Flash Websites, Internet Marketing, and Conversions

The question of whether or not to use Flash as part or all of your website has led to some extremely heated debates between web designers, internet marketers, and market analysts.

Let's look at the positives:

1. Flash pages are a great way to show the skill and versatility of a graphic artist/web designer. Flash is not a simple program to learn or to use. The skilled Flash programmer combines creativity with solid programming skills and artistic talent. Some of it can be learned, some is innate. Almost anyone can eventually manage to produce an "acceptable" Flash design; a high-level Flash programmer is a different breed. If you've got those skills, it's worth showing them off.

2. Flash can make some really fun and impressive graphic effects. There's no question that some Flash pages are really impressive. A well-designed Flash page not only demonstrates the skill of the programmer, but can also entrance the visitor.

3. Flash can add fun interactive aspects to a website. A Flash game on your site can coax a visitor into staying longer on your site and recommending it to their friends.

All that being true, you'd think that internet marketers would love Flash, but the opposite is true. Let's examine the downside to Flash on the internet:

1. Most search engine spiders can't read Flash. The impact of this really cannot be overstated. The visitor to the site might be seeing images and reading text, but to most spiders, it's a big blank space. Historically, Flash sites rank poorly, if at all. What good is it to have a site that's fun for visitors, if you can't get any visitors?

2. Flash can take a long time to load. The majority of Americans are now online, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they have broadband connections. For those on dial-up, a Flash page can be tortuously long to download. Most of them simply won't bother. Even with broadband, some Flash sites are a long download -- and statistics show that most web surfers are very impatient.

3. Many people behind firewalls cannot view Flash sites. Major corporations, many government agencies, and many firms that are just nervous in this virus-rampant internet era, forbid downloading ANY programs onto their employees' computers, even well-known "safe" programs such as Flash. This means that if a Flash player is not already installed on their computers, they can't see the site/page at all. You've just eliminated a percentage of potential customers before they even had a chance to consider you.

4. Flash sites are not necessarily user-friendly. Especially on e-commerce sites, visitors have shown a strong preference for "complete" navigation -- meaning that you can jump to pretty much any page on the site from any other page. Flash is not set up this way, and frequently necessitates using the "back" button on the browser, preventing a potential customer from easily jumping back and forth between 2 or more pages they are interested in. This may be one of the reasons why, in a study done by Marketing Sherpa last autumn (http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2524), roughly 80% of consumers voted for non-Flash sites over Flash sites. There were some very strong anti-Flash sentiments expressed, and they spanned the spectrum of ages, genders, and careers.

At SharpNET Solutions, we understand that you're put a lot of time and money into your Flash site, and it doesn't go over very well to be told that it is useless for marketing. It's a tough pill to swallow! And the truth is, we do recognize that Flash can be a very effective tool for certain sites, in certain industries. For example, a graphic artist's portfolio site should ALWAYS include Flash, if they can do it well. A website for a gallery, or an artist, can make extremely good use of Flash, and it fits well with the general "feel" desired for such sites.

However, bear in mind that not everyone can or will spend time on your Flash site, no matter how beautiful, exciting, or effective it might be, and it also won't rank on the search engines. At the very least, have a static page that the search engines can read and rank, and ALWAYS give your visitors the option of skipping a Flash intro. Ideally, you should offer your entire website in static form, with complete information and navigation, and the option to click a link to view selected Flash movies or presentations. This preserves the hard work you've done while allowing access to your site to the widest range of visitors.

Note: Google has claimed for some time to be able to read Flash, but there was very little evidence of it in their search results. If you go to Google now and type in "help filetype:swf", you will see search results that appear to be actual pieces of Flash code. This is a giant step forward, but just reading code does not by any means ensure that your site will rank for your keywords. In fact, it just might open up a whole new division of SEO: Optimizing Flash code for Google rankings. "Spider-friendly" Flash code is not necessarily a straightforward proposition! It remains to be seen if the other spiders will follow suit, and whether or not the potential for ranking is great enough to warrant such extra efforts on the part of marketers and designers.

Comments

[Greg]

I understand that Flash and SEO is a big issue, and being an HTML AND Flash-based Web Developer, I've run into many situations where this is apparent, but let's please not mix up issues here. Your points #2 (Flash takes a long time to load) and #4 (Flash sites are not necessarily user-friendly) are not valid arguments in a discussion on SEO where it's Flash vs. HTML. In an age where too many HTML sites are guilty of the same crimes, stating those arguments just makes those of us who use Flash (for the most part) for good (not evil) want to dismiss your other, valid points. Just because a site is in Flash doesn't make it load quickly or slowly or easy or hard to use. And, most certainly, vice versa.

[Laura Seeley]

Points #2 and #4 address not SEO but sales conversion, and in that sense are very relevant to an article on "Flash Websites, Internet Marketing, and Conversions".

What I said was that Flash sites can take a long time to download. They can, and often do. They also frequently lack the type of structure that allows users to navigate freely to any page in the site from any other page, which is very popular with site users.

These same weaknesses can and do occur in sites written in HTML, ASP, PHP and others -- but that doesn't mean they aren't weaknesses that you should try to avoid, in any language. They don't necessarily affect SEO, but they certainly affect how visitors view your website.

For a Flash site, the "fix" is an easy one: Offer a static version that avoids the problems. Either a complete static site, or at least a static landing page, with text information and streamlined graphics, that gives you the option to click and view the Flash version.

Fair or not, almost 80% of people surveyed preferred a non-Flash website to a Flash version of the same site. If you don't want to restrict yourself to just 20% of your potential site viewers, making a few accommodations of this nature are a wise move.

[jack musselman]

I need a developer to develop a product page template in flash with Dream Weaver Ext.

Background: Gary (retired engineer from NASA-Houston - not in software) built the website www.usablindsdirect.com and posted it one year age. We also think that is takes a couple of years to get registered with the network guru's. We need to get our page smoother so quick quotes and the shopping cart leads the customer to the check out page and his or her credit number.

I'm sorry, my name is Jack Musselman (retired from NASA) we are in Houston

Ours wife’s are red heads and said, get out the house and do something or else. So, we start the website.

A site that’s doing a real good business and the page mechanics
works good, is www.paylessdecor.com

If you can help please call Gary @ 1 866 278 9872

Email: sales@usablindsdirect.com
jack@usablindsdirect.com

Thanks

[Larry, web designer]

I think you should really ask the client what he wants. Some just don't care if their site is user-friendly or not. That is why they go for attractive sites with the Flash elements. It really the question is whether you'd like to pull the customers from the cyber world or you'd rather stick to conventional forms of advertising. Larry, web designer

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