In the past people would request or make Flash sites simply because they looked good and not care about whether or not the site itself was findable or search engine friendly. As time passed people started to realize just exactly how much this was hurting their sites by being unfindable. As clients started to request Flash sites that were findable, web designers and publishers were often pulling out all their hair trying to figure out how to do this.

Some solutions came about for this problem, such as z-index layering. This was done by using z-index to place the Flash movie on top and placing all of the content behind the Flash movie, completely unnoticeable, but if Flash were turned off, there would still be content there.

However, the best solution was yet to come about. That solution was SWFObject. Created by Geoff Sterns, SWFObject offers a fantastic way to embed Flash content into HTML pages. It has a similar approach to the aforementioned z-index layering in that the target tag can contain content that’s keyword rich for search engines to hunt for. This will dramatically increase your search rankings and when users go to view your site, thinking it will simply be another ordinary site, they get slapped in the face (pleasantly, of course) with an awesome Flash movie.

If you’re still not convinced, you can take a look at the Google documentation for SWFObject2.

Tags: Findability, Flash, Geoff Sterns, SWFObject

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 10:37 am and is filed under Findability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.