Get rid of that Flash Website

This post steps outside our usual topics hovering social media, but since we often use Twitter and Facebook to point our fans, followers and customers to our own websites, its relevance is warranted. This previous post reflects on the the things that irk some restaurant website visitors.

I often am called upon to revamp restaurant websites that were quickly put together right before they opened their doors. Many of these websites are visually decent, with nice photography and a modern layout. Others are just outright hideous – obvious templates purchased through the site’s hosting service. The latter issue we’ll reserve for another post. Today we’re going to reveal an all too common mistake restaurants opt for when rolling out their new websites: Flash.

Flash is cool, but…

Yes, Flash looks very cool. The nifty animation of images fading in and out, logos appearing one section or letter at a time, maybe some music or sound effects. Only people who are easily mesmerized by hypnotic movements onscreen or enjoy looping music will spend any amount of time on a Flash landing page. Once a visitor has experienced it, a return trip to the site will be less than impressive. A frantic search for the “skip intro” link will ensue.

I imagine the only folks getting any enjoyment out of an animated home page (or worse yet an entire Flash website) are the otherwise smart restaurant owners and the person who designed and sold them the site. Potential customers who have found the website are looking for information, not a movie or a soundtrack. They are coming to the site to find out what the hours and location are, the menu, or contact information, etc.

When site visitors have to wait for an intro animation to complete or hunt for a “skip intro” link, you’re starting off on the wrong foot with potential business. You’ve made it harder for them already. A step up from a splash landing page (if the entire website is Flash) would feature a navigation menu with links to the vital info, or at least have calls to action for those most important pages on every page. Still, its Flash and here’s why its a bad choice for a restaurant website.

Why Flash is a bad choice

Flash isn’t mobile.
iPhones, iPads, Androids, Blackberries, or any smart phone or mobile device can’t read Flash. If you are linking to your restaurant’s website from Twitter tweets and Facebook posts – both of those application are hugely mobile – and your landing page is Flash, those links are a lost cause with Flash. If the navigation menu is Flash, they’re not going to see it and will have to move on. Worse, if the entire website is Flash, all the viewer will see is a background color or pattern, if any, and little blue cube in the center of the screen. No logo, no menu, no information.

Mobile visitors who were linked to your site with apps such as Yelp, UrbanSpoon, Foursquare and others will come to a dead end when they see something similar to the photo above on their mobile devices. There’s a excellent chance they will rule your establishment out of their dining decisions on the spot.

Flash isn’t search engine friendly.
Flash has zero value for search engines and is not indexable. Why? Among other things, because Flash is embedded and not text, and is missing on all the SEO basics (keywords, headings, tags, etc) that search engines rely on to crawl a website. The code behind the page is calling out to a file that contains no searchable content or words. When your home page – the page with the best opportunity to entice visitors to dig deeper – is Flash, it will garner little if any traction on Google or other search engines.

Older browsers.
Sadly, we can’t assume everyone we want to reach has an updated web browser. Many of the older browsers can’t read Flash without an upgrade of either the version or Flash Player. Asking visitors to download the latest player isn’t an option because again, you’re making it hard for them to explore your website. Unless your target market is the student body, staff and alumni of MIT, don’t assume your entire customer base is on the cutting edge of technology. Make it easy for everyone to find the information they are looking for.

By all means, if none of the above points are important to your business – page rank and search engines, mobility, or the biggest slice of customers being able to see your website – then have a beautiful Flash website created. It will look cool, for sure, but will it bring in more business? Isn’t that why you have a website?

There is a place for Flash

Flash does have some usefulness other than game and interactive microsites. Web banner ads. When you have the option of submitting a Flash banner ad instead of static, take it. A banner ad is the perfect little piece of real estate where you want to grab attention quickly and promote yourself. The online newspaper or other website you are advertising on will offer tracking information for seeing impressions and clicks. You might even park small Flash banner ads on your own website, in moderation. They don’t need to be mobile or search engine-friendly.

If you already have a Flash website

If you already have a super-snazzy looking Flash website that you paid big bucks for, all is not lost. There are a few things you can implement to reclaim potential lost business and offer accessible information to viewers – desktop or mobile.

Blog
Invest in a blog component for the site. Not a blog that isn’t connected to your site – free blog services such as Blogger, WordPress.com (not .org) Tumblr, etc – but one you install on the same server as your website. Free blogs are great, but to grab all the search engine gold (SEO) you can for your website, you’ll want to own that blog. Blog your heart out and use all the juicy keywords and keyword phrases you would for your unreadable Flash site. Be sure to include an RSS feed for your blog which will enable you to…

Mobilize
An RSS feed from your blog can help create a mobile-friendly feed of your posts and information. If you opt for a WordPress blog, you can install a plugin that will instantly turn your posts (and pages if you create an actual page with all of your contact info like location, map, phone, etc). Here is a good how-to article for using that WordPress plugin »

Other services for making your website mobile-friendly:
Mofuse
Mippin
Wirenode
Google Mobile Optimizer

Need to rethink your website?

I hope you found this post eye opening. If you are looking for a fresh new look for your web presence and social places, let’s connect and explore some ideas. Contact me here »

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