A leading SEO commentator has warned businesses not to include too many flash elements on their website if they want a well optimised website.

Jill Whalen, chief executive and founder of US-based High Rankings, says that whilst flash can be great for improving graphic design of a website, it can make it difficult for search engines to index the site’s content.

Here’s our top tips for using Flash, whilst retaining a well optimised website:

1. Don’t build entirely in Flash

Avoid encasing a whole website in flash - an entire site can be contained in a single .swf file, whereas traditional HTML websites can consist of hundreds of individual pages. This means that singular pages can’t be optimised for their relevant topics - which makes it difficult for search engines to pinpoint relevant areas of the website to Users.

2.  Don’t use Flash to build your navigation

Similarly - avoid using flash to build a site’s navigation - it is still unknown whether search engines can follow Flash links, as they do with html links. This can hinder a search engine comprehensively indexing a website.

3. Provide alternative content

Where a large amount of flash is used, alternate content should be provided for search engines to index, and also for Users who can’t view flash - for example those surfing the web on their mobile phones. We recommend placing your search engine text along with your Flash file into a HTML page.

However watch this space - as Adobe are currently in talks with Google and Yahoo! to make Flash content more accessible to search engines - which could completely change the playing field!