Dev Summit Sf Flash Search V5

Search Strategies for Rich Internet Applications Presented by: Damien Bianchi ~ @DamoB Regional Director of Client Strategy www.GlobalStrategies.com

About Me

Global Strategies International (GSI)

Enterprise Search Marketing Agency

What I Do:

Consult with Enterprise-level Search Marketing Programs

Spent 6+ years as a Flash Developer & Flash Dev Manager

Follow Me At:

@DamoB

My Work With Adobe

Adobe’s New SEO Technology Center - www.adobe.com/go/seo

How To Factor Search Into Your Interactive Strategy

How To Establish Search-Related Goals

How To Provide Alternative HTML Content for Search Engines

Code Samples and Examples

Importance of Unique URLs

Design and Animation Recommendations

How To Create XML SiteMaps

Other Helpful Tips

Uh Oh!... Flash & Search…

They don’t play well together, right?

Many opinions out there & Different techniques

Sure, it works if you enable:

Flux Capacitor + Christmas Lights + A Full Moon

What We Know

Dynamic content does not consistently get indexed.

Google does not index “deep links” within SWF applications

(# marked URLs)

It’s not just a Flash Challenge – indexing dynamic content is an issue with other technologies (AJAX, Curl, JavaFX, Silverlight, etc.)

New Adobe Flash Player For Search Engines is a step in the right direction.

Deep Linking Is Not There Yet One URL – multiple pieces of content Common Solution is to add # for deep linking

Great! So…. What Are We Supposed To Do?

This conversation tends to focus on the “accessibility” aspect of providing Search Engines with content they can understand.

Now that we know the challenges, you still need strategy…

Lets say you have answered YES to the following:

Flash Is a Must-Have For My Site My Flash Site MUST Rank In Search Engines +

What’s Your Strategy?

The fundamentals don’t change…

Always start with your business objectives:

You want to increase awareness of your products, solutions, or services

You are targeting a new audience that is not familiar with you

You want to take down your competition

Apply that to your web site objectives:

Flash is the medium that will give your audience the best branded experience

Must drive traffic to the important PLPs

10 Business-Critical Keywords = Rank in the Top 5

Push your competition off of the SERPs

Applying the Strategy with a Flash site Search Goals

1 - Drive traffic to the important PLPs

2 - Rank in the Top 5 for 10 Business-Critical Keywords

Site Architecture Decision = Must Establish 10 Unique HTML URLs

Applying the Strategy with a Flash site One SWF for Entire Site HTML URL #1 SWF shows content for Keyword #1 FlashVars = Show State #1 HTML URL #10 SWF shows content for Keyword #10 FlashVars = Show State #10 HTML Text <no script> HTML Text <no script>

Disney World is heavy Flash but…

Easy to navigate to all the inner pages

SWF Content

What the Search Engine Sees

Testing Is Easy

Turn off Javascript to test out your PLPs

Firefox Plugin – Web Developer Tool

Easy Content Maintenance Use XML data source for BOTH the HTML and the Flash content. Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) can be used to alter the format of XML data, either into HTML or other formats that are suitable for a browser to display. XML + XSLT = HTML XML SWF HTML Makes for easy maintenance and accuracy of content

Visual Site Maps

HTML Site Maps

XML Site Map - example

Process

To set up an individual Google site map requires the following:

Google Webmaster Tools account

List of pages on domain (or directory)

XML document of list (Sitemap Protocol 0.9) uploaded to root directory

Verification code (to ensure site owner is approving site map)

Search and Flash Nirvana HTML SWF HTML SWF HTML SWF HTML SWF HTML SWF HTML SWF HTML SWF HTML SWF HTML SWF HTML SWF

10 Unique URLs (1 for each Keyword)

XML SiteMap Points the Engine to your Unique URLs 1 - Unique URLs = Get Indexed, Link Building 2 - Content to crawl 3 - Keeps the Flash functionality and interactivity

Applying the Strategy with a Flash site

Organizational Tips: The Planning

In-House Flash Developers or Agencies – make sure they are up to speed with best practices

Search should ALWAYS be a part of the project “scope”

Ensure that your Developers are part of the initial planning stages and avoid oversimplifying the IA decisions like this:

FLASH CONTENT

Applying the Strategy with a Flash site

Organizational Tips: The Production Cycle

Developers should apply the best practices

Designers and Content creators should be on the same page regarding the Search Goals

Make strategic design decisions. Don’t “overdesign” the animation and transition effects between the PLPs since the browser will have to reload the SWF