Can Flash Sites Be Seen by Search Engines?

He has: 286 posts

Joined: Mar 2003

I'm a newbie to Flash, and I'm wondering if Flash sites are visible to search engines in the way that plain HTML sites are.

Roy
http://www.webservertimes.comConfused

Suzanne's picture

She has: 5,507 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

In the way that plain HTML sites are? No. But you can provide information for search engines with liberal use of comments, I believe.

http://www.google.com/search?q=flash+accessibility

There listed are two Macromedia sites on accessibility, and articles from UseIT guru Jakob Nielsen, article from ALA, et cetera.

I googled accessibility because when a site is accessible, it's very search engine friendly. Text equivalents figure prominently.

http://www.google.com/search?q=search+engines+flash

This led me to:
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/03/sd0211-ses-flash.html an article on optimizing Flash for search engines. And also this:

http://www.newark1.com/form/000059.html

Which seems to back up my assertion that accessible means search engine friendly, and that it's the text, baby, the raw, readable text, that makes the case.

Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.