Search Engine Optimization in Flash (really!)

“Search Engine Optimization” or “SEO” is the term web geeks have affectionately given to the art/science of making sure a website gets ranked highly on google, yahoo, etc.

Flash is the awesome technology that lets us make sites for Clover that have beautiful animation along with our powerful Greenhouse.

The problem is that the two of them have never played nicely together… until now!

We just came up with a breakthrough that let’s us take all of the text from your site (which is in Flash) and let google see it (in HTML).

The reason this is huge is 1) We’ve never heard of anyone else doing this… and 2) It means that you get all the benefits of Flash without the downside of being missed by search engines.

Another really nice benefit of this is that it makes your site “accessible” and readable by visitors with visual disabilities.

Here’s a sample page from a Clover website:

Now here’s how a search engine sees that same page:

It’s boring, but it’s perfect.

Every page you make is linked so search engines can follow the trail through your entire site and pick up every word.

No more worrying that using Flash will keep your visitors from finding you! We’re excited to be pioneers of SEO in Flash. And we’re stoked that you get to reap the benefit.

Posted on June 20th, 2008 under Company News by Ben with 6 comments.

6 Comments

Steve said on June 24th, 2008:

Great work guys! Any chance you’ll be sharing any details about your methodology for making your Flash sites have counterpart HTML pages?

Speaking of Clover » Blog Archive » The Lowdown on Flash said on July 24th, 2008:

[...] Q: Won’t my site be invisible to search engines? A: Normally with Flash, you’d have very limited ability for search engine optimization. However, the brilliant (and humble) minds at Clover have created a special system that makes every word you type show up to all search engines. It even shows multiple pages as they’re supposed to be organized, and optimizes everything for the best possible search results. If you’re interested in reading more about this, check out this post. [...]