When we talk about website content and SEO, we often refer to the inclusion of keywords within the content of the site. This is all well and good when we have a site that is largely text based, but Flash websites and other non-textual sites have a legitimate place on the web. Many businesses and organisations succeed in the search engines despite having seemingly unoptimisable content, but that’s because the truth is that virtually any content can be optimised as SEO is undertaken properly.

Text Navigation

Navigation really is paramount. Spiders need to be able to index and crawl all the pages on a site to gain the most advantage from search engine optimization. Some of the major spiders still struggle with flash based navigation, although the situation has improved significantly. Even so, it pays to add an HTML or XML sitemap and link directly to the sitemap from the homepage using a text link. If necessary create an HTML footer that doesn’t detract from the overall design of the site but enables you to add this important link.

SEO Keyword Research

SEO keyword research is still important. One of the most effective methods to optimise a flash site is to include alternative content for any person or spider that cannot or will not view Flash. Many browsers are set to disable the use of Flash on websites, so by offering a Flash only website you will alienate some human users too. Even if you opt against the use of alternative text based content, your keywords need to be targeted and researched.

Site Accessibility

As well as ensuring that the site can be crawled and indexed, ensure that it is as accessible as possible. Some spiders will manage to crawl your site and index various elements, but only if a page is accessible. Follow best practice standards to best ensure that all visitors, whether human or software based, can access as much of the information as possible. As with any site test using various browsers, operating systems, and resolutions.

Link Building

Building links will be an even more important component of your search engine optimisation practices. You will have to almost solely rely on links, and keywords in the anchor text of those links, to generate search engine results. Use your SEO keyword research findings and start building powerful links to your most prominent pages initially. Over time you will also need to develop links to all of your deep links such as product or service pages.

Image And Video Optimisation

Image and video components of a page’s content should include HTML tags, such as the Alt and Title tag. Again, this will help with search engine optimisation and in the era of universal search, this can help with ranking those images and video clips in the search engine results themselves. Some searches are conducted primarily with the goal of finding media footage rather than text.

SEO For Non Text Content Can Be Successful

Non-text content elements can be subjected to SEO, in a similar manner to text based content. Flash websites should attempt to offer an alternative that is easy to read and crawl, for example an XML sitemap and text based page alternatives. Build links using keywords you researched during the preliminary stages of the search engine optimisation campaign. Including the appropriate tags for images and video clips can also help these rank in universal search results.

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