Flash on websites often looks great, with moving images and animation it is possible to give websites a fantastic professional look and feel that provides a really unique and engaging experience for visitors.

The downside is that search engines can’t read Flash in the same way they can read standard content on a HTML site and this can have a serious impact when it comes to appearing high in the search engine results.

We are often asked to carry out search engine optimisation (SEO) to help make websites that are built with Flash appear on the first page of Google and the other search engines, there are a number of effective methods as to how best optimise Flash pages and content, here are five top Flash SEO techniques we recommend:

1) Use a “noscript” tag to describe the flash content in text, this can be read be the search engines
2) Embed the flash within a HTML page in order that Meta Data can be used, such as Titles and Descriptions
3) Don’t use Flash for the site navigation, search engines won’t get past the first page
4) If the entire page is built in Flash make a HTML version of the page in order that search engines can read it
5) Remember, text content is king, while Flash may look pretty it is much harder to optimise than text, if your site must have Flash try and find a sensible balance so pages can also carry keyword related text

On top of this it is also really important to ensure many new links are built into the website from related pages on high authority sites from around the web, a good link profile can make a huge difference in terms of helping a website maintain stability once it reaches the top of the search results.

At Total SEO we are experts in optimising websites, we always achieve great results for our clients on the front page of the search engine results, if you would like to find out how we can help make your website appear at the top of Google, Yahoo and Bing please get in touch for a free website SEO review, or call us on 01252 329160.