Google Can't "Read" Flash Content, Right?

[The Expert]

After poking around with Firebug I just noticed that #1 site in the niche I'm competing in wraps almost 100% of it's content in a Flash interface. Even the navigation menu is constructed with images.

Google can't read Flash, right? I don't see how it could.

So the site has 40,000+ indexed pages, but none of them has any significant amount of "content" that counts is what I'm thinking.

So my guess is that the 329,000 backlinks to the domain (147,000 to the homepage) is what is keeping this site anchored securely in the #1 spot.

Can Google index flash content or not?

[askloz]

yup yup yup

[EMGhb]

Learn something new every day. I was also told that Google couldn't "read" Flash.

[iblbuilder]

Google have made a lot of changes so that they can read things like flash, dynamic menus, javascripts etc.

[imthebest]

Google has actually been able to index text content and follow links inside Flash for years. Trouble is, even with the recent improvements, Google and the other search engines still need a significant amount of hand-holding to even do a half-decent job of indexing websites that are built in Flash.

[3Darmory]

I think not because earlier I have faced the similar problem with one my friend's website while I was optimizing that. Not sure abt recent development.

[askloz]

LMAO, no it can't.

it can only read text only. or anything that spits out text / characters.

Originally Posted by bryntwr10

Yes Google can.

[pbennett]

I worked as a technical writer for an upstart and their first iteration of the website was in flash. They had to completely redo it because they couldn't get it indexed.

[The Skint IM]

Google Can only read the "text" content of a flash file. It can find URL's, text content etc.. It cannot handle the images, therefore if your text appears as content within an image (i.e you typed it using your image editor and imported that image into flash) it cannot be read.
If your text is stored as an image - It cannot be read.

[edgray]

Google is getting better at reading flash content. You can store your flash text in XML files, which is becoming increasingly common, and Google has no trouble with those.

You can also embed you Flash content using SWFObject, which allows HTML replacement files to live behind the flash content. In Europe this is actually a legal requirement, not having an HTML version of your site is like a public building not having a disabled access ramp.

There are some other tools out there to help with deep linking into Flash files.

To be honest, it's no tougher SEOing a Flash site these days than an HTML one.

To answer your question, the links are the main thing that's keeping it there, but if the site is nicely optimised, that will help too.

[paulgl]

C'mon people, think. How could google read flash?
There's nothing there to read! Watch a movie with your
eyes closed and the sound off. Then tell me what's
going on. If you can do that, then yes, google reads flash.

Here's what has gone under the radar for the readers of this
thread. You are under the assumption that google has ranked the
page high because of "content" in flash. That assumption would
be wrong. You would need to dig a little deeper and find out
as to why this site ranks high. It is just a coincidence that there
appears to a human eye content in it's flash.

Paul

[The Skint IM]

@paulgl - I wish some people on WF would get their facts straight before making comments in such a manner. I am a newbie to IM and WF but I am not a newbie to SEO and Webdesign.

Google CAN read flash. Do you think google would maintain its domination of the search engine market if it could still only read plain text websites (html, php, etc).

Because I don't like reacting to comments like this without having backup for my argument see this link: Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Improved Flash indexing

Direct from the horses mouth over a year ago

[webworx]

Sorry but Paul was right.

If the flash is image based then it cannot read the text.

The link that you provided agrees also: " If your Flash files only include images, we will not recognize or index any text that may appear in those images. Similarly, we do not generate any anchor text for Flash buttons which target some URL, but which have no associated text."

[The Skint IM]

Originally Posted by The Skint IM

Google Can only read the "text" content of a flash file. It can find URL's, text content etc.. It cannot handle the images, therefore if your text appears as content within an image (i.e you typed it using your image editor and imported that image into flash) it cannot be read.
If your text is stored as an image - It cannot be read.

If you read my original post here you will see I agree with this and mentioned it above. However Paul said it cannot as if it cannot at all.

[webworx]

Thanks for the heads up i was not trying to be cocky just helpful, we have a lot of clients that come to us with flash websites for SEO and most of them are image based as they get them either free or cheap off the web. They spend ages on them, they look good but perform as well as me after a bottle of JD.

I agree a well built flash website can rank just as good as any other site, its just that good ones are rare...

PS just looked at your site and it reads well, have been there and know what its like

[The Skint IM]

Hi Webworx, thanks and I agree with your comment there is a good deal of crap flash templates around.

[seojr]

That has nothing to do with flash alone

A site may have been clean web friendly seo site way before they went for a flash design

In genral a good webmaster would set up a clean seo site and then when they know they have a captive audience go for a flash design. And use backend seo to maintain their ranking

[webworx]

Do not quite know where you are coming from, poor flash websites take a lot of work to be SEO friendly, time is money and in todays world it is getting scarce.... if the first was that good why swop it for a flash website?

[cmdsonline]

As far as I know and I have researched this a lot as well, Google can NOT read the actual flash itself.... the important thing here I believe is that your site is not built in ALL flash. You need a text based site. If you have a regular, static, text based site, and use some flash as imbedded objects it shouldn't have much negative bearing on your rankings.

[nicktyler]

Google can read the code and the structure behind flash but it cant interpret the visual aspects like a human user can. Afterall alot of the visual side comes down to a matter of preference.

[mojoho]

As far as I unsderstand, there are more and more ways to show google your content, it all comes down to strategically putting text in the right places.

Good example of this is the vittoria coffee site in Australia.

each page is indexed in google for wehat it actually contains.

Interesting huh?