Adobe Flash has long been an SEO nightmare for ecommerce sites and any website looking to gain traffic through the search engines. The problem is that Flash is a fluid rendition of web content rather than static, as you see with the Rankpay website. Flash is known as a Rich Internet Application (RIA) and the SEO challenge has been how to link to, how to index and how to display in search engine rankings the changing panoply of content within the Flash files themselves. For search engine web spiders they have the task of catching every relevant aspect of a revolving door, and quite frankly, they can’t do it very well, and for most search engines, not at all.
The major SEO issues with Flash include:
- Poor crawlability by search engines;
- Poor stability of Flash websites causing frequent crashes;
- Slow website speeds and obstacle to accessing content irritates users; and
- Non-compliance with iPad and iPhone, effectively ignoring the mobile internet.
Poor Crawlability: Flash Makes Life Hard for the Search Engines
Flash is not easily crawled by search engine spiders; the problem lies in how Flash relies on external files being accessed to render the content you see in your web browser. A Flash web page may display a constantly changing range of products and prices, but when crawled the spider may only see a snapshot of the displayed file. Effectively, large sections of the Flash files which go to make up a page are ignored because they cannot be accessed.
Unfortunately, Flash can and does provide a great multi-media experience in a dynamic way – something many web designers had been waiting for to “free” them from static design pages (and also it is an opportunity to show off design skills). The multi-media feel is frequently viewed as an attractive option by designers and website owners who feel they are delivering a great user experience.
From an SEO perspective, Flash is a tool to avoid because part of gaining high rankings involves ensuring the search engines know you have a site and can easily access and index it. It makes no sense to make the search engines have to work to promote your site, so SEO practitioners usually advise you steer clear of Flash websites.
Furthermore, Flash is frequently used not to promote content, but as a replacement for good content. Your site needs to be equipped with good content which both the search engines and users could experience and enjoy – Flash content frequently serves neither set of users.
Google has been working hard with Adobe (Flash’s creator) over the last year, to ensure better indexing of the Flash files which are used to display content. There are no doubts that Google is better at indexing the Flash content than it was a year ago, however there are still issues with how effective Google and Yahoo! are in indexing Flash websites. If you are relying on traffic from non-Google search engines, then Flash is still not going to be indexed by them.
Until the indexing issuing are completely resolved, you are still best advised to stay away from using Flash websites.
Flash Stability: Designers May Love Flash But Users Hate Time Delay and Website Crashes
Flash is a constant bugbear for those on a slow connection; you may have experienced a Flash site displaying the icon, “Files loading press skip to enter site” and a bar showing the snail –like progress of the Flash files. Connections and speeds are improving, however site loading speeds still present a challenge for ecommerce websites, where a user is making a decision to stay or hit the back-browser button in a matter of fractions of a second. Site loading speed should never be taken for granted when you are trying to attract and retain visitors, so again for this reason Flash is not recommended.
While Flash is excellent at delivering a multi-media experience and feel, the user frequently views the Flash sequence as a barrier to the content they are looking for which causes them to wait. In addition, many users have not got the requisite Flash player installed to view the files, and asking them to download them before you will show the goods is not going to encourage a user to stick around.
Flash is also heavy on bandwidth use, both server and user side and on the processor usage in the user’s machine. The large files and need for greater processing capacity has led to Flash developing a reputation for instability and causing websites to crash when users are viewing them. Again, this is something you are looking to avoid when you have a customer eager to part with cash for goods; it is highly unlikely a user will stick with your website if it crashes.
Flash and iPhones – The Mobile Internet Accounts for More than 50% of Searches
The mobile internet burst onto the user scene with the introduction of the iPhone from Apple, closely followed by the Googlephone. Apple have also made a huge impact this year with the launch of the iPad, and all the major players – Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Apple – are all responding to the exponential demand created by users for internet on the move.
Last year, Google reported that more than half of searches initiated were from a mobile device. Smart phones and mobile devices are set to take an increasing share of the total internet market in terms of search engine usage.
But Flash is not compatible with either the iPhone, iPad, Googlephone (or any phone running the Android OS) or the majority of smart phones.
This means that Flash websites are going to be missing out on at least half of all internet searches currently being made!
Adobe is releasing Flash 10.1 sometime this year, which allows Flash to run on Android-powered phones, but even then it is not likely to be a viable solution for ecommerce websites in the context of the mobile internet.
Takeaway
Flash is a web-browser plug-in for bring animations to life on a website, in web parlance it is a Rich Internet Application (RIA) – it is heavily used in web gaming for instance. Designers like Flash because it “frees” them from static websites, but what designers think is great is not an opinion shared by those who really matter – the users.
Users view Flash pages as an obstacle to getting to the content they are looking for, while the RIA itself frequently slows down the user experience, especially if on a slow connection. There are also serious issues with the Flash websites crashing and stalling, while Flash websites are effectively off-limits to smart phone users and the mobile internet now accounts for half of internet searches.
The major bugbear with Flash websites is that search engines cannot access the files which hold the content properly, and this results in your web content not being indexed and not counting towards your ranking in search engines. From an SEO perspective, Flash is not recommended for ecommerce websites, and from an ecommerce perspective, it is flash but not effective in delivering an optimal user experience.
