Question:
Indexing Websites - Is it better to submit to search engines a HTML or Flash version of your website?
Linda
2010-03-17 07:26:27 UTC
A Few Questions - I have both a flash and HTML version of my website, but through the website platform I can only submit one version of my website, so I am wondering is it better to submit a flash version of the website or a html version of the website and why? Can google and other search engines even detect and read the content/text that I write into my flash website? Last question, on my website, instead of putting too much information on it, I used a pdf file for a price and information sheet with a link on the site to display the pdf in a web page.... do search engines read the pdf files where there is a link to the file on my site, and if so, does this still help or affect the sites page rank at all? Please don't answer this question with a guess or your opinion, I am looking for answers to people who know about this from a personal or professional standpoint backed up by facts I can possibly see somewhere since I have a lot of money being invested into my website. Thanks!
Four answers:
2010-03-17 07:59:59 UTC
HTML has the characteristics that search

engines are looking for. Flash will not let your

content be searchable by the engine.



Whatever content you place into a non-html

type document cannot be searched by an

engine.



EDIT: I stand corrected! PDF can be searched by

content! Not schabby.
Stephen r
2010-03-17 07:57:19 UTC
i cant show you my sites for several reasons, BUT. Keep your flash site as far away from any marketing initiatives as possible. some search platforms are "ok" with a flash site, but you must adhere to standards of a mammoth ( aka google) in order to make it with your site, especially if it sells product or service ( a transaction based site). HTML is a must, and this is a primary way for google indexing. google does not waste any time in having its spider detect and index flash content. If your site has high relevancy and "age" and made in flash, google might assign it some ranking, but not high. Ranking will only be based on limited criteria.



as for PDF. You state that you invested a lot of money into your website, so why use PDF. It looks clean, and saves you some page-building time, but it does not help. certainly does not help page ranking, as google spider does not recognize PDF files - it has no reason to. If your PDF file is a restaurant menu, its ok to do it your way, since menu changes and you don't always want for it to be spidered and indexed. On the other hand, if its your price list of products and services, while pricing might change and you might add more services - core services do stay and you WANT those indexed and indexed heavily. Create a page, put a short, but keyword-rich snippet of text at the top of the page ( or bottom) , and set it live. Effective use of PDF throughout websites would be limited to menu as i mentioned, and maps, charts, various layouts ) apartment, seating, etc) and the like



good luck with your site.
2010-03-18 12:50:20 UTC
If you want your website to be indexed and searched by search engines, then you need to go the HTML way since the search bots love HTML and they don't understand Flash.
2016-03-02 05:20:43 UTC
It will probably take a while for it to show on the search engines.Also new websites, are usually put at the end of the search, so it will be hard to find. Try looking for an SEO, so as they can be the ones to put your site on the first page of the search.Hope that helped!!x


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