6 Reasons Why Using Flash is a BIG Mistake

Most web designers and web design companies will try to convince you that if you want your business to have the best site possible that you MUST have a flash site. Flash, for those of you who are newbies, is a software program that can create really cool special effects and animations. You can either have flash elements embedded in your website or you can have your entire website done in flash.

Now I will be the first to tell you that Flash can make a site look pretty cool, but if you are actually trying to make some money from your online business that using flash is a BIG no-no. Here's why.

1. Too Much Time
It takes way too much time to download an all flash website. Even though broadband and DSL users are growing there are still too many people that are still on dial up to rely on using an all flash site.

Your potential customers will get ticked off at waiting an hour to download your beautiful website and will leave to go to the next one.

A lot of times, designers will say that they can fix the download problem by making smaller portions or chunks of the main site. So instead of having to wait for just one huge file, you now have to wait for a huge file every time you click on a button to go to another part of the site.

It does not fix the problem at all. Your customers are still gonna get ticked after they click on your product button and then realize they have to wait another 8 minutes to download that page too.

2. Annoying Intro
I see a lot of websites that have these flash designed intros. The concept is to have a really cool looking intro to the company or product before launching the main website.

First of all, I have seen some really pathetic attempts at flash intros. If you can't design a good one you should definitely not try at all.

Second, most people search for the skip intro button and just click past it anyway. Or if you don't have a skip intro button, they just leave your website all together because they don't want to watch your useless and annoying intro.

I know that they can be cool, that everyone seems to have one, but unless your website is already bringing in some big time money, then don't risk losing customers by using a flash intro.

3. Not much Content
It seems to be a common problem that a lot of sites that rely on a completely flash design are lacking in the content department. They seem to think that by having lots of cool, flashy elements and designs that their visitors will not notice they are lacking in anything substantial to offer.

Make sure you have good relevant content in your website, the more the better.

4. Search Engines Don't Like Flash
Websites that are done completely in flash, all face one BIG problem. The search engines have nothing to index for your site. In your HTML file you simply have a piece of code that calls up the flash file to play. The search engines can't read this file or what is in it so they have no idea how to index your site and just skip right over it.

You must have readable text and content if you ever have the hopes of getting in the top 10 search results. You will never ever ever get in the top rankings with an all flash website. It's just not going to happen.

5. Flash Headers and Navigation
Some websites have the header portion of their sites display a cool flash picture or have there navigational buttons done in flash. You can get away with this if you have lots of other good quality content for the search engines to read.

If you use a flash based navigation, include links to your other pages within the body of your text as well as text links at the bottom of the page. Search engines won't be able to read the flash navigation and won't know there are any other pages to index if you don't also have the text links in place.

6. No Plugin
Some internet users don't even have the Flash plugin installed on their computer. Some people don't like to download anything from the internet or have never even heard of flash. If they don't have the plugin then your site won't even be visible to them. Even if you put a script up to tell them to go get the Flash plugin, most people won't even bother. This is just another annoying problem to a potential customer.

Now you are armed with proof that using flash in your website is a very stupid thing to do if you want to make any money. If your web designer insists on trying to convince you otherwise, then print out this article and smack him over the head with it. If he still won't listen then find a new designer.

Leah West

http://www.westmarketing-design.com Providing complete search engine optimized website design and internet marketing services for your small business success.

RELATED ARTICLES

Nine Effective Tips For Improving Your Website?s Usability
Web usability is perhaps the most important factor in any web design. This is the driving factor that keeps your visitors coming back to your website. Given below are a few points that you need to consider to increase your website's usability.

Increase Your Website Sales Instantly
If there's one thing that I've learnt so far, it's that nothing beats good copy. You may have found a way to bring in 10,000 visitors a day to your site, but if your copy is lousy, you're just wasting your effort. Web sites are only as good as their copy, so if you want to run a successful website, check and double-check your copy!

Design Matters in our Visual Culture
FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

Do You Really Need A Website?
Nope. You certainly don't need a website.

Meta Tags ? An Introduction
A long, long time ago? In a galaxy far, far away?meta tags were the key component to search engine rankings. Okay, it was about 2 years ago, but that's a long time in the Internet galaxy. Although still relevant, the evil empire?er, Darth Google, has led a movement by the search engines to de-emphasize their importance. Despite this effort, meta tags are still important. They represent the only method for a site owner to exert some control over how pages are listed in search engine results.

Technology vs. Usability
When JV Media Design was formed, the year was 1995 and the Internet was a very different place than it is today.

20 Tips to Creating a Profitable Website
As an online Entrepreneur you require a successful website.

Good Web Design ? What Is It?
There is unlimited possibilities when it comes to designing a website. Flash, Database, content management, Client Login, etc,etc. A question to ask yourself when deciding how to do your website is:

Understanding How HTML Color Codes Work
Ever wonder how HTML color codes are put together? For the beginner, it can look like lots of numbers and letters that make no sense. In reality, HTML color codes are written that way for a specific reason that we'll look at in this article.

Cascading Style Sheets for Better Web Design
In cascading style sheets you can specify how your web pages will be presented on the screen by simply predefining page elements such as fonts, headers and links.

What Happened to My Website when I Deleted the Home Page by Mistake?
There is a widespread confusion among lots of new website designer concerning the home page.

5 Ways To Improve Your Website Immediately
If you are reading this, I assume you either have your own website or planning to get one. Either way, these 5 tips can help you create a better business website immediately. They'll help you draw more repeat visitors and help visitors find their way around easily on your website. When that happens, you sell more of your products and services!

Some Useful Common Site Ideas
In my web surfing adventures, I've found a few site elements which make surfing easier and more enjoyable. There are no concrete, hard- and-fast rules to follow - these are just observations of some things which I virtually always look for in a site.

What to Avoid to Make Your Website Design Effective
The effective design is this one, which is maximum simplified, conformable to your users because they are your main purpose. This one, simply and clearly announcing what is your website about. This one, quickly offering the users exactly what they are expecting to see on your pages without being troubled with insignificant information. The big mistake made by lots of web designers is to project their activities from their own point of view, without thinking about user.

Save Time and Boost Profits with Free Content
Public domain gives you a head start creating ebooks, ecourses, newsletters, teleconferences, website content and email registration incentives you need to keep in constant touch with clients and prospects.

Design vs Content: Who is KING?
Well it is not Elvis, that's for sure.

Web Advertising: 10 Little Known Tricks To Help Convert Your Traffics To Buying Customers
You may not believe it, but people still judge things by their appearances.

Got Web Traffic but Still Low Sales? Ten Ways to Selling Success - Part 2
Part one of this article is available at www.bookcoaching.com/freearticles/article-34.shtml.

If Content is King who is Queen?
It's been said again and again, when it comes to getting people to visit your site (and stay there for more than 5 seconds), the quality of your content rules supreme. But once you've bowed to interest, saluted relevance and kow-towed to originality, who else must you pay homage to for recognition in the court of website stickiness?

Content is Crucial!
Content is undoubtedly the most important element of a website. It is the defining factor for a website, that which catches the interest of your visitors and keeps them hooked to your site.