Internal Linking Structure Elements Strategy - Animation and Flash Navigation
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Macromedia and its flagship product, Flash, has redefined the limitations of the Web. Flash has taken Web design to levels once thought unachievable. Web designers can create, publish and transmit high definition, motion filled, colorful animations to a broad Internet base without running into the pitfalls of bandwidth limitations and browser support. Flash has undoubtedly changed the Internet forever.
Flash Web sites tend to be one of the worse types of Web sites in terms of search engine visibility. Most search engine spiders cannot read the contents within the SWF (file extension for published Flash files) files. Google and FastSearch are able to read the URLs within a Flash file, but nothing more at the time this article was written. That is why it is important when creating Flash sites to also create a simple but text rich HTML Web site for spiders and for Web users that prefer the less eye-candy media.
There are several ways to use Flash within a site's design that can help reduce the negative qualities of the Flash files. The first method is to use a partial flash site and partial HTML site. Many sites opt for this solution because you can have the eye-candy with the benefits of the HTML site. A second method is to create a splash page that gives the user the ability to choose either an HTML version or a Flash version. This solution is very common as well. The spiders will eat up (no pun intended) the HTML version while your Web visitor will be dazzled by the Flash version. The third method to combat the illegibility of the Flash files is to use the noscript tag or noframe tag when using a flash only site. This is however not the best method and one should only use these tags when there is no other option.
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