flash and google

[manny2k]

Hi

Any tips on getting full flash site's indexed on google apart from "dont use full flash sites"?

i have a guy that i've built a full flash site for (architects, have to love them) and have a index.html page first but like most splash screens is a little light on text content, in fact a big fat zero text, any work arounds out there? i cant seem to find any that make sense.


Kind Regards

Manny2k

[remi]

Tips:

• Don't create full flash sites.
• Don't use small pixel fonts
• Don't change the size of the browser window

Remi

[manny2k]

[Availor]

Tips:

• Don't create full flash sites.
• Don't use small pixel fonts
• Don't change the size of the browser window

Remi

Well that is not totally true.

www.cartoonsmart.com is indexed pretty well on the website, and has 4k - 10k visitors every day.

Once I saw his website glitch and I have noticed that his entire flash site seems to be sitting on top of an HTML map. This is something I thought of but was never sure.

It is possible to do it using two methods I know of:

1. Create an external xml map of your site
2. use layers. The lower layer will be HTML map and the upper layer will be the flash. The flash will obscure the HTML but the google bot will still see it.
But you will need to create different pages on different HTML files and not within the flash itself.

Basically, use flash as a personal portfolio or just a small content, that's my opinion. Flash can be extremely useful if you know how and when to apply it.

[Albacore]

Do a google search on subject sure that there is something about having site map to include site content for robots. I agree with Remi it can cause more problems than it solves.

[manny2k]

i agree with knowing when to use flash and when not too, i've seen flash sites that are well over the top where flash designers have added every bell and whistle going not for the benifit of the site but just becasue they can, silly really it kills a site (well for me it does anyway, like over complicated navogation does)

The problem i have is that the client wants a full flash site and thats what he's got and believe me architects are a tough nut to crack when they know what the want.

As a work around Ive seen a web site design company hide the text in their splash screen to get it found,as i'm sure you people already know and i did read somewhere (think it was a book i have) that it isnt best practise

Anyway thanks for all the replys, and och i Albacore fro a soft southerner

Manny2K

[Egg Bramhill]

Remi. Stereotypes

* Don't change the size of the browser window

Agreed

* Don't use small pixel fonts

Ohhhhhh yes please, spare my eyes!

* Don't create full flash sites.

? Explain (in more detail)

[Availor]

Full flash sites are quite like a little application.
It's less tedious if you know flash. No HTML, no CSS, no PHP or whatever.

If I am to make my own portfolio website, I don't care about google search engine, so I'd rather make it a cool looking multy effects website.

[haakoo]

Flash AS can use xml/php/html (SWF8)
First screen make html(picture on it ,keywords under the pic for meta crawlers)
On this page make what the viewer can expect: best browser/view(flash)
so they can download the plugin

[remi]

I wouldn't recommend to create full Flash sites. The reasons for this are the followings:

• A HTML Web page with a little bit Flash is faster, instead of a full Flash site.
• After a relaunch, Macromedia's website was a short time a pure Flash site, but there were so much rumours about the bad performance (and therefore the lack of usability), that Macromedia changes their website back to a HTML site with some Flash parts. If you're not willing to believe this, look at the current Adobe website - why don't they use a full Flash site?
• Pure Flash sites aren't searchable (and findable) from Google, Yahoo or MSN.
• Some Flash developers are thinking, using Flash is easier - mainly because they aren't willing to learn/handle HTML+CSS with all the Cross Browser problems. But HTML knowledge is neccessary, HTML is the "bread and butter" language of the web.
• HTML opens the possibilty of including JavaScript to implement a lot of useful things (for example Dynamic HTML, AJAX, ...).
• My recommendation: Create your Website with HTML+CSS and use Flash in some parts, for example to show some animations or animated menus, but not for the whole website.

Regards,
Remi