adding html on top of flash - my question is about adding html on top of flash for seo purposes if a flash file is originally used

sudhakararaog

my question is about adding html on top of flash for seo purposes

if a flash file is originally used for a banner or navigation or any other purposes, because the text is inside flash and as it cannot be read by search engines, is it possible to add html on top of this flash file so that search engines can still read the content.

please advice

thanks

saltedm8

this is the best I could come up with for that

TheCosmonaut 5 Steps for Building a SEO-Friendly Flash Site Using SWFObject and SWFAddress

maybe someone else knows another way that is a little simpler

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web design kent

TheCosmonaut

Hey there!

Using SWFObject is the easiest way to have text "behind" your Flash which search engines can read. In fact, you should be using SWFObject to embed all your Flash anyway - Adobe has recognized it as the proper way to embed SWFs. You can download SWFObject from Google code and you can get more detailed instructions on installing and using it there as well.

In a nutshell, SWFObject works this way: You designate a DIV on your page that is where you want the Flash to appear. Inside that DIV, you put the ALTERNATE content that visitors will view if they can't view Flash (this includes search engines). Then SWFObject uses Javascript to determine whether a site visitor can view Flash or not - if they CAN, it takes the DIV you designated and replaces the content inside of it with the Flash.

If all this seems complicated, don't be intimidated -- it's actually very straightforward. Follow the instructions on the SWFObject site at Google, or you can also run through Adobe's tutorial on using SWFObject. Both should get you where you need to go!

@saltedm8 - Thanks very much for the mention! Yes, my tutorial is a bit more complicated because it's about setting up entire Flash sites for search engine optimization, so there are extra steps in there for SWFAddress which are above and beyond what's needed here. If you simply follow the first two paragraphs of instructions, that should be all you need to get your text read by search engines.

Good luck and let me know how it goes!

saltedm8

very sweet, looked like a cool article... to be honest, I have zero flash skills though and its a real shame I could not put it to the test.

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web design kent

TheCosmonaut

Thanks! I hope the article is helpful. And as always, if anybody has any ideas or ways to improve it, I welcome the input!

sudhakararaog

thanks for replying

i used to use dreamweaver code to embed an swf file using the
AC_RunActiveContent.js file along with the html code


i have used the swfobject method by following the steps mentioned at
documentation - swfobject - Embedding Adobe Flash Player content using SWFObject 2 - Project Hosting on Google Code

when i use the swfobject method and validate my html code there are no errors however with the dreamweaver code i get errors when validating my html code

my question is when i downloaded the zip file from
swfobject - Project Hosting on Google Code

after unzipping this file there are 2 swfobject.js files one in the root directory after unzipping and another swfobject.js file inside a folder called src

i have used swfobject.js file from the root directory when i called this from
<script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>

and the flash file plays and also the html code validates,

is this the right way of using swfobject.js file from root directory or should i be using the one from the src folder


also just to test how the alternate content would appear if the flash player plugin is disabled or uninstalled i entered html text as alternate content using swfobject method, what i have noticed is i get the alternate content only if i disable flash player plugin however if i disable
javascript in most browsers the swf file plays

as the swfobject is calling a javascript i guess the swf file should not play or is this how it normally works

if this is the case in the alternate text, i guess i should be mentioning

"You have either javascript disabled/turned off or do not have a flash player plugin installed, download the latest flash player"




please advice.

thanks a lot

TheCosmonaut

Hey there!

Yes, that Dreamweaver code is old - you should skip it and use SWFObject instead.

As for using the swfobject.js from the root or from the source folder, you're doing it correctly by using the file in the root. The file that is in the source folder is an uncompiled file which you can use if you want to edit the SWFObject source code directly for some reason.

As for the alternate content question, I've never done testing on SWFObject with JavaScript turned off. It's my understanding that the way it should function is that if a user doesn't have the correct version of Flash player or if they have JavaScript turned off, the Flash should not display. So you'd be correct in saying "You have either javascript disabled/turned off or do not have a flash player plugin installed, download the latest flash player". I'm not sure why/how SWFObject would still run if you had JavaScript disabled, but I suspect it's simply a quirk in how the browsers read/interpret the pages.

Bear in mind: Going back to your original question, you wanted to be able to put HTML text in the same spot as Flash that would be readable by search engines. This means that you can put whatever content you want in the Flash div as alternate content (it doesn't need to be a "you don't have Flash installed" notice). So you could have a replacement image in there, or your own text message, or whatever. Just a reminder ;)

Good luck!

sudhakararaog

thanks for letting me know

TheCosmonaut

Anytime!

WelshStew

SWF object will not run if javascript is disabled as it is a javascript script. What it basically does is: check if flash is installed, if it is then it over writes the div with the flash file - if javascript is disabled then this doesn't get run/injected and as such the alternative content is shown.

Although this is a great tool for showing alternative content to users using screen readers, or those that don't want JS turned on, it has been recently abused to show different content to search engines.

So a word of warning - Google did not get to have 80% of the search market by being stupid - they know more tricks than you do and can detect them all.

In regards to the original question, around text not being able to be read by search engines - this isn't true - it can be as long as it is rendered as text inside the flash object, rather than anything else.

However, having said all that, I still use SWFObject for all my flash files.

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WelshStew
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