Google Sees Flash. So What? - The Good and the Bad
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Even with the down sides, this is forward progress. Flash developers have been dealing with the “invisible content” issue for more than a decade, and this move is better than nothing at all. On the other hand, it does mean that you might have to do things a little differently.
Why is this necessary? Didn't I just say earlier that you wouldn't have to do anything special to make your SWF files visible? Yes, but you might now have to do something to make them invisible. You may unintentionally start showing Google some less than informative content, now that the search engine can see the text your visitors see. “If you prefer Google to ignore your less informative content, such as a 'copyright' or 'loading' message, consider replacing the text with an image, which will make it effectively invisible to us,” the search engine helpfully suggests.
There is something else you should keep in mind. Getting indexed is not the same thing as getting ranked. Google helpfully illustrates the difference between its old and new way of indexing flash files by showing an interesting pair of screen shots in its blog entry on the topic. The search performed was for “nasa deep impact animation,” without quotes. The “before” screen shot showed only the link and page title. The “after” screen shot included a reasonable blurb from the site. But here's something Google didn't show you:
The link that takes you to the actual animation is the fourth one down – and it's beaten by links to HTML pages. That's not a bad rank at all, but there's a lesson to be learned here: even when a searcher is specifically looking for an animation, you're likely to be beaten by an HTML page. So you'd better make sure that the HTML page you're beaten by is your own, as NASA did here. That first link takes you to a page that describes the animation, and features two links to it.
By the way, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. As a searcher, even if I'm looking for an animation or a video, I strongly dislike it when the item in question just starts loading right away. You can expect that your other visitors aren't thrilled about that either. So the things that you used to do to make sure your pages with animation will rank on the search engine results pages still apply.
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