SEOing A Flash Intro

Introduction

Why does a FLASH intro need SEO? Flash, the great SE killer, is basically nonspiderable, although there are reports of the opposite. In this way, the intro creates a solid, non-permeable barrier between the website and the external world. One way around is to place the intro into a frame and connect the other pages via links from the [noframes] tag. The SE will follow such links, but will not place much weight on the anchor text or any keywords within the [noframes] tag. In this way, the index page is practically lost for most SEO purposes. A tremendous waste, if you consider that, from the SEO viewpoint, the index is the most valuable page of your entire website. For example, it is significantly easier to obtain external links pointing to the index page.

Using frames is definitely a very bad option. The very best action is to talk the website owner into removing the FLASH intro at all.

Even offering a small discount is worth the expenses. But unfortunately, most business ownners are completely fascinated by the idea of their logo bouncing around the screen, changing colors and doing other rather annoying things. This is where the real SEO comes into the play.

Just to make things clear. I sort of like FLASH. I agree that it is a killer tool for webdesign - if used properly. But I do not think that an intro is a proper usage for this technology.

Planning

Traditionally, cloaking is based on simple principles.

Identify the visitor on the basis of the user agent or (better) its IP address.

Serve different content to SE and human.

Here we will use somehow different and as I believe, more gentle principles:

Find if the client accept FLASH (Google does not).

Serve the same page to both types of clients. The only difference: the FLASH accepting clients will get the real content of the page overlayed by the FLASH layer. Pressing the STOP button will remove the flash layer, revealing the actual content of the page.

Implementation

You will find a working example at our webdesign site. There you will also find the links for downloading the source code of index.php, flash intro and switch.php.

index.php

This is the page containing the FLASH intro. The FLASH object is contained within a [div] tag with a high Z index and will therefore overlay the actual text placed into the underlying [div] tag.

Flash intro itself

The only requirement is that the STOP button points to the page switch.php

switch.php

After the STOP button is pressed the script in switch.php is executed. The script will register a session variable intro ensuring that the intro will not be played again. Calling the script again through the play intro link will reverse the situation.

Problems

• The example above uses sessions for preserving the state information. Sessions are usually stored in cookies. Thus clients with disabled cookies will not be able to escape from the FLASH movie. A simple remedy is to store the state in both a session and _GET variable. You may also consider propagating the session in the url, by setting session.use_trans_sid=1 in the php.ini file. This problem will not affect the SE. They will not be served with the FLASH. Even if they are, they will see the real page content and will not press the STOP button to start the session.
• A minority of FLASH enabled clients will not admit the ability to interpret FLASH in the content of $_SERVER["HTTP_ACCEPT"] variable and will not see the intro. Not a real tragedy. In fact you may decide to serve the FLASH uniformly, to all type of clients. The SE will see the real content immediatelly, the human users after clicking the STOP button.

Vaclav Mach is owner of the Scisoft webdesign - a website visibility and accessibility oriented company.

---

When to NOT Hire a SEO and Why

When you get an e-mail from SEO Company with content... Read More

Search Engine Optimization Lies & Misconceptions

In a perfect world, everyone would be honest.In a perfect... Read More

60 Day Sandbox for Google & AskJeeves; MSN Indexes Quickest, Yahoo Next

Search engine listing delays have come to be called the... Read More

Do Search Engines Scare You?

What do the words "Search Engine" make you think of?... Read More

Five Tips to Improve Your Chances with Google et al.

"Dear David: I just created a website on baby toy... Read More

How To Soar In Your Search Engine Marketing, In The Post Google Era Part 2

'Are Google's Days in the Dominant Position in Search Technology... Read More

The 3 Essential Components of a Search Engine Optimization Campaign

Everyday, the Search Engines average 300 MILLION searches. In a... Read More

How To Conceal Your Website?s ?Fingerprint? From The Search Engines

The internet marketing industry is now flooded with various page... Read More

Search Engines Are Going to Love You for This

What's the most potent free traffic source on the web?***... Read More

Google Ranking WITHOUT Ever Submitting To Google!

A while back, I read an article that explained how... Read More

Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website - Step 2: Content Creation

Welcome to part two in this search engine optimization series.... Read More

Get A Top Position In Google In Three Days!

So how do you get a top listing in Google... Read More

SEO Blues

SEO, not again!, you may groan. The webmaster world is... Read More

Which SEO Company/Firm to Choose for SEO Services?

In the last 2-3 years many new companies have mushroomed,... Read More

The Smart Way To Get Listed On Google!

So you want to get listed on Google? And you... Read More

Should You Buy Text Links?

You can rank number one (Or at least in the... Read More

Meta Tags - An Important Part of Every Web Page

Meta tags are an absolute must from a search engine... Read More

One Way Link Building Secures Long Term Ranking Results

One-way link building is a great way to improve your... Read More

Drive More Traffic to Your Website With Your Web Page Title!

One of the most overlooked, but important components, on your... Read More

How To Improve Your Search Engine Ranking

With search engines like Google currently indexing over 8 billion... Read More

How to Develop a Successful ROI for Your Website

Are You Really Measuring for Return on Investment (ROI) with... Read More

Dont Focus Too Much on Your Internet Business Website Ranking

No doubt, having a high search engine ranking is very... Read More

Creating A Search Engine Copywriting Plan

Search engine copywriting has become an extremely important part of... Read More

Would You Like More PageRank?

The higher the PR of your site the higher will... Read More

Lets Make Your Website #1

Their is simple way of making your website rank top... Read More

How to Avoid Getting OOPed On by Google?

Earlier this year, I was having trouble getting good search... Read More

Is Something Missing From Your Keywords Research? (Part 1)

As you may already know, keywords are an essential part... Read More

Finding The Best Search Engine

With Billions of pages on the internet how do you... Read More

The Unethical SEO Myth

"The use of black hat SEO techniques are completely unethical."... Read More

SEO = Search Engine Optimization, tips on successful page ranking

One of the key things to remember when developing your... Read More

The SEO Game - Do You Play It?

Most people do not think of SEO as a game.... Read More

You Cannot Hide From the Public Record Search Engines

As a search engine optimization specialist, I often run across... Read More

How to Get a Website Indexed Fast

Get Indexed FastWhat does getting indexed mean?The search engines keep... Read More