SEO Flash files

Problem 1: Internet browsers updated the handling of active content and as a result users had to click within the flash object or tap their space bar in order for the flash to become active. The end result was an ugly dashed line around your Flash file and if your flash file had any user interaction then the enduser would have to double-click in order to get anything to work.

a popular JavaScript patch works well but it has a problem. The way the javaScript typically works is that it calls a div tag (something like "flashFix") and that tells the Javascript to act within that tag. The problem with that is you couldn't have multiple flash files on the same page because the javaScript would only be assosiated with the first file and would repeat itseld in every instance where the div tag was called.

Problem 2: When creating a website you have to strike a balance between good design and Search Engine Optimized Content. Images are not very Search Engine Friendly and according to Most SEO consultants Flash should be avoided like the plague!

The Solution: Create a plugin that utilized the popular JavaScript fix but then add a new parameter that allows the user to assign a unique name to each flash file. Then I created a dynamic Div taht utilized that unique name. This allowed the user to asign multiple flash files to the smae page and still utilize the javascript patch.

The next step was to add a replacement text for users who do not have Flash. Here I created an H1 tag and placed the variable for the unique name within it.

When Search Engine bots crawl a web page they ignore any flash content. Images with alt tags get a little attention, but not as much. With this plugin in place, your unique names for your Flash files will get treated as H1 Titles!

This plugin uses PHP, XML and JavaScript.

Here is a sample of the code:

$text = '
<script type="text/javascript" src="'. $mosConfig_live_site.'/mambots/content/js/swfobject.js"></script>
<div id="'.$thisName.'">
   <h1>'.$thisName.'</h1>
   <script type="text/javascript">
       var so = new SWFObject("'. $mosConfig_live_site . $path .'", "'.$thisName.'", "'.$thisWidth.'", "'.$thisHeight.'", "8", "#CCCCCC");
       so.addParam("quality", "high");
       so.addParam("wmode", "transparent");
       so.write("'.$thisName.'");
   </script>
</div>
';
return $text;

You can download the plugin here

[ Back ]