Google just changed something about their search results. They are now adding warnings to search results which may be preventing people from clicking onto your website. This isn’t a penalty for breaking the rules or doing bad stuff. It’s a perfectly legit thing that many people do on their websites.
So what is it?
Flash ®.
Yep. If you use Flash ® on your website, Google is now putting a warning for your website in their search results whenever someone searches on a mobile device. It’ll be something like this:
“Uses Flash. May not work on your device. Try anyway | Learn more.”
So, why are they doing this and what do you need to do about it?
I’ll tell you all about that and the other things you need to know about what’s been going on in this month’s SEO update video:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMRbkzsgm-8
“Hi, I’m Kurt Steinbrueck with OurChurch.com and this is your SEO update, keeping you informed ” For a full transcript, click here.
Share Your Thoughts:
- What do you think of Google’s warning? Is it fair? Would you change your website because of it?
- Have you been working with Google Authorship? What do you think about the removal of your picture?
OurChurch.Com Director of Marketing Services
Kurt serves as OurChurch.Com’s Director of Marketing Services, bringing over 20 years of expertise in search marketing, and has developed numerous marketing services and served hundreds of churches, schools, ministries, and businesses.
He has authored more than 500 articles on the subject, contributing to platforms like the Christian SEO Guys blog and Church Marketing University, and is an active participant on LocalSearchForum.com.
In addition to his professional accomplishments, Kurt is an ordained minister, serving as pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Wesley Chapel, FL, demonstrating his commitment to both faith and community. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree from Georgia Southern University. He also holds a Specific Ministry Pastor Certificate and a General Pastor Certificate from Concordia Seminary.
5 Comments
I didn't see this sign yet
That's good. Do you have Flash on your site? If so, you may want to be proactive about changing over to something else, like HTML5. If you don't have Flash on your site, you have nothing to worry about.
To be honest, if you run a site for business then theres no excuse not knowing the downside to using Flash where seo is concerned. With regards to mobile devices Android stopped officially supporting Flash sometime ago instead opting to support HTML5.
So I don't believe this is Google penalizing sites (And believe me I'n no Google supporter) instead it could be considered to be a bit of ignorance from webmasters who should know what's going on.
I agree that it isn't a penalty (I don't think I called it that), but I do know that many business owners and ministry leaders don't keep up with things like whether Flash is compatible with mobile devices. You could certainly argue that they should, but also keep in mind that in many ministry/church situations, a volunteer may have built the site (maybe years ago) and that volunteer may not be the one that maintains the site and may even no longer be a part of the ministry/church. The ministry leader or pastor may not be interested/able to keep up with all the trends. Hopefully, a message like this video (and our other updates) will make them aware of the issue and at least prompt those people to look into whether their site is using Flash.