Our Work
Case Studies
SAM
A Fully Searchable Flash Site? Absolutely!
Challenge: Macromedia Flash-a favorite tool of the industry used to create a rich, engaging online experience-is not fully searchable or accessible to users with disabilities and requires an experienced Flash developer to make even the most minor updates.
Solution: imc² created SAM, a proprietary solution that uses XHTML and dynamically injects the content into the Flash movie, solving many of the challenges typically associated with Flash.
Details
The project started out like any other¬-the client wanted imc² to create an engaging Flash-based site. While SEO, disability accessibility and maintenance were not expected, the imc² team embarked on a mission to exceed expectations and support the often divergent needs of good looks, full searchability and disability accessibility.
After exhaustive research and trial and error, the imc² team focused its efforts on a searchable, accessible, maintainable solution we came to call SAM. It uses XHTML to host the Flash movie (the display) and the Flash movie content. Additionally, the content is easily maintained by editing the text on the XHTML page, eliminating the need for a Flash developer because the Flash movie is never touched.
SAM represents a paradigm shift in Flash design: an immersive Flash experience-with no design compromises¬-that fully supports organic search indexing, excellent keyword indexing and full support of disability accessibility.
By creating the content once and deploying it through XHTML, imc²'s SAM solution delivers the content to a host of services and devices, making the typical challenges of a Flash site a thing of the past.
- Provides search engines easily indexable content in text form. imc² fully tested the site using a variety of tools that mimic the actions of search engines and report their findings with extremely positive results. Because the content is delivered through certified XHTML and is identical to that in the Flash movie, this solution is not considered cloaking or "blackhat SEO."
- Supports accessibility by presenting machine-readable text. An individual with a disability can easily navigate the content and share in the experience. Since accessibility is becoming a common mandate for clients and is increasingly becoming the focal point for lawsuits, this solution is invaluable.
- Minimizes maintenance costs, such as foreign language conversions, because content changes are made by editing a simple text file.
- Supports mobile devices by showing a page of formatted text. This is a good solution because text is the format of choice for mobile due to bandwidth constraints and screen sizes.
- Accommodates yet unreleased future devices and experiences if they support the standard XHTML format.
While others in the industry claim similar solutions, upon comparison, the search results of imc²'s site using SAM have far exceeded the results of other sites. This solution can be easily extended to support further separation of content from display elements, such as images, transitions and links. Also, it can easily be expanded to fully support complex Flash sites that require multiple levels of content, deep linking into the Flash movie itself and support for browser button control.
It is also possible to create a simple Web-based interface to the Flash movie that will allow updating and control of the site. SAM represents the opportunity for significant cost savings because a Flash developer does not have to make changes-anyone with proper authorization can, simply and quickly.
Results:
Since the site launched, the SEO rankings have been tracked regularly. Within seven days of launch, search results for top keywords on Yahoo! resulted in a top three placement. Google, with its popularity-based PageRank formula, yielded a listing on the first page of results.
imc² conducted a competitive analysis post launch, revealing remarkable results. When comparing the site to other Flash-based sites, the keyword density and content available for indexing is significantly greater than others.
See it for yourself! For an example of imc²'s breakthrough Flash work, compare www.IamsHealthyNaturals.com to other Flash-based sites using Feed the Bot: How to Follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines.
