[CYoung]

Hi, my brother is very competent in building flash websites but I've heard that they aren't good for SEO etc.

Is this true? Are there major problems with flash sites?

Would he be better learning CSS in dreamweaver? Or both?

A lot of questions but I am looking to offer this and I want to be offering what will suit the customer best.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[socreative]

yeah flash only sites are a nightmare for SEO professionals.
I'd say your best bet is to use flash on the site for some elements like logo, banners, menu and have all the site sontent text be on the page in text format. It'll make the search engine robot happy :)

if you make a nenu in flash then it's a good practice to include a "copy" of the menu in the bottom of the page in plain <a href links

hope this helps

[CYoung]

My brother SEOs himself and says that he has had PR 1 for 2 of his 4 sites for relatively good keywords, but I don't want to go straight into it if it causes major problems.

Also, are flash sites ok to use with CMS? If so which do you find is the best for your clients?

Thanks

[Boss Hog]

Sites using bits n bobs of flash integrated look good, however, I would NEVER have a 100% flash based website, you need HTML content that the SE's can spider and index. Take note or you will regret this at a later date.

[CYoung]

Ok, thanks Boss. I'll let him know, he is pretty good with HTML too and I think for his own website he actually used both flash and html.

Thanks.

Is dreamweaver a suitable option as I have the newer version and he would be used to the older Macromedia versions, as it has been a few years for him :) I've got CS4 so presumably after a few months of getting to grips he should be pretty good with it?

[KevJaques]

why not get to grips using notepad or notepad++, much quicker ;)

[webasoft]

look up MICROSOFT SILVERLIGHT

[KevJaques]

Originally Posted by webasoft

look up MICROSOFT SILVERLIGHT

It's bloated and they did away with adhering to CSS standards, poor choice.

Look to the new HTML 5 and CSS3 for future stuff, there are already vector engines in js doing similar flash stuff, just dig around a little