Last weekend, I was intending to go down to a bridal studio to look at what they offer. I knew exactly which one I wanted to go to, and I just wanted to find out exactly where it was located.

So I searched the name of the Bridal studio, expecting our friendly GoogleBot will direct me to the right place. Guess what?

Flash Sites are bad for ROI

Did you see what is in TOP position? A page that says “You don’t have the latest version of Macromedia Flash Player.”

Please upgrade flash

And you know what? Its not that I don’t have Flash player. I do have it installed in my browsers, and if I took off the “upgrade_flash.htm”, I could see a beautiful flash animation.

Sophia Photo and Bridal

So, what actually happened?

The entire site was made in all so fancy flash. Most of the stuff in the flash was all in images – and I doubt there is even a mention of “Sophia” as text in the flash. The website also features a flash detection mechanism, so if flash was not detected, web visitors would be redirected to the “upgrade_flash.htm” page.

The designer probably used the same title for all the pages in the site – :: Sophia Photo and Bridal :: Even the upgrade_flash.htm had the same title.

So, when Mr GoogleBot went to take a peek at this site, there were three pages, and they had to pick one to be listed. Here is what they thought:

On Page 1 (root) – Title: OK, Content: 1 line, Lots of flash which I don’t understand!

On Page 2 (default-f.htm) – Title: OK, Content: none, Lots of flash which I don’t understand!

On Page 3 (upgrade_flash.htm) – Title: OK, Content: 2 paragraphs!

Comparing the three, since page 3 has some content, I’ll pick upgrade_flash.htm!

So they kicked the root page and default-f.htm out, and brought upgrade_flash.htm home to their index.

… that is why when I asked for Sophia Bridal, they brought upgrade_flash.htm out and tadaaaa! “You don’t have the latest version of Macromedia Flash Player.” :mrgreen:

Unfortunately for them, “You don’t have the latest version of Macromedia Flash Player.” doesn’t help them to make any sales. :)

That’s why full flash sites are very bad for your ROI

  1. They cost more to build.
  2. They are more cumbersome to maintain.
  3. They don’t get indexed well by search engines.

Yes. Bots can read the text you put in your flash, but the semantics you get is no where as near as what you can markup in HTML with all the HTML headers.

So, my advice if you want your ROI?

If you haven’t build your site, DON’T build a fully flash site. Small elements are ok. Full flash sites are a no-no.

And if you already have one, make sure all your text are actually text inside the flash. Not images.

… and if you already have one which everything made from images? Frankly, I’m sorry for you. First, ask your web designer to attend the SEO training workshop, and then get him to build an optimized HTML website for you.

Don’t throw away your current site, though. There are visitors that don’t come from search engines. Flash still works for them… if you animation is effective.

Oh… and BTW, this was not the bridal shop I wanted to go to. The one I went to wasn’t even in the first 50 listings keyword Sophia Bridal… and their website features a flash intro page as well. :)

Did you know? Back in year 2000, web usability guru Jacob Nielson said Flash is 99% bad! But if you are still considering to use flash, stick to these design guidelines.