Misconceptions About Flash
Interestingly enough, one of the most common requests we get here at Avatar Business Solutions is to build flash only web sites, or questioning how much x amount of flash will cost someone. We thought it prudent to touch a bit on this.
First and foremost, we DO build flash web sites, we have built many of them, but for each and every one of them they have gone against our advice. That is fine if a customer really wants it, but it is our professional opinion that, well, frankly Flash web sites really stink. Now you probably are saying to yourself, "Hello! is this the pot calling the kettle black or what! you guys have a flash banner at the top of your site!" Yes, this is true, we do have a flash banner at the top of this site, however, if you notice, there is almost no content of importance at all in that banner, just our logo, and our Phone Number which is also available on our home page in text format. The problem with flash sites is that they serve no purpose but to show your potential customers how cool you are, and how much money you have to burn to make such a fancy site. Rarely do these sites actually have a good structure, and even more rarely do they make the customers experience a pleasant one. This is why we suggest to most of our customers to keep it simple! for example, take one of our earlier site creations, it was a VERY simple site we did for a beauty salon in Lawrenceville Georgia called O Salon & Spa this site is very simple, and yet actually generates a tremendous amount of clientele for that business. It is simple, elegant, has a few pictures, NO FLASH, pricing, and some product/service descriptions.
So you are probably saying, wow, why does such a simple yet elegant web site do so well? Well quite simply, rather than try to trick and confuse the customer into purchasing by flashing lights, it places a coupon on the main page (always a smart thing to do to grab customers by the way!) has an easy to follow structure and navigation system, is easy on the eyes, and most importantly it is marketed by us!
Seriously though, there are other, less obvious reasons why flash stinks. Flash is actually a black hole to a search engine, when a search engine sees flash, what it actually sees is a big gaping hole. The search engines never see your cool and nifty effects, they never see all the important text, sales, offers, etc that you have there, all they see is a big black box. which is why it is oh so important to have html web sites with as little flash as possible.
We hope this convinces you to skip the flash, go for more elegant html design, and to purchase a web site from the people who actually tell you not to waste your money on expensive, and useless things such as Flash. |
