Site Architecture - FLASH menus driving HTML content?

[hothousegraphix]

I'm not quite sure if this is the best FORUM for this question...but...here it is -

My question revolves around the conventions used when employing FLASH menus that are designed to navigate through HTML content.

The architecture I’m most familiar with is the use of HTML FRAMES to implement this type of structure. One frame receiving the .swf menu, the other/s receiving HTML content dictated by the FLASH menu.

I’m wondering if there are any other approaches to this type of layout that differ form the technique described above. If so, what would they be and how are they implemented.

The other aspect to this question is how the set up a FRAMES document to be search engine compatible; i.e. to ensure that the FRAMES document that carries the content pages (the holder for lack of a better description) is the page that becomes the URL registered rather then the documents that contain the content. This seems to be a problem with this type of architecture. I’m wondering if anyone has a clue how to work around this situation.

THANKS IN ADVANCE!

[Ask The Geezer]

If your going to depend on search engine ranking for your site, then using flash navigation AND frames is like cutting your throat then hanging yourself. It's something not to be done. Look around, do some searches. Then count how many frames sites are in the top 5 positions. Or even 10. There's a good reason for that. And only one spider created by man has yet been able to peek inside a swf file and follow links. And it didn't know how to use the information.

You can offset the downside of Flash navigation by creating a site map page and putting an html link to it high on the home page. But the truth is, spiders like html links that go back and forth through all your site pages, from every page. Or, use paid listings like at Overture. Then it doesn't matter at all. You buy the keyword you want to be #1 under.

[hothousegraphix]

Thanks for the response -

After looking around, I seem to be seeing sites that employ FLASH menus that simply load the requested menu item into the same browser window. Each item being a page unto itself, set up using tables and reserving a spot/cell for the menu that loads in with each page (I hope that made sense). Would this approach be more search engine friendly then the frames approach.

On an aside - do you mind if I e-mail you privately to Enquirer about you optimizing service?

Thanks

[Ask The Geezer]

What you see on those sites is two flash movies on the same page. They use something called localConnection(). This allows two separate flash movies to talk to each other. I've never messed with it, but it does work.

But again, the search spiders can not read what is inside a swf. It can't follow links to other pages if the navigation is flash. And those sites probably have only one or two pages anyway. No way can they compete with an html site of 10 or more pages. Each page would have it's own meta-tags and content and each can be optimized to compete for #1 using more keywords. In an html page, any page that gets clicked on, brings a potential client into the website. Once in, they can be directed to or navigate to all the rest of the site. You can see the advantage.

Sure, Send mail from my sites contact page, or use the PM button in my posts.

[nubz]

I say drop frames and have your flash menu in every page (should cache and not waste bandwidth) - i have done this and had very good google results (number one for some terms) for the site as a whole - but I was not expecting each page to be indexed as it was a full-on dynamic site anyway.