I just passed my exam of Adobe Flash CS3 Certified Expert (ACE) and achieve a not so bad score of 92%… in 15 minutes (from the 90 minutes available).
Exam wasn’t hard but there still was some tricky questions.
Well, now it is time for the next one :-)
Congratulations to Cédric who did as well pass his exam!
Ahmet
Shari Thurow, the Founder and SEO Director of Omni Marketing Interactive wrote a very interesting answer in led-digest.com about the solution I blogged a while ago: ‘Holy Grail: SEO Model for Flash and Flex Content‘.
Here are a few quotes of her, with my answer below:
[...]as long as you are giving search engines one version of a Web page and users another version, then there is a problem[...]
I totally agree but are we talking about the presentation layer or the data layer?
Most websites content are saved on databases, then called whenever needed. Now if the server side technology used produce an XHTML or an XML, we agree that there is no differences?
The XSLT just load a SWF (a Flash or Flex application) on top of an XML. The SWF then use the data from the XML. Whether it is possible to add content on the XML that will never be used on the SWF is an ethical problem, not a problem of Flash. You can also use ‘badly’ the HTML attributes in normal way.
[...]There is the assumption that users want content delivered to them in Flash. I’ve seen Flash used well. I’ve seen Flash used poorly. Only once in my entire Web design career was it necessary for us to do an entire section of a site in Flash [...]
So in your opinion, if the Flash player penetration is above 90% it is because of this assumption? As you said, SWF can be used greatly or poorly and everything in the middle. I’m not a partisan of using SWF just for using it. The best technological solution must be used for the need of the users (not for the developers nor the marketers need). I don’t want to go through to much point but just think about data visualization, broadcasting (TV / sound) or experimental marketing.
I must accord you that SWF changed a lot recently (the last two years) and I understand that you didn’t had to use it before, but keep yourself ready :)
[...]Do they really usability test to determine task completion, efficiency, etc. in order to verify whether users really prefer Flash-delivered content or not? I’m sure there is a
rare few out there who do.[...]
Most of the usability testing that I made or that I read showed that people tend to be more comfortable in front of a UI (user interface) they already know. So obviously ‘traditional HTML’ is often plebiscite, but in terms of task completion, efficiency, UI learning curve, the SWF have an immense advantage: they can follow every move of a user, learn from his mistakes, make elements bigger, dynamically improve the UI to his needs. Doing this with ‘traditional’ web technologies is much harder (IMHO).
[...]I have the kahones to tell a Web site owner that their users do not want Flash and they should change the design. And I can prove it with usability testing.[...]
Again, you talk about usability testing as if it comes from the sky. As far as I know, before doing usability test, there is a reflexion about the UI (I cannot teach you what you know better than me). Usability is everywhere: in the bus, in your kitchen and in front of a screen. But I do really not see the point of aiming at the SWF.
Ahmet
The discussion about SEO (search engines optimization) and SWF content(from Flash or Flex) has been long and turbulent.
Fortunately this discussion is coming to an end as now a proven solution exists. I made yesterday a presentation about it at the Adobe User Group of Geneva.
Here is the solution I prefer: using XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) and transformation (XSLT) to rewrite an XML files containing data used in the SWF. As a result we got an HTML file for the search engines and a SWF for the human. Not clear?
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This diagram shows how XSLT is central to all the work.
How does it work?
You will need 3 files:
1) a .XML
2) a . XSL
3) a . SWF
Continue reading »
Update: I have presented a clearer model to help search engines index your Flash content with a minimal work.
‹!--url's used in the movie-->
‹!--text used in the movie-->
But it seems to be a very little help in that issue.
Another reasons is that search engine follow link and as they don’t understand the link in swf they just don’t see all the structure of your swf.
So what can we do for them?
I would say that it’s important to separate the content in different swf that would be loaded in a main swf. If this main swf is loaded once in “a.html” you don’t need to load it again in “b.html” (because it’s in your browser cache), which allow us to make our swf having a structure like: “mygreatdog.html”, “mygreatcat.html”, “blabla.html”. Doing so will make your site more understandable by search engines (who care about the page name), and as a bonus it will make the back and forward button works naturally.
To make your page understandable for search engines and with Flash on the same page is quite easy finally: my way is to make a transparent swf
‹param name="wmode" value="transparent" />
that would go over the content (placed with CSS) that must be understand by the search engines (like the title, some keywords or any important text). So in this case Flash is more here only to beautify your web content (which is not the main purpose of Flash or is it ?).
The bonus of using Css under a swf is that all accessibility standard from the browser will be saved (like making the text resizable, or making your text be read by voice application). By the way if a user don’t have the correct plugin or don’t have JavaScript enabled he will see the important part of your content and if he likes it, he‘ll be more willing to install the plugin.
Last bonus, your flash animation will be understand by the search engines, at least what you want them to understand.
Ahmet
