Hey girls! I operate and own my own business and I am in the process of upgrading the website. I know the very basics of web site info. Good and bad seo, meta etc.., however I'm wondering if any of you know the pros and cons to having a FLASH website. I had an offer to barter our services for a rebuild of our site.Thus saving an enormous amount of money. I know FLASH looks great but can't pull it up on any cell phones with internet that I know of. Also is that something that would frustrate you as a potential client?
For example: You see our ad at the Mall etc.. and a computer is not readily available so you use your I Phone, Blackberry, Droid etc.. to look up the site and can't access it, due to being a FLASH site. Would you try again later or move on to the next guy?
Thank You all for your input.. I spoke with the web designer and voiced my concern about the negative effect I believe it it poses on customer usability . She is going to work on another option. Apparently she choose Flash due to it's ability to be able to update easily without vast computer knowledge. I will keep you posted on the outcome.
I hate flash sites. If there's an 'intro', I'm looking for the 'skip it' button every time. If there isn't a skip button, you've lost me as a customer. If you want some FANTASTIC web design advice, take a look at
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com
They advocate learning about good site design by showing you badly designed web sites (and there are some truly sucky web sites out there - you do not want yours to be one of them!).
I don't have any advice as a biz owner, but as a user. I HATE Flash websites. I'd rather just be able to see my options in list fashion, and maybe have drop down menus for sub-sections if I hover the mouse over the heading. Every time I visit a website with flash I just get so annoyed. As for your example, I would absolutely move on, and if I liked the other guy's stuff, I'd probably not give the flash site a 2nd thought. Lost sale.
Flash looks great and can make your site look very professional. But it is not SEO-friendly unless the web designer knows how to do it.
Would it frustrate me? Yes, if I am looking for a direct answer to a question, and I need it NOW, I don't have time to wait for a Flash video to download. Besides, I"m visually impaired. If the Flash website has very small text and fancy design, it makes it harder for me to read and navigate. Oh, and if the site tells me, "You need to upgrade to the latest version of Flash" or something, I'll go elsewhere. Why bother? There are countless other options.
BUT there are people who love Flash sites. If it didn't work, why do you think there are Flash themes going for thousands of dollars (exclusive rights)? I personally know somebody who wants to purchase a Flash design for their business site and I think it's a smart move. But then their audience is very specific and established. So they follow that person no matter what.
What I'd suggest is, why don't you make a plain HTML/CSS site and a Flash version? It would give users the option. The only problem is you'd have two sites to upgrade. Or, if you do use Flash, make sure the web designer is also a proven SEO expert. I'm no a programmer (been YEARS since I messed with websites) but I know if the coding isn't right, Flash will hurt your search engine ranking.
Also consider the nature of your business. Why and how do people find your site? Are they looking for specific info like "How do you start a baby on solid foods?" or "Best chicken soup recipe ever"? If your site is mainly information oriented, you probably won't need Flash; you'd need lots of informative articles. But if the site has to be aesthetically pleasing, then maybe upgrading to Flash would be appropriate.
Good luck!
if I saw your add at the mall I want to know more about it NOW. I'm a mom, you never know where my brain will be later.... And, yes, if you go for the flash, a skip button is a MUST. Good luck!
a lot of people dont have flash or have problems accessing it, i think you would miss out on a lot of people seeing it. (if you are targeting a young market/tech savvy market- then this would be less of an issue)
besides the smart phone issue, some people also dont have it on their work computer b/c security/network/etc issues dont allow it. my work redid ours recently and will not use it.
good luck.
Flash does NOT work on an iPhone. I very rarely have the time to go back to a Flash based site when I find it on the go.
We try to stay away from an all flash site and do something using Wordpress (Content Management Site, or CMS). You can make custom templates now that you create with a designer..anything you want, not just what is in a template list. Then you can update your content yourself. We have moved over to this for all of our clients and we use flash here and there within those sites. There are ways to give it movement by using java and other things on the nav bar too. I think it's very important to have sites visible on portable devices, so that's why we made the switch..for now. Sometime in the future, it probably won't be such an issue. Good luck!
