Despite major drawbacks of Flash-based sites, some business owners continue to fall into this trap.
As previously noted in Backbone Magazine, Webcopyplus recognizes Flash is an outstanding tool for adding audio, video and animation to a site. However, Flash-based sites can’t be indexed by search engine spiders, which account for the majority of traffic to websites. As a result, these beautiful websites often draw little, if any, traffic.
Moreover, Flash intros prove to be a waste of time and resources. Fortunately, most businesses and designers are moving away from this pointless gimmick, which squanders visitors’ time and web owners’ money.
The Flash topic is one that many individuals are passionate about. In fact, the noted Backbone article prompted a prolonged Ubuntu Forums debate that involved more than 3,400 viewers, more than 300 votes and more than 100 responses.
Expensive Lesson
Going against Webcopyplus’ advice, a client in the Canadian fashion industry forged forward with plans to launch a Flash-based site. That was in the spring of 2007. Less than a year later, the business owners are preparing to invest in another site.
They now realize it doesn’t matter how good their site looks; if no one can find it, it might as well not exist.
Why did they do it? The business owners wanted to work with a specific designer based in Los Angeles. This designer, it turns out, was only familiar with Flash and did not wish to collaborate with others.
Had they taken the designs and contracted a programmer to incorporate the images into an HTML or CMS site, this business would be thousands of dollars and several months ahead.
Think long and heard before you agree to a Flash-based site. Chances are you’ll be glad you did.
Flash rocks!! Don’t ditch it just because it puts static sites to shame.