I just read Brian Ussery's posts (http://www.beussery.com/blog/ index.php/tags/swfobject/) on Googlebot and Flash. It was news to me that Googlebot is now traversing SWFObject, which means that Googlebot now skips any (X)HTML content inside the SWFObject divs and instead indexes the Flash. While in theory, this is great (meaning that Google can start indexing Flash), the reality is that Googlebot still has a long way to go to correctly index Flash files, and the fact that Googlebot is traversing SWFObject means that SEO for Flash has become MORE difficult.
My biggest worry is this: Almost all the Flash sites I build are dynamically-driven by necessity. This makes the content in them really difficult for Googlebot to index (Googlebot reads external data as separate pages, has trouble following links, and so on). Whereas before I could use SWFObject to deliver a (X)HTML version of the content to Googlebot (for SEO) and Flash content to users with Flash (for visual and user-impact), it seems I can't do that anymore. So based on all this, I've got two questions: 1) Is there a way in SWFObject to FORCE an (X)HTML output if SWFObject detects the visitor is a robot? 2) What are other tactics people are using in order to optimize dynamically-driven Flash sites for Google? Thanks! --eric --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SWFObject" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/swfobject?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
