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How would one optimize a flash website that consists primarily of images and video and has minimal text (i.e. only navigation), without changing the visual design of the site?

If one were to use the object tag to provide a non-flash version of the site which used text to describe the images / videos seen in the flash version, that may be considered cloaking by Google. Is there a good way to add search engine friendly keywords to such a flash based multimedia website without risking cloaking related penalties?

broccoli_soup
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I would just make sure you have a good sitemap that includes all of the videos and images, which is going to be the main optimization. when that is done you can add alt tags for the images and (i believe) videos. I would just make a good headline/like 1 sentence of text for the videos, that kinda describes it. I wouldn't go so far as to summarize the whole thing.

xyious
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Putting alternative content within the <object> tag for your flash content is not cloaking and is actually good for accessibility. You should definitely do it. It's no coincidence that what is good for accessibility is also good for SEO.

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John Conde
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  • Do you happen to know of any official or well accepted guidelines for alternative content, e.g. how much text could you use to describe a video or an SWF in the object tag before its considered inappropriate? – broccoli_soup Jul 18 '11 at 01:14
  • There's probably no "hard" number. They probably use the same heuristics to determine if that content is spammy as they do any regular web page content. So just make sure it does an accurate job of providing alternate content that is a true replacement for the flash content and you will have nothing to worry about. – John Conde Jul 18 '11 at 01:21