SWFObject url redirect SEO

Question

Hi,

I have a flash site that do a detection if the browser has Flash or not.
If it doesn't, it will redirect to a /no_flash_content

Typically I'd put the alternate content on the same page and I know search engine will catch that content if we do it this way.
In the case of doing a redirect to a no flash html page, if there is no Flash, would search engines get to see the HTML content as well?

Thanks,
Tee

Answer 1

Usually, internet bots like Google Bot cannot be redirected by a client javascript redirection, such a Flash Object identification. Just server redirection.

You have a few options as follows:

1. Identify in your server-side the visitor user agent. There is a few public bots names that you can compare. And display the HTML content if the user agent matches with any internet bot.

2. Leave a HTML link to the alternate HTML version as well. Bots will follow your link automatically.

3. Ask the Flash guys how to make your flash swf search able. There are some tricks that allow bots to access the text content in your SWF object.

   But it's very important to NOT hide the HTML text (like place an invisible div behind the Flash object). Smart bots like Google Bot has algorithms that could flag your site as a link juice spammer. So place at the same page could not be a good option ;)

   A good tool that I could suggest: Google Webmaster Tools. They have a option that allow you to fetch your page as Google Bot, very useful to test!