Special offer

Another Interesting And Possibly Awesome Google Change

By
Real Estate Agent with thredUP.com

It's always fun to see how changes are made to websites in general while searching around for anything.  I remember when Flash Intros were the popular thing to do...then we realized that Flash Intros did not help AT ALL for Search Engine Optimization.

Every industry with a website started taking them away unless they pretty much were really large Corporations that got tons of visitors anyhow.

I remember when I first started a site (that is currently down because I am changing it) GreenHoustonHomes.com - I had this really awesome Flash Intro!  I loved it!  But I wondered why I could not for the life of me get it to the First page of Google. 

Remembering what I had heard about Google not being able to spider Intros I removed it and it hit the first page in less than a week.  Sad, but Hey - What good is a site if no one finds it right?

Well, my Family and I went to San Antonio for the weekend and got back late last night.  It was Easter Sunday and not everything was open so I went to Google to see if my Favorite Breakfast Restaurant was open.  (Mi Tierra in El Mercado) Yummy!

I searched the Restaurant to find the phone number to see if they were open and this is what I found:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skip Intro?  Wow.  So we can use Flash Intros now?  Does anyone know if this has to be done on the Site Map or does Google Automatically recognize Flash Intros now? 

Anyone want to be the Guinea Pig and try it out?  ;0)

Comments (5)

Maggie Dokic /Indialantic | 321-252-8696
Magdalena Dokic - Indialantic, FL
Selling the beach in Florida's space coast

Steph, I wonder how this is going to affect SEO?  I always did like the way flash intros looked.

Apr 13, 2009 04:07 AM
Stephanie Edwards-Musa
thredUP.com - The Woodlands, TX
knitwit at thred UP

Hey Maggie, I would think that it would help tremendously...especially if someone has a flash intro.  But I don't know.  I was hoping someone may have the answer.  :)

Apr 13, 2009 04:08 AM
Steve Shatsky
Dallas, TX

Hi Stephanie... it's funny... you are the second person in a week to point that out to me.  I am not sure what the SEO impact will be, but if you find out anything I would be anxious to know!

Apr 13, 2009 06:07 AM
Lance Sonka
New Homes Sales - Huffman, TX

Hi Stephanie: The "skip intro" is a common link developers began placing on many flash presentations to spare returning website visitors from watching the same thing for the 100th time.

Since flash content traditionally has not been easily indexed by search bots, therefore this sparce bit of html (a text link) is about the only thing for the search engines to "index" on that page.

Good news though! Flash is the most widely used format for serving videos online; and since that is such a massive draw to high-speed internet users, search engines and web developers alike are devising new ways to "read" into the audio track of the flash presentation code and extract, then convert the content into a machine readable text.

This means those cool flash apps will be coming back strong in a year or two!

Apr 21, 2009 01:39 PM
Maureen McCabe
HER Realtors - Columbus, OH
Columbus Ohio Real Estate

Things have changed.  I was reading something that I did NOT understand... way over my head on Google (from Google) but it was about how search engines can NOW see Flash or will be able to read it soon.... and how what was not good three years ago will be fine in the future. 

Apr 25, 2009 04:03 AM