Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Accessibility

SEO is a major buzzword in most marketing departments. Organizations want to be #1 on Google and some will spend millions of dollars a year trying to get there. Unfortunately for Flash – its not that friendly to Search Engines, as most of the elements that make up a flash movie are graphic-based – and most search engines can only read text-based items. So while its fine for you to put up a custom Flash animation on your site, don’t expect it to boost your Search Rankings. (Note: Search engines can read text-based Flash Elements, but since most people use graphics in their flash movies, its a moot point).

The second issue for Flash is that it is not very ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) friendly, precisely the reason why its not SEO friendly – text vs.graphics. Since most screen readers, software that visually impaired people use to browse the web, have a hard time deciphering graphics, they also have a hard time reading Flash movies. Now, while you might not have too many clientele that have visual issues, there are many people that do and if you care about attracting these people, then you really should consider providing them with screen-readable content. This may mean creating an alternative to your flash movie or ditching Flash entirely

Even worse for Flash is that HTML 5 is all text-based, screen readers and search engines will love it. Even with the newest features in HTML5, it will still be a very text-friendly platform and have far more SEO and accessibility benefits than Flash currently can provide.

If you can get the same look and feel using HTML5 that you can in Flash, what would you choose?

Can Flash Survive?

So is Flash doomed? In my opinion, no, I think there will be a spot for Flash on the web for many years to come. For one, some people will just prefer using it over anything else and secondly it still has a year or two to figure out how to combat HTML5 before HTML5 really becomes a viable alternative in the marketplace.

Adobe has been here before. A couple of years ago when bad Flash movies or entire Flash-based sites were all over the web, a HUGE backlash against anything Flash ensued. People were tired of cheesy animations and long load times. It was hunted down by usability consultants and almost became extinct.

Eventually Flash found its niche, animations on some pages started to spring back up and the biggest benefit for Flash came when online videos took off (Flash is one of the best video compressors for the web). This rebirth of Flash made it cool to be a Flash Developer again and with Flex and ActionScript 3.0 being strongly considered some of the best web application tools around, it once again has a solid reputation in the web world.

My feeling is that Flash is going to have to be reborn again within the next 3-5 years and I think Adobe can pull off another recreation of a product it bought out from Macromedia years ago. Even if it doesn’t change much, it will still be around – just in a much smaller role.  And maybe - Adobe’s future is in developing a 3D web platform – as mentioned in a blog post on July 8th.

As for Apple in all of this, its just very strange that a company would not support a development tool that could potentially help their sales. This makes me think that there is more to this Flash vs. Apple battle than meets the eye. Apple and Adobe have too long of a history together for Apple to just dump them.

So What are your thoughts?  Will Flash live on? Or does Adobe need to face the fact that Flash is on it’s death-bed?