October 3rd, 2012 • Posted by Stephany Toman • Permalink
When
people are checking out your website, they don’t want to be greeted
with any sort of music, lengthy animated introduction or any website
done mostly in Flash. In fact, customers are usually annoyed by
websites like these because when they’re checking out your website,
often they’re multitasking at work, and the last thing they
want is to be called out on it by a noisy website. When a potential
customer visits your website, they’re really only looking for a few
specific things. They want to know:
-
Who
you are
-
What
you do
-
Where
you’re located
-
Your
hours of operation
-
Your
product or service menu
-
How
to contact you
-
Can
they do it online
While
many web designers may try to talk you into a Flash-based website,
the reality of the situation is that customers really don’t like
all that razzle dazzle. Even if you make your intro under five
seconds and accompanied by a “skip intro” button, it’s still
five seconds too long, and one click too many. We’re living in a
world of instant gratification and if you can’t clearly and quickly
give your customers the information they looking for, you’ll lose
business. A little Flash here or there is okay. A website done
completely in Flash, however, not only has its limits, but it can
actually cause you to lose business.
Aside
from driving clients bonkers, another reason to avoid using a 100%
Flash-based website for your business is because more and more
customers are accessing your website through tablets and mobile
phones. The problem? Most tablets and mobile phone don’t support
Flash. So if you have a Flash-based website and a customer tries to
visit your site on their mobile devices, they won’t be able to
access your page. Limiting your customers’ ability to view your
website on hand-held devices will not only navigate potential
business away from your site, but you’ll actually lead them to look
for a similar business that they can access.
A
few years ago, the main reason for not doing a website completely
based in Flash was because search engines couldn’t read that type
of content, making your business virtually invisible. Since search
engines can only read key words and not actual content on Flash-based
sites, your website is not only less likely to show up in a search,
but search engines are more likely to black list your websites.
In
the last couple years, however, Adobe and Google have made some
developments to make Flash files easier for search engines to read
and index. Although these are some great advancements, Google can
still only partially read and index the content on your website,
while other search engines still won’t be able to understand your
Flash content at all. This is a huge problem, because if customers
can’t easily find you online, you lose business.
Now,
Flash isn’t all bad, but it’s best used in moderation. A little
here or there—that’s okay, but if you completely deck out your
website in Flash, you’re not only putting limitations on your
customers, but you’re putting limitations on your business’s
success. Keep in mind that not even Adobe, the company that created
Flash, has a Flash website.
