Danny Sullivan wrote an article today describing Flash optimization and how it is unlikely that Flash will be a completely spiderable medium anytime soon. The article is sobering for those of us who were hoping for a 100% optimizable version of Flash, but at the same time I must stress that there are ways to optimize around Flash if no other alternative is possible. Danny points to a blog describing Flash workarounds that I had not previously seen and I enjoyed a great deal.
All-in-all I consider Flash an amazing technology that can add immense value to a website. That said, if organic rankings are desired it is my preference that Flash be added as a page element versus being the entire website. Flash-only websites are not impossible to optimize but they are extremely undesirable in my opinion because spiderable, optimized content must be hidden in the background of the page (the source). Managing hidden content essentially doubles the work of managing a website because both the Flash and the hidden website needs to be kept current.
Related SEO Material:
Is Your Website Search Engine Friendly? Your Personal Checklist is an article I wrote recently describing the various search engine friendly design techniques that can improve a website’s chances for rankings.