Flash is nice, but if you're playing SEO, I really do not recommend flash. There are several disadvantages of using flash. I will share with you my personal experiences and opinions

First of all, flash is NOT a web standard for global web browsing. In fact, most organizations ditch flash permanently because they can promote security breaches which creates unnecessary hassle. This said, u will lose a handful of clients who don't have flash installed on their machines.

Second, flash takes time to load. For little banners and headers, they can take up to a few seconds. For a full flash site, it can take a few minutes - and not everyone has that much patience. I'm talking in the perspective of DSL users and not those who have quick connections of course. You still lose impatient users for this reason.

Thirdly, the text you have on your flash file does not get indexed on search engines. You lose a lot of SEO from here. What will be indexed form the flash file is just the embed text and unnecessary stuff which you don't even want the search engine to index.

Fourth, flash can be a huge hassle when it comes to future changes. You have to dig through the fla again if you are not using XML or database driven application (which is another huge load of work) and recompile into SWf, reupload and bla bla bla..Tonnes of processes..

Fifth, flash keeps changing all the time. From old flash, came actionscript, then actionscript 2.0. Not to mention old tags getting deprected and new ones replacing them. This will consume a lot of time keeping yourself updated to the latest syntax.

Need more reasons? I hope that was enough to make it clear for you. Do keep in mind, this is based on my opinion and experience only

Cheers~

Wow,

Thanks for your help on this. Didn't know that it's that messy to start Flash site..Hmmm yet people are still designing it?

I am not sure why but it's does do really nice site if not because of these reasons.

However just to confirm whether is it possible to create a blank html page [For On-Site SEO and enable google to read my site] and paste the flash into the site?

Can it be done? Appreciate your help on this as i wish to understand whether for Flash seo is it done this way? Thanks

I will say the most important aspect is what is your market?
If you use little flash it will not hurt your SEO.

I see so many games sites that is all about flash.
The reason is the people they market is people that want to see the game in action.

In today video is a must on a site or any interactive that can expose your brand or company better.

Hope this helps but it is hard to give you other advice with out knowing your market or url of the site you building.

I see so many SEO experts there site rank well but they have no sale conversion.

So it is very important to design your site to your clients or customers. What they want. Also look at the SEO guidelines as well.

Your SEO Plan: Optimizing Flash Files for Search Engines => This might help.

Hi there,

thanks for the links. Will have to read through, Thanks!

Hi xbokcom,

Really thanks for the link that you gave me. Which give me a better understand of flash if i intend to use it.

Just want to check - as it's mention on 'Focus on off-page factors', does it mean that even thought we have a single html page for flash. If we continue to build backlinks for different keywords. It's able to rank highly.

Am i right to say that?

It totally depends Spark.
If you build backlinks from flash, search engines that index that site being backlinked will be able to identify that its coming from you. But when it lands on your site, it will not have much information about your site. It wil basically just "guess" what your site is about. Its really not worth the whole hassle using flash. Of course, if its just header, banner, or perhaps just an advertisment, then flash really adds a sweet touch to your site. But using it as a whole is not recommended for SEO

Use Flash IN your site, not AS your site. TheLimeDesign's first response says it very well.

Ic, then i will not be putting flash as the main site then. Thanks guys!