Can Flash hurt your ratings ?

[JimC99]

How do the search engines handle Flash sites?
Do they index them at all ?
If not, what can you do, if you must have Flash ?

Any advice appreciated
Jim

[Jacob Stetser]

Search engines will index all non-Flash content. That is, if the only way to get from the front page of your site to the inside is through flash, you're out of luck.

Have you considered using Flash as an accent to an HTML page rather than a replacement? Personally, I really like what Flash can do, but I don't think the plug-in is widespread enough for general use yet.

Jake

[Rich]

You might also try creating an html-only page with the links, if any, that the flash page uses. For search engines that only allow one page submission and then spider to your other pages, you can submit this "substitute" page instead. Also, since Flash Splash pages (say that 10 times real fast) generally do not have much text on them, you can add more textual "meat" to this alternate page for better rankings. For search engines that allow you to submit multiple pages, just submit all your non-flashed pages.

Rich
http://www.positiontips.com