Does anyone remember the old days of not using flash on a site because Google wouldn’t index it? all along the way Search engines have been getting better at indexing flash .swf files in a web page. On June 30th 2008 Google announced that it had developed a flash indexing algorythm and could now index flash. what specifically you say? Ahhhh well .SWF files of all shapes and sizes! ok Just kidding…. sort of. Google says through adobe’s new searchable SWF library it is able to index:
1. SWF files - this includes gadgets, buttons, menus, self contained websites etc.
2. Better indexing of text and hyperlinks in a swf file.
3. images in flash files don’t get indexed, nor does text in those images
4. FLV files don’t get indexed.
Google sees the flash files as a human would, by clicking links and exploring resulting page or element and picking up text. There limitations to google’s new flash algorithm, those are:
1. Google doesn’t pick up some kinds of javascript, if the swf file is loaded via javascript then there is a chance it may not get indexed.
2. Google doesn’t recognize content loaded by a swf file as part of the actual flash -this means that if your SWF loads a .xml, .html, addional .swf , etc it won’t be indexed as part of the orignal swf that loaded the file. the loaded files will get indexed separately
3. google cannot yet index languages that are bidirectional - this means that Hebrew and Arabic text in flash files will not get indexed. but most other language’s will.
Ok so if your going to take advantage of googles flashy new algorithm then make sure you use text in your flash file! that will get indexed!
this was a summary of the google webmaster article Improved Flash Indexing Sponsored by our friends at Rent Expert for VRBO, People Finders for Background Check and Artworks Design for Web Design St. Louis
