SEO Tips - Search Engine Compatibilty

Flash Content
One of the biggest drawbacks to creating a Website or application that displays itself as a Flash (SWF) file in the past was that search engines could see the file, but they could not see its contents. Adobe has now created a way for the search engines to read SWF files and index all of the information they contain. That means any text or links in a Flash application can now be indexed.

Adobe has created a special Flash player for the search engines that acts like a virtual user going through each application. It actually goes through the runtime of each Flash application and translates it into something the search engines can understand. So all of those fancy interactive Flash Websites and other rich Internet applications that have been invisible to search engines, can now be seen by them.

Google has adopted the SWF-indexing technology already, with Yahoo to follow shortly. Even so, this won't solve all the problems with Flash content showing up on search engines. Becoming visible is one thing, actually ranking highly is another. Google currently can find about 73 million Flash files on the Web. But until Adobe makes it easy for the average Webmaster or blogger to link deeply into those Flash files, they are not likely to appear at the top of many search results.

Spider Friendly
Make sure your site design does not contain elements that negatively impact a search engine’s ability to index it. An unfriendly design can sabotage your site’s ability to rank well and be found by your target market.

Employ a navigation and linking structure that encourages regular indexing by search engines. Modern drop down menus, site maps help to insure your pages are indexed regularly. Consider adding text links throughout each page so the spiders can also access similar or related pages in your web site.

Many search engines can read 'named anchors’ so use them when they are appropriate. Add 'short' keyword rich ALT text to describe your graphic link destinations but do not use the same words on every graphic. If you are using html frames, the No Frames tag is an excellent area for you to put in keyword rich content but don't over do it!! You'll find more about html frames in the upcoming pages in our SEO tutorial.

And above all, make sure your content is useful and relevant to searchers. Web sites employ many different methods for displaying navigation menus to their visitors. Some of these look great on your web pages, especially flash technology, or javaScript techniques, however, the menu system is one of the key elements of your web site, as it allows visitors, but more importantly the search engines, to find your deeper pages.

If the design/concept calls for graphics in your menus, use graphics to form the backgrounds of buttons and menus and overlay them with text for the actual link text. For rollovers and drop down / interactive menus, create the menu portions using CSS, then add a simple JavaScript to show / hide the menu on rollover of the menu item.

Text Links
Advantages of text links: they load faster, can be indexed by search engines, are easier to edit, are better for visually impaired visitors, their content contributes towards search relevancy and help to determine where you rank under your most relevant keyword phrases in the search engine results.

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