A website that is designed in Flash, which is essentially an online interactive movie, is virtually invisible to search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. Just as a search engine can’t see the words in an image, it can’t see the text in a Flash website. So it is left with the title, url and meta tags to know how to index the site. The result is often a website which doesn’t show up well for relevant searches.
A better use for Flash is as an element in an HTML coded website. Whether it is a music or video player, navigation or some graphic animation, Flash is best used as an embedded object in an HTML page. This way the content of your site is readable to search engines which will greatly improve your ranking for relevant searches.
There are situations where building a site in Flash is the right choice. Artists and designers will find its flexibilty useful for demonstrating their work. Also destination or “buzz” sites where users are being directed to the site, thereby circumventing search engines, can use Flash effectively.
As many businesses are learning a good ranking in major search engines can be as valuable as a large Yellow Pages listing. So whether you are re-building or cleaning up your site make sure you are considering how search engines will see your website. We can help getting your site properly coded for search engines even if we aren’t doing the web design.
