Flash: A Great Website Design Tool With One Exception

This exception is important if your website is part of a business dependent on targeted prospects/traffic for leads and sales. Search traffic is by far the most important source of new, targeted traffic flowing to most websites. But, websites built in Flash loose out on this traffic because they cannot be effectively indexed by search engines.

Stories abound, such as the one in the LA Times, West Magazine yesterday entitled, “Flash Forward” (Sunday, May 13), about the power and impact of Flash. But, readers are often left with the opinion that a website developed in Flash is the gold standard. Don’t get me wrong, I love Flash. But, I know its short-coming. If you want to take advantage of the tremendous potential of search engines to deliver targeted traffic to your website, you don’t want to build your site in Flash. Embed Flash modules within the site to engage people through motion and sound. But, don’t be confused about using Flash within your site and building an entire website in Flash.