hi all ,

If someone is looking for a safe way to add text content/keywording for search engines to a site that contains only images/flash and no html text. As far as I can tell, any kind of SEO is considered spam by the search engines .

what's the solution?

If you have a site containing nothing but Flash and images, you've basically accepted the fact that you're going to be viewed less than favorably by search engines. Flash is a peripheral technology, an optional plug-in, not a core component of the Web, and search engines not only have difficulty with Flash content (sometimes they can do absolutely nothing with it), they recognize it for what it is, supplemental.

The solution is to keep a static version of the site available. But forget search engines. This is the best solution for human visitors! See, that's the key to improving your rank. Concentrate on taking action that makes the human visitor experience as meaningful as possible. Search engine logorithms are constantly being updated so SEs evaluate sites more and more like a human visitor would. That's the ultimate goal of SE developers - to create a system that "thinks" and outputs results like a human. Optimize for people and you'll do yourself a great service in the eyes of SEs too.

Hi,
Well, you could add meta tags, not that they mean much anymore. I guess
the <title> tag and backlinks will be what gets you on search engines.
Submit it to every search engine and directory and showcase site you
can find.
Nothing wrong with SEO, so long as it's legit. Except that rule #1 of
SEO is don't use Flash.
silvermoon

In addition to the above make use of the alt tag for images. Not to swamp the site with keywords and to increase your rank but, rather, to describe the images and, of course, to better enable sight impaired people to navigate your site.

KGIII

Let's keep in mind that it's 2006, not 1996. Search engines can extract and index text from .swf files.

For example:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c2coff=1&rls=GGLC%2CGGLC%3A1969-53%2CGGLC%3Aen&q=%22web+hosting%22+filetype%3Aswf

Granted, I wouldn't expect any flash-only file to rank well against html files for any competitive query... but if for some reason you must use flash, you should know that you can take steps to optimize the text.

Let's keep in mind that it's 2006, not 1996. Search engines can extract and index text from .swf files.

For example:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c2coff=1&rls=GGLC%2CGGLC%3A1969-53%2CGGLC%3Aen&q=%22web+hosting%22+filetype%3Aswf

Granted, I wouldn't expect any flash-only file to rank well against html files for any competitive query... but if for some reason you must use flash, you should know that you can take steps to optimize the text.
It can, but it can't differentiate between page within a Flash file, you can't bookmark sections of a Flash file (well, it's possible, but very tedious and replies on cookies, so it's not reliable), and how does Flash know the difference between headings, images, regular text etc.? Plus, you lose the HUGE benefit of page-specific titles, which I personally believe is the #1 individual page component for determining ranks, hands-down.

I stand by my assertion that is SEO matters to you, you simply will not have a Flash-only site...but I get the feeling we're not in disagreement :)

I stand by my assertion that is SEO matters to you, you simply will not have a Flash-only site...but I get the feeling we're not in disagreement :)Not at all, which is why I said "I wouldn't expect any flash-only file to rank well against html files for any competitive query..."

It'd be interesting to look at, if someone wants to take the time, where the pages in that .swf query for "web hosting" come up in a regular search for that term. I'd bet that none of them are in the top hundred.

But it's worth knowing, and many people do not know, that text within Flash files does get indexed.

Let's keep in mind that it's 2006, not 1996. Search engines can extract and index text from .swf files.

For example:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...filetype%3Aswf

Are you sure google can index swf files? I have never heard of it before. Can you point some resource to me that proves this? I would really like to clarify this issue.

As for the http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...filetype%3Aswf, most of the links I followed were 404. I wonder why? Is this someway to manipulate Google?

Are you sure google can index swf files? I have never heard of it before. Can you point some resource to me that proves this? I would really like to clarify this issue.Back in 2002, a friend of mine wrote me a little script that pulled my email address out of a small Flash site I made for myself and returned it as text. This is not difficult technology by any means. Assigning relevence is the hard part.

Are you sure google can index swf files? I have never heard of it before. Can you point some resource to me that proves this? What? I'm not resource enough? :emlaugh:

Here's a link that will bring up plenty of discussions on the topic, mostly from two years ago when it was news. In 2004 Macromedia first released their "Flash Search Engine SDK" specifically so that this could be done:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLC,GGLC:1969-53,GGLC:en&q=google+indexing+flash+files

Also of interest, the Flash Search Engine SDK FAQ:
http://www.adobe.com/licensing/developer/search/faq/

Here's a link to Google's cache of an .swf file:
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:xpmvVC2z6-8J:www.joecartoon.com/media/swf/1839365733/1024555773/frogbender.swf&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=5

...and perhaps more interesting, the "text only" version of that cache:
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:xpmvVC2z6-8J:www.joecartoon.com/media/swf/1839365733/1024555773/frogbender.swf&hl=en&lr=&strip=1

which means i get the site redesigned with more of static content

You and silvermoon get around together a lot.

http://www.webhostgear.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2089

Yes, they certainly do:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=992309
http://www.freewebspace.net/forums/showthread.php?p=730563
http://forums.webhostdir.com/showthread.php?p=40106#post40106
http://www.hostingdiscussion.com/promotion-marketing/8930-keywording-seo.html

This thread was bought to our attention http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=520343 and the google results http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22A+successful+site+is+one+that+ranks+high+enough+for+its+chosen+search%22&num=20&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&filter=0 :s

I have to type something here so that I can say...

"Hmm..."

KGIII

(that should be enough characters)

Here's a link to Google's cache of an .swf file:
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:...s&ct=clnk&cd=5

...and perhaps more interesting, the "text only" version of that cache:
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:...en&lr=&strip=1

I am not doubting your word. I also know that it is not technically impossible to index a swf file. But I can't seem to make sense of the Google results posted here.

The google link you mentioned:
The "cached text" version seems to displaying the alt tags only. I don't see anything that suggests that the swf file was indexed. Maybe I am missing something.

It looks like they've ripped the bits of their wording which are coherent English from this outfit:

http://www.rexshack.com/

I am not doubting your word. I also know that it is not technically impossible to index a swf file. But I can't seem to make sense of the Google results posted here.

The google link you mentioned:
The "cached text" version seems to displaying the alt tags only. I don't see anything that suggests that the swf file was indexed. Maybe I am missing something.
My apologies; I was missing something. I didn't look closely enough at that example. While the file has a .swf extension, it actually does include html content!

I'll see if I can find something else...