Can Flash Sites Be Optimized?

[Davaris]

I was thinking about getting a Flash template for my new site, but I don't know if the search engines will be able to find my webpage content. Is this a problem with Flash sites?

[DGuy]

Yes, it will be a problem: any site content inside a SWF file will not be searchable/indexable by search engines.

Macromedia was working, or trying to work, with search engine companies to remedy this situation, but their efforts had yet to yield any results.

Things may have changes in the passed few months since I last heard any thing about this specific topic. If you have not already, check the Macromedia site, particularly the developer areas, for possibly more updated information.

HTH,
David

[papillon]

Also, snooty people (and paranoid people) will just ignore your site if they go there and it's blank-without-flash. Or just a giant "loading" screen that takes forever to bring up the super-cool site... unless I have word of mouth to tell me that it's WORTH the five minute wait, I'm leaving. :)

So make sure you still have an alternate site layout available. It's not that hard to stick in a bare bones text version for those who hate flash or are in a hurry...

[Yossarian]

One trick you can use is to put in hidden divs that contain your text content, but that don't display ( style="visibility:hidden" ). This way your content is still searchable and readable by the search engine bots, but not actually visible on your layout, so you can still go with 100% flash.

Alternatively, just incorporate some actual text into your layout that resides outside of the flash, along with several links to any of your important internal pages. Some sites have accomplished this nicely with a horizontal style layout, with title and keywords displayed above the flash section, and links and a small about text blurb below.