macromedia offers. So my hunch is that most of the search engines will standardize on using that Search Engine SDK tool to pull out the text. - Matt Cutts

There has been suspicion by Flash developers and SEO professionals concerned with .swf files, but this is the most direct and clear confirmation to date.

So, what does this mean? The implication is important: if Web developers--and specifically Flash developers--have the ability to test .swf files during development for textual SEO parameters, then Flash files can be designed to offer specific text to search engines and achieve quality rankings in the SERPS.

Stay tuned!

Updated 7.1.08

Adobe Says, Flash Now Search Engine Friendly