How to have a SEF Flash website optimized for SEO
A Flash file is seen by search engines as a black box; they cannot read text. Since the content is inaccessible to search engine spiders, the traffic to your site is greatly reduced.
100% Flash based websites can be SEO friendly
Search engines are an essential part of the Web – users can find any information by simply typing a few keywords. It doesn’t matter if one doesn’t know a site’s URL. In many cases, even if users know the URL they will more likely type it in Google to ensure the spelling is correct, or just because it’s easier. Most 100% Flash-based sites only contain one HTML page. This creates a problem for site optimization because only one page can be referenced – one page with the content of the entire site.
Indexing Flash files with Google
Google also has a system for indexing Flash sites. Users enter a search term in Google along with the file extension “.swf” and the search engine only displays Macromedia files. For each result, [Flash] appears before the name of the site. However, this indexation method is not suited for 100% Flash-based sites. When Google indexes Flash elements, it does not reference every element of design or content. Therefore, users only see part of the site; images, menus and other elements can be noticeably missing, making the site look incomplete.
A modern approach to SEO
Whether or not a site is SEO friendly depends on the site’s architecture. The key to creating a site visible to search engines is to build the site in layers. First, create an HTML structure that is legible by search engines with content (text, headings, links, etc.) that can be viewed by text browsers or by users that do not have Flash Player installed. This approach must also include a Flash file that can act as CSS for rich content. This will enable Web spiders to read the content and links, which can also be optimized for each specific subject. The best way to layer Flash over your HTML structure is to use JavaScript or a Flash detection system, such as SWFObject or UFO. This technique allows users who do not have Flash to browse your site with a mobile and access the entire content of your site. To test this method, view your site though a text-only browser, or a browser with images and with JavaScript disabled; you should still be able to see your site’s text and navigation.
External content
One of the most important points when using this technique is to ensure that the primary content displayed in Flash is exactly the same as the HTML, which means that the content must be external from Flash. It can be stored in a database, an XML or any CMS, then be extracted with any server technology, such as .NET, and pushed through the HTML. Next, SWFObject replaces the content only if JavaScript is enabled along with the required Flash plug-in, and if Flash requests the exact same centralized content. This ensures that if any changes have been made, the Flash will display the exact same content found in the HTML version.