08.23.06
Flash SEO
So the other day I had an interesting conversation with Parker Garlitz of Patrick Henry & Associates, a noted Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert and 2-time Dungeons & Dragons champion. The discussion was something like this -
"The best thing you can do for www.directpointe.com is take off all Flash from your site. This is going to sound crazy but you need to 'uglify' your site to get people to conversion." Patrick said. "Flash is the worst thing you can do to your site if you want search engines to find it."
He was very adamant about the fact that Macromedia Flash can not be crawled by search engines. Because I challenged him on this fact, he said tell me one site that uses Flash extensively and ranks on search engines.
So, I decided to take him up on the offer. Here are my findings.
I searched out what the most searched keywords are. I went with the results from Google, Yahoo, and AOL. I typed these into the search engines and this is what I came up with. This list was gathered on 8/22/06.
Websites that show up on page one of Google and use Flash extensively.
Search Term - Sports
www.ESPN.com
msn.foxsports.com
Search Term - Tour de France
www.bicycling.com
Search Term - World Cup
www.fifa.com
Search Term - Talk Show
tyrashow.warnerbros.com
Search Term - NASCAR
msn.foxsports.com/nascar
Search Term - Computer
www.gateway.com
Search Term - Music
www.mtv.com
Search Term - News
www.usatoday.com
Search Term - NFL
sports.espn.go.com/nfl/index
msn.foxsports.com/nfl
sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/specials/preview/2006
Search Term - Pizza
www.pizzahut.com
www.dominos.com
www.cpk.com
Other notable sites that use Flash extensively
Even Walmart has gotten into the act.
Most car manufacturer, fashion designers, sports teams, movie websites, airlines, computer makers, cell phone companies, universities, governments, etc... etc.... etc... use Macromedia Flash extensively. That seems like a lot of smart people to me. There must be a reason for using Flash to get people to conversion. The fact is that Flash can be crawled and flash elements can be effective. The days of Flash being invisible to Google and the gang are over.
Stay tuned for the next blog on how to Optimize Flash the right way for SEO and the results of making www.DirectPointe.com compelling, effective, viral, and searchable.
