Unless your business is one that doesn't need exposure on the internet, Search Engine Optimization is something that you need to think about. And, while some of the most technically impressive websites in the world are done almost entirely in Flash, the simple fact is that Flash Doesn't Index Well.

In simple terms, the information that you place in a flash file will not be accurately added to any search engine currently operating, and this is not likely to change anytime soon. Although Google's engine has started reading Flash files using an SDK, the future for Flash indexing is dim. While Google has occasionally made mention of future Flash projects, there are certain restrictions inherent to the format that preclude comprehensive text-searching.

In other words, you cannot rely on Flash content to make your site visible in the world of search engines. There are a couple of good reasons to believe that this may be the case for a long time.

No Flash Production Standards
In HTML and CSS, there are many clues for a crawler to follow to find out what is important. It can look for some of these tags in order to discern what ideas are being presented, and in what hierarchy:

<h1><h2><h3> - All may represent headlines
<title> - Gives the name of the page
<strong><i><b> - All indicate importance
<ul><ol> - Shows important items as a hierarchy
<alt> - Gives a description of an image

The only one of these that has an analog in Flash is the Title element.

Flash Compiling and Locking
If you've ever worked in Flash, you know that you have the option to lock your files. This encodes the entire document in a way that is easy for the interpreter to show, but very difficult for other designers to edit. Top designers use this method almost universally to protect their methods. But, continued usage of file-locking will only make things more and more difficult for search engines.


What now?
Unfortunately, your site is already built, and it's already completely made in Flash. What can you do? The simplest way to start is by crafting clever ALT tags for your flash applications. After that, pay close attention to all of your page titles. Even though their use is going out of style on some engines, META tags may still be of use to you. And, the trickiest, and maybe the most unpredictable, is using CSS's z-index attribute to simply hide some relevant text behind your flash elements. They will be well-indexed, and entirely invisible if done correctly.

Another great idea is to start a blog. This will give you the opportunity, over time, to write thousands of words about yourself, all dealing specifically with whatever message you want to project.