Robert Everland III wrote: > We have been doing a lot of flash sites with very minimal > HTML content. One of the things we have done is create a > text only website so that we can have our sites indexed > by search engines. The only issue with doing this is that > the search engine indexes the text only site instead of > my actual site. I have been toying with the idea of hiding > the content inside my page where my flash is so that when > a search engine spiders my site I have the plain text > version of that site indexed, but when they click on it > they are able to go to the site with the flash on it. > Has anyone done anything like this or though about doing > something like this?
Search Engine Optimization is a funny field, because the targets of these tactics (the search engine vendors) not only don't extensively document how their engines work (for obvious reasons!) but they also regularly adjust their mechanisms. One approach which seems to help is to reverse the problem -- instead of "How can I make sure all search engines know about all the words I use?", try "How would I like someone to be able to find this site? What search terms will they likely use?" For a popular search term, like "flowers", you'll likely never get on the first page of results for any engine, because of all the flower vendors who have created linkfarms and other relationships to get on that front page. But once you identify the key target search terms under which you'd like to be found, then your static HTML on the pages which host SWF can use the engines' recommended techniques to show that your content is about those terms: http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/ranking/ http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_CONC_AboutSiteRanking.htm&FORM=WRDD (Examples: HTML documents should have titles and URLs which reflect your key search targets... use metadata and body text appropriately on these keywords... get a good amount of highly-ranked inbound links with appropriate anchor text, etc.) Rephrased, it's rare that you'd have to have the engines know every single word you use, because people would not search on filler words, and even on relevant words you'd probably be outranked anyway. But if you look at the problem backwards -- from the final searcher's point of view -- then this reveals those key terms which should be highlighted through the usual methods. (Duplicate text sites sometimes work, but the search engines guard against cloaking and other spammer techniques, so such a trick may just break one day without warning.) Good...? jd -- John Dowdell . Macromedia Developer Support . San Francisco CA USA Weblog: http://www.macromedia.com/go/blog_jd Aggregator: http://www.macromedia.com/go/weblogs Technotes: http://www.macromedia.com/support/ Spam killed my private email -- public record is best, thanks. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware (www.logware.us): a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. Try it for free with a 15 day trial account. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=67 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:208270 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
