Hi Scott, SEO is a very dynamic area and unfortunately most SEO specialists that I know rely on a range of outdated SEO techniques.
I have always believed that the following 3 rules are the way to go in both the short and the long run: 1. Use web authoring best practices (maybe I am not the most objective person to ask, but I qualify SWFObject as a best practice web authoring technique). Search engine vendors are likely to comply with them and respect them in the future. 2. Don't rely on tricks, especially when they are bad web authoring practices. These may work in the short term, but carry the risk to be penalized in the future, and it results in a badly authored web page (e.g. one SEO specialist once told one of my clients to put every header inside a H1 tag, a bad authoring practice that only had effect for a short while). 3. Follow the web authoring guidelines of the search engines you would like to support. Regarding your questions: 1. I have just handed in an article to be published on Adobe Devnet that discusses the use of alternative content and also focuses on creating search engine-friendly content (as a part of SEO). So keep an eye on Adobe Devnet :-) 2. Always providing alternative content via a noscript tag is a false generalisation that cannot be quantified. Also the use of noscript is an outdated practice that modern JavaScripters advise not to use anymore: - http://www.wait-till-i.com/2005/06/21/six-javascript-features-we-do-not-need-any-longer/ - http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/replacing-noscript-with-accessible-un/ 3. Both Adobe and Google have accepted SWFObject including the use of alternative content as a good practice mechanism to insert Flash content, e.g.: - http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/06/improved-flash-indexing.html One reason for this is that alternative content is the most logical way to provide web content to people/programs with lesser technology support, which is potentially a larger group than the group than the one that is able to see Flash content, because besides desktops you also have to consider people browsing the web on devices. In any case, in your discussion with your SEO person, please use my tips or one of the following links: - http://www.hochmanconsultants.com/articles/seo-friendly-flash.shtml - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloaking (especially read the progressive enhancement part) Go ahead, slap him. And let us know how it felt ;-) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SWFObject" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/swfobject?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
