google indexed home page .swf - don't want that!

[johnnygphotography]

Hello All,

It's nice that Google is indexing .swfs, but it's causing some problems here. The site I just completed is all html except for the home page, which has one main table containing the flash movie/intro home page info.

Google has indexed both the /index.html and the /movie.swf. If you click on the google link to the movie, it shows the flash by itself (no table or background), shows it twice the normal size, and displays everything that was left off the flash canvas that we are not supposed to see.

Is there a quick fix for this, besides not using flash intros? (client's choice).

Here's the search I did in google and it brought up that result:

auracle colour

Thanks so much,

Johnny G

[wige]

Probably the most effective way to get rid of the file would be to move it to it's own folder, and block the folder with robots.txt.

[BossWebmaster]

I always block all SWF, CSS, JS, and my images folder, just in case. Of course you may not want to block the images folder if you wanted them to show up in an image search engine.

[Orion]

Shouldn't use a flash intro but if you do same as above, block them using your robots.txt file.

[imvain2]

I know this is common sense, but make sure you have 404 setup, so when you move the file anybody that is accessing the old SWF file will be directed to the new home page.

[DanThies]

If you add the file to robots.txt (denying spiders access) you can wait for Google to drop it, or use the URL Removal Tool in Google's Webmaster Tools to remove it faster.

[Dubbya]

Yup, use your robots.txt file.

User-Agent: Googlebot 
Disallow: /*.swf$

Or if you want to disallow from all search engines:

User-Agent: *
Disallow: /*.swf$

Finally, you can use your Google Webmaster Account to expedite removal of the file from the index.

Go to Webmaster Tools and submit a "New Removal Request".

Enter the path to the .swf file and you're good to go.

[texxs]

Probably the most effective way to get rid of the file would be to move it to it's own folder, and block the folder with robots.txt.

absolutely correct!

Orion says:

Shouldn't use a flash intro

bad advice . . what kind of attitude is that "google doesn't like that so I won't"? No, just use flash wisely. ie, don't make it the only thing on a web page. You should have text too.

for instance you put all your text in the .swf, now that was foolish, you know search engines, vision impaired people, etc can't read that. Why would you put it there? Just have the .swf load an .html page after the intro is done.


You've really done the client a grave disservice the most important content in flash. It will never rank well in the search engines for keyphrases like "colour Therapy" or "color therapy".

Here's what every single search engine see's for content on the whole site (they follow the links from the index page). Ready:
"" that's it, they see what's between the quote marks there. Get it now? They see absolutely nothing, as in a blank web site, with no text and no links to follow.

[andyf]

Along with pdf files Google has started indexing these unnecessary file format which are not meant for spiders robots.txt can only help you for this.

[johnnygphotography]

Thanks to all who responded. I took all of your advice into consideration and created a new folder for all the swfs, uploaded the robots file blocking that folder, used the google webmaster tool to remove the url, and had the flash intro automatically load an html home page for better indexing.

The site is still in testing mode, but your help has been valuable!

Thanks again!

[DrTandem1]

What I find more interesting is this result for the search term in Google:

google indexed home page .swf - don't want that! - WebProWorld (client's choice). Here's the search I did in google and it brought up that result: auracle colour Thanks so much, Johnny G ...
google indexed home page .swf - don't want that! - 17 hours ago - Similar pages - Note this

[Dubbya]

Flash file content and links can now be indexed by Google!

Flash Files links and content Now Indexed by Google!

[khurramali]

another good idea to implement in all flash projects is to hide (opacity to 0%) the used or unused graphics in your flash content after moving them off scrren, or from the canvas.

[BossWebmaster]

Originally Posted by khurramali

another good idea to implement in all flash projects is to hide (opacity to 0%) the used or unused graphics in your flash content after moving them off scrren, or from the canvas.

what does that do?

[wige]

In the event that the movie is displayed in an incompatible way, or with changed parameters, it prevents the off screen objects from displaying.

[khurramali]

Originally Posted by wige

In the event that the movie is displayed in an incompatible way, or with changed parameters, it prevents the off screen objects from displaying.

thats what it does! basically