Flash websites have been the fear of SEOs since the inception. Many of us have to constantly battle clients who want a pretty flash website and don’t want to understand the technical jibber jabber about why it’s not good for search engines. We try to explain as best as we can why “Flash sucks,” and why you should stick to HTML sites. But ultimately you can expect them to win with a simple argument: “But it looks so pretty.”

The truth is, there are some businesses that can benefit from a great visual presentation that a simple HTML site cannot give. If your niche is a high valued clientele, or you have a website that sells art or some other product that needs a great visual presentation, then getting a visually stunning site may be the priority. In the real world people do like pretty things that move.

There is a compromise that can be reached between Flash and SEO. The myth that anything flash is bad has to be broken. What is truly bad for SEO is a website that consists entirely of one Flash file. But if you’re a skillful developer who has SEO on his mind AND must meet the client’s demands for a visually stunning animated site, you can solve this by creating an HTML site and strategically integrating Flash files as well as aesthetic imagery into the site.

And if you already have an all Flash site, in most cases you can recreate the exact same thing with an HTML/Flash combination, and in others it would just take some design changes to achieve the goal.

Here are a few website examples that combine Flash and HTML into visually appealing sites that are also SEO-friendly.

The above are just a few examples of the techniques. They may not be appealing to all, but with a skillful designer/developer, the possibilities can be endless.

Here is a list of things to keep in mind for the developer, whether you’re creating a new HTML/Flash site or trying to fix the mistakes of the past by redoing an all-Flash website:

1. Create the navigation in HTML/CSS with real HTML URLs for each page (unlike in Flash where the whole website is on one page). There are plenty of free HTML/CSS navigational menus available on the web.
2. Have all the text in HTML/CSS on all pages (not within Flash files).
3. Place all the cool looking animations in Flash strategically throughout the HTML website so that it is seamlessly integrated with the rest of the site. Thus, instead of the whole website in one Flash file, you will have several Flash animations placed inside the HTML pages.
4. Use images and backgrounds creatively to visually fill in any disconnect between Flash and HTML. If you do this right, most of the casual users won’t be able to tell a difference nor will they care.
5. Javascript can also be used to move, hide or show navigation or sections of text, and many Flash sites use this technique. However, an important note here is that Javascript should ONLY be used to move the existing HTML sections. The text itself, as well as navigation and other links, should be in HTML so that they are visible in the source code (and thus read by search engines). If you hide the text and navigation within the Javascript, the search engines will not be able to read them and we are back at the same problem as we had with Flash.

Now, it may take a bit more time, and thus more budget to create separate Flash files, HTML and Javascript tricks. But if you’re a business that caters to high-end clientele and can afford it, the benefits should be greater than just an all-in-one Flash site.

After all, what’s the point of having the best looking site if nobody can find it?

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