by samFlash has long been adopted by web developers as a means of creating attractive and interactive web content. However, a potential alternative has arisen as Adobe has released a preview of their new ‘Edge’ service to operate alongside Flash. Edge aims to allow web creatives to create basic graphical web content with standard forms of coding (HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript). This means that content will be viewable on most browsers and mobile platforms as well. The adoption of a service such as this could bode well for those in SEO, as content would be easier to optimise.
Flash’s graphical nature makes it difficult for search engines to distinguish content; it makes little use of standard text. Often, the textual elements are fragmented so that they may incorporate animation. This makes many of the search engine pandering elements of SEO (keywords, anchor text, headings, etc.) more difficult to pick up on. Also, many mobile devices (including those that have Apple iOS-enabled) don’t support Flash, which means that depending on the device, many Flash-based Internet marketing efforts will be lost on mobile users.
If Adobe Edge were to take off as an alternative to Flash, there would be positive implications for SEO and online marketers who have previously struggled to increase the search visibility of their content. Through the use of standard web formats, animated content will become increasingly ‘crawlable’. We could see a greater number of animated and interactive websites climbing the SERPs. Higher levels of traffic could be expected from those browsing from mobile devices, as animated landing pages (and other content) will be more accessible.
Adobe doesn’t want to replace Flash, but this is surely dependent on the success of ‘Edge’ and the further proliferation of HTML5. The animating capacities of Edge might be limited as it’s just started, but as the service develops, it may become a more convenient alternative, especially for those wishing to optimise their online marketing campaigns for search engine-driven traffic.