AJAX vs Flash, an SEO perspective

There is still a perception out there by some web developers that Flash isn’t a serious tool for creating dynamic websites.

For years the main knock against Flash is that it isn’t search engine friendly. That’s true. It can be overcome to a degree but it is a limitation. That limitation has lead a large crowd of web developers to pass over Flash as a possible option for their websites.

But when Web 2.0/AJAX came along many of these developers jumped all over it. Which is great. Utilizing AJAX is a huge improvement to the functionality of many web sites out there. I’ve seen some incredible work done. What gets me is that AJAX is just as limited in SEO terms as Flash is. But, AJAX isn’t Flash so it’s okay.

So if you’re going to build a site that is going to rest on dynamic data there is no reason to ignore Flash. Not so say that Flash will be the best option for every site. One good reason to use AJAX is that you might have a house full of HTML/CSS/Javascript experts on hand but no one who is solid in Flash. Well, that pretty much makes your decision for you. But if you’re looking to have a site built and you don’t come with any baggage then Flash pretty much stands out. There are a growing number of developers out there who can leverage the power of Flash and the Flash player continues to grow more and more powerful with more features and the adoption rate is so fast that it even astounds the guys at Macro’dobe.