Macromedia Flash is one of the coolest applications to ever hit the web. With scalable vector graphics, animation, sound, and its own programming language (actionscript), it's a powerful design tool. But before you jump on the Flash bandwagon, you should know that there's one problem with it: search engines don't like. In fact, most ignore it completely.

Search engines are primarily interested in text, and for them to index that text, they have to be able to see it. Text in a .swf file might as well be under lock and key - it will never be found, read, or indexed by most search engines. Any URLs linked to from a Flash file will not be found either - so if your site uses a Flash navigation bar you are in trouble.

If you are designing in pure Flash, you can pretty much forget any search engine referrals. Of course, not all sites need search engine exposure - some can benefit from offline advertising, others from reciprocal links to the site, and the best Flash sites often propagate through the web community through their sheer wow factor alone.

If you do decide to design a site with Flash, make sure you include page titles, meta tags, keywords, and noframes text where appropriate to increase search engine positioning. You should also provide normal HTML links to all the pages on your site, and if possible make an alternate HTML version of the site available. Not only will the search engines love you for it, but people who don't have flash, or have low speed internet connections, will be able to easily view the site's contents.