Flash based web sites continue to rise in popularity with small business owners impressed with the audiovisual effects, but there are significant problems that need to be addressed according to Perth website designer and CEO Mr. Dale Carter. Flash technology enables the use of animated graphics, movies, and even sound on a website. It's a cool presentation tool and can also be used to create an entire web site including the navigation systems and menus. However there is a dark side to Flash!
Our Perth website design studio has over the years received panic calls from businesses that have used Flash technology to design their website with the following concerns.
•"I can't find my website in the search engines"
•"I am not getting any inquiries"
•"We spent a great deal of money on this site - Is their anything we can do to fix it"
According to the Perth website design team, while it is true that a Flash website has the capacity to impress your viewers more than a HTML website. The fundamental problem of search engine indexing has still not been able to be resolved now some 13 plus years since Flash was created.
The significantly higher, website development costs required to build a flash-based website (not to mention maintenance) over a HTML or database driven website is therefore then not able to be effectively leveraged. The reasons that this occurs is that not as many people will end up seeing the site, because it is very difficult for a Flash based website to rank well in the search engines.
Our website designers and web developers recommend that unless you have a powerful offline marketing platform (Press, TV, Direct Mail) to drive customers to your site irrespective of the Internet, or you are a very large company with significant brand equity, then using exclusively Flash technologies to build your website would seem somewhat extravagant and irresponsible.
Why? Because business owners who try and rectify the problem of poor search engine rankings caused by developing in Flash, typically spend significantly more on optimisation techniques such as building directory links and other themed links to their Flash based web sites than would an owner of HTML based website.
The compromise position according to many Mr. Carter and many Perth website designers is to build a HTML website and use it to enclose Flash components. This way, you can still then effectively target the search engines for your keyword phrases within the body text of your site as well as produce a "WOW-Factor" by way of your embedded Flash presentation.
The most effective way our Perth website design team has seen websites use Flash is to place a rectangular advertising panel below the header area on the site and run through a series of advertising panels that quickly and effectively get across the product and service offering of the company.
Usually these presentations last no longer than 10 to 15 seconds. The benefit of this style presentation is that
1.It is easy to embed into most web sites
2.The development costs are significantly lower
3.It is easy to change and switch presentations regularly
4.The download time is shorter so you can capture your visitor's attention.
The other problem to note that can arise with a repeating Flash presentation is that it can become annoying to the viewer if it remains a constant on the website. Therefore showing this only on the homepage and not on your internal pages will help you avoid this problem.
Dale Carter runs a Website Design Perth studio in Western Australia and has helped over 500 companies develop and implement effective internet marketing strategies. Visit http://www.gtp-icommerce.com/