SWF Metadata in Macromedia Flash 8

The search engine optimization is of key point to the work out of every single web site and with this the major thing to take care of while starting up a website it to make it a lot easier to be indexed. Herewith, the latest added feature of Macromedia Flash 8 allows your .SWF file content to be indexed without difficulty or exertion. So, today you can add metadata with the Flash movie description (SWF file). To make it simple to read, we would recommend you to add it to the head of the .SWF file. There is the Resource Description Framework or the .RDF format file that is intended to define metadata; it is stored in the .SWF file in a W3C-complaint format. In all, expressing the same idea, Macromedia Flash 8 creates and stores the metadata for the .SWF file in a manner that other applications can read the values with ease. SEO before Macromedia Flash 8 The catchphrase “SEO” means Search Engine Optimization and is used to talk about the website development and make it so that its content was indexed and rated to all intents and purposes within the search results. Large number of companies or other businesses providing a specific service are in long felt need for the online organizations helping them become a great deal of public notice taking the advantage of search engine results. The websites that use Flash movies (.SWF files) are postponed in search engines for the reason that such kind of content is not easily indexed. Most of the search engines, for instance, Google can only index HTML text inside the Flash movie. Vast majority of text content loaded dynamically either into the Flash applications or Flash movies is incapable of being indexed by the existing search engine technology. Even ahead of Macromedia Flash 8 presented .SWF metadata you could have mentioned the fact that search engines as Google can find the text turned out to be in the Flash movie (.SWF file). Changes to Macromedia Flash 8’s Document Properties From now on, in Macromedia Flash 8 you can allocate a title and description to the Flash document right in the Document Properties dialog box. Having a Macromedia Flash document open, please, choose “Modify > Document” in order to open the Document Properties dialog box:

Herein, you can set a title and description for the Flash document. These values are automatically included with your Flash movie (.SWF file) whenever you would like to test or publish the movie. Warning: Macromedia Flash 8 does not automatically use the metadata title for any HTML document that is included into the Publish Settings dialog box. Both the title and description are also not shared with the Accessibility panel. In case you would like to use these values in a different place, you would need to manually update the appropriate settings. Publishing Content with .SWF Metadata When you type a title and description into the Document Properties dialog box for a Flash document, the data is placed into the .SWF file for the document at whatever time you test or publish the movie. In order to see how this data looks like, please, open the Flash tab of the Publish Settings dialog box (“File > Publish Settings”) and select the Generate size report check box. Then, close the dialog box and test the Flash movie (“Control > Test Movie”). The Output panel displays the .SWF metadata in the size report’s Metadata heading, for, please, see as follows: As the size report points out, the metadata adds bytes to your final Flash movie file size. Please, make sure to keep your title and description values within a reasonable length to avoid unnecessary bytes being added to the .SWF file size. Tip: You can use Macromedia Flash 8 to publish metadata to any .SWF file, including Flash Player 7 or earlier movies. To date, search engines have not started to index the metadata in the .SWF files on the cobweb. Expectantly, in view of the fact that the metadata is available to search engines in a W3C-compliant format, it is obvious to see a lot more Flash content put on view in search result listings.