FINDABILITY 101|Lakeshia Burnside

Two of my biggest concerns when building a all flash base site or flash site at all. Is, will the search engine be able to read my content and find it and will my xhtml valid while embedding Flash SWF objects?

But there is a way to keep valid xhtml and also have findable flash content. Its by using the swf-object model and the <object> verses the <embed> which is no longer valid by W3C standards. You are on the right path to having findable flash.

So when you embed flash your code should look like this:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
data="c.swf?path=movie.swf"
width="400" height="300">
<param name="movie"
value="c.swf?path=movie.swf" /></object>

Now when developing pages that use SWFObject, you should start with your html content first. Get your pages working without your Flash movies, then add them in later with little JavaScript snippets that replace your alternate content with the Flash movies. This way viewers will see your flash content as normal. But search engines will read your html content. It like giving search engines x-ray vision to flash.

SWFOBJECT

Using SWFObject is easy. Simply include the swfobject.js Javascript file, then use a small amount of Javascript on your page to embed your Flash movie.

Example of the code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>

<div id=”flashcontent”>
This text is replaced by the Flash movie.
</div>

<script type=”text/javascript”>
var so = new SWFObject(”movie.swf”, “mymovie”, “400″, “200″, “8″, “#336699″);
so.write(”flashcontent”);
</script>

Helpful resources for making flash findable:

SWFObject Code

Vaild xhtml and flash

Emedding flash and keeping standards

SWFObject: Javascript Flash Player detection and embed script