Dodgy Flash SEO technique or accepted practice?

[Jupiter]

I recently came across a report for optimising a Flash site which suggested to rename the first page file to ‘main.html’, and create a frameset called ‘index.html’ holding a 1 pixel high top frame called ‘something.html’ and the ‘main.htm’ in the bottom frame.

It also suggested the inclusion of noframes content to the newly created 'index.html'. Further down the report it was suggested to copy the noframes content to the ‘something.html’ page, but place it low on the page and disable resizing and scrolling for that page to make sure that it would not be visible to humans.

Could anyone advise as to whether this is acceptable or not? It sounds like cloaking to me.

Is the addition of noembed content to Flash files considered acceptable practice, or could a site be banned for that?

Any clarification would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[mcanerin]

Although technically the 1 px frame trick used in this particular case is probably not spam, I would avoid it as a practice. Frames are evil and confuse people, browsers, and spiders, IMO. :p

Rule of thumb: As long as your alternative content is the same as the flash content and is intended for all non-flash users (not just search engines) then it should be fine.

Some ways to do this that I know work:

1. Place the content on the page, then use a CSS based centered z+1 postioned layer with the flash in it over top.

2. Place the content on the page, then popup a centered window with the flash in it.

3. Inside most flash objects is an <embed> tag - place the content into a <noembed> tag within the object.

4. Use noscript instead of noembed in the above example.

5. Make a page with the content on it and place a very small flash movie with a URL load command in the first frame to a second page containing the flash. Any browser that executes flash will go to the next page and do so, any browser that doesn't will stay on the current page.

Every single one of these is perfectly acceptable as long as the content is the same; every single one of these is spam if it's not.

Ian

[Jupiter]

Thanks for the info Ian.

I think I'll start with the noembed tag.

Most appreciated,

Jup

[SanDiegoSEO]

We have taken a creative path to optimizing a flash site, www.qosmio.com. It shows how you can give the user the experience you're trying to give them, as well as providing an alternative HTML based verison, without the typical "View our HTML version here" link (we do have that link, but also provide HTML based text on the home page).