Friday, October 9, 2009

How To Use Adobe Flash Within Web Pages Properly

By Bonita Li

The question is often raised during meetings with managers and business top dogs: Is it alright to have a flash animated web site? How do we use Adobe Flash properly to build a web site?

In case you are not acquainted with Flash, it is an animation software which is graphic-based and can make websites look fruitful and interactive. Flash is particularly good at developing different types of interactive content, such as product demonstrations and training modules. However, search engines such as Google cannot "index" the site if the whole site is built by Flash.

What is the meaning of 'index'? When you can left-click the text on a web site and see it highlighted in blue after dragging over it, the content is classified as 'indexable'. This is to say that the highlighted text and images or graphics of the site are located in various 'layers'. Only then can the text-based content be indexed by search engines, such as Google.

So, what exactly is Indexing? It is the process that Google uses to scan the important details of a website. Google would then store the details in their database for Google users to search websites by keywords. If you create the entire website using Flash only, the text on your web page would be layered into the graphics and Google would then not be able to index your website.

Google had no way to index the content of Flash websites in the past. However, Google and Adobe are working together to make indexing Flash websites possible, although no testing results have been announced yet. For this reason, it is better for you to use text-based content and prevent using Flash within web pages.

People like using Flash to create their websites as Flash does not only make a website look more attractive, the interaction that Flash can add to a website also appears functional for users. However, what Google is looking for is text-based content. Thus, there exists a trade-off.

Some websites may have two versions for users - "HTML Site" and "Flash Web Site". It can solve the problem of Google indexing but it also leads to another problem. With two versions, the web owner needs to govern two different websites and this creates excess burdens on the owner.

Flash has its own merits, but unfortunately also its downsides. What we are suggesting here is that you integrate Flash components into an HTML site. In this way, you will still be able to benefit from the interactivity and attractiveness of Flash, as well as letting Google index the text-based contents and put you in a higher rank under their search results. People who visit your site will not miss out on the stunning design. Visitors will continue to increase since your site is now indexable. Would that not be the best way to resolve all the complications?

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