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Historically, it has been difficult for search engines to extract content (text & links) from Flash (.swf) files. Subsequently, most Flash-based content on the web has been inaccessible to search results, with Flash based websites not receiving solid rankings in the search results.

Google Now Crawling and Indexing Flash Content

From the Google website:

Google can now discover and index text content in SWF files of all kinds, including self-contained Flash websites and Flash gadgets such as buttons or menus. This includes all textual content visible to the user. In addition, we can now find and follow URLs embedded in Flash files. We’ll crawl and index this content in the same way that we crawl and index other content on your site – webmasters don’t need to take any special action.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=72746

SEO for Flash

Even though Google can now index text and links in Flash content, a site built entirely with Flash suffers a disadvantage because it lacks page structure to organize the content, internal linking, and unique page titles for all of the pages within. One remedy is to create distinct HTML pages to represent each Flash page, thus creating indexable content. You can include Flash modules to embed with the HMTL so when a visitor requests the page, they’ll see Flash if they can handle it. Otherwise, a non-Flash visitor, such as a search engine, will be able to spider the site. If a user follows a search result onto one of the inner pages, they’ll get the same Flash experience because the movie is available on every page.

A few more SEO tips for using Flash modules within your website:

• Create descriptive useful page titles and meta descriptions.
• Embed the flash into HTML pages and use regular text links on the page if possible.
• Create textual representations of what is in the flash using noembed tags.

Great 20-questions interview with Udi Manber, Google’s vice president in charge of search quality.

Since there has been such a thing as Web search, Udi Manber has been working on Web search. Previously a computer science professor at the University of Arizona, then a senior vice president at Amazon and Yahoo’s chief scientist, Manber is now vice president in charge of search quality for Google, where he makes sure results are engineered to the utmost (near) perfection. In one of the only public interviews he’s ever sat down for, Manber gives PM a glimpse into how Google’s dominant engine helps you find what you want, how you can help it find you and how search is constantly evolving with the pace of technology. —Glenn Derene

One of the questions posed was this question, “Do you find that the content on the Web is evolving to be more search-engine friendly?”

Manber’s answer: “It’s hard to say. It’s definitely still lacking. I wish people would put more effort into thinking about how other people will find them and putting the right keywords onto their pages.”

This touches on one our mission statements goals: helping people improve their search engine rankings with clear methodologies that are easy to understand and that are in complete compliance with the search engine guidelines.

We believe that SEO is about helping websites be as relevant as possible so that they will rank for appropriate keywords on search engines. Search engines are a tool to help connect people with information they want. Our job as SEO specialists, is guide website owners towards their goal of creating quality content that search engines will find relevant to the topic of the website.

Properly selected keyword phrases, well-written content and web pages focused on specific topics assist the dominant search engine in indexing websites and providing salient SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Their reputation is based on the information they provide and SEOs help website’s define their message, products and services.

There are no quick and easy “secrets” to ranking well and driving traffic online, but it’s not rocket science either. Small businesses simply need to start with the basics, and then build on their knowledge as they go. I’d strongly recommend getting acquainted with the Google Webmaster Guidelines, it is a true road map for any business owner who has questions about how their website should be built:

Following these guidelines will help Google find, index, and rank your site. Even if you choose not to implement any of these suggestions, we strongly encourage you to pay very close attention to the “Quality Guidelines,” which outline some of the illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from the Google index or otherwise penalized. If a site has been penalized, it may no longer show up in results on Google.com or on any of Google’s partner sites.

• Design, content, and technical guidelines
• Quality guidelines

When your site is ready:

• Have other relevant sites link to yours.
• Submit it to Google at http://www.google.com/addurl.html.
• Submit a Sitemap as part of our Google Webmaster Tools. Google uses your Sitemap to learn about the structure of your site and to increase our coverage of your webpages.
• Make sure all the sites that should know about your pages are aware your site is online.
• Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.

Design and content guidelines

• Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
• Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages.
• Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.
• Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
• Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn’t recognize text contained in images.
• Make sure that your TITLE tags and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate.
• Check for broken links and correct HTML.
• If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a “?” character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few.
• Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100).

Quality guidelines

These quality guidelines cover the most common forms of deceptive or manipulative behavior, but Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here (e.g. tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known websites). It’s not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn’t included on this page, Google approves of it. Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit.

Quality guidelines – basic principles

• Make pages for users, not for search engines. Don’t deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as “cloaking.”
• Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?”
• Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.
• Don’t use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.