how to promote site designed in flash

i have to do promotion of my site having developed in flash how ?

[rita vasyani]

i have to do promotion of my site having developed in flash what are the tips which should be kept into mind so that site is best indexed with suitable keywords.

[Macguru]

Hi rita,

Welcome to WmW.

Unfortunatly, 100 % Flash sites don't do well anywhere. The best tip is to make a plain vanilla HTML version and let users decide what they want to see. Later stats will prove that over 80% of users will pick the HTML version.

It's a win win situation where you make your site indexable to search engines and give visitors what they want.
Cloaking can be a more expensive option.

Good luck!

[tonyperry]

Rita
don't waste your time on flash. Looks great but that's about all. I have had to deal with lots of clients who wanted flash simply because their teenage kids thought it was cool! These people would'nt make a normal business decision on this basis and the internet is no different. Give your users what they want, usefull content.
Tony

[Macguru]

Flash can be a great addition to a 'normal' site. Some markets (like teenagers and GFX artists) are better to use it. It can also do a good job when used with moderation here and there in a HTML site.

The point is it must be a complement to HTML.

[gsx]

PPC engines. :)

[fathom]

Hi Rita,

A flash isn't search engine friendly because the bot can't read the dynamic code. However, this doesn't mean you can't promote this site.

Flash is a wonderful attention grabber and also adds alot to a web sites usability.

You have two choices for promotion.

If you believe that the current demonstrates added value to your potential markets (as is) I recommend that you use your flash site as a branding site and start a second one (new domain, new hosting) build this one in HTML and direct a number of related pages (or topics) that can use the flash site as an demonstration model. Since flash is self contained and very easy to reproduce a new model each month or two will help keep visitors who are entering from the HTML, interested and coming back.

If you don't have the budget to purchase a new domain and host ... no problem! Take your flash site and move it into a sub-directory and do the same as above, build around it and direct a number of related pages (or topics) that can use the flash site as an demonstration model. One important point here, you shouldn't use the flash site as the main page since this will become the most important page of your site from a search engine perspective so bots will need to be able to read this page.

Good luck!

Rod

[Robert Charlton]

Even if you could attract people to your search engine-invisible site, you might have a hard time getting them to stay.

Flash takes a lot of bandwidth, and most Web users are still on dial-up modems. So a Flash site will be slow. Some Flash sites won't play on dial-up at all.

There's also another time factor with Flash... the time it takes a Flash presentation to play. This may be more than many Web surfers bargain for. If your audience is looking for information, they may not be willing to sit through 10 or 20 seconds or more of animated text, however jazzy. I think the novelty factor has worn off. I'd recommend building an HTML site as your main site and offering a link to the Flash version as an option.