"Flash in the pan" is an allusion to what happens when a 17th-century flintlock musket doesn't shoot. Misusing Flash on your website can produce the same result: a marketing misfire.

Here's the problems:

• Search engines can't index Flash, so anything that appears via Flash is invisible to Google. If you're whole site is in flash, well, then your whole site is invisible and people can't find you unless they happen to know your exact web address.
• Prospective clients with slow internet connections will just give up and move on to the next spa's website.
• People without a Flash player installed, or the wrong version installed, will just see a big empty spot where the Flash is supposed to be. They probably won't take the time to install the latest Flash player.
• Flash is often used to create intros that you have to wait through to get to the actual website — fluff that doesn't tell the visitor what they're looking for and doesn't even remember that you've already been to the website five times and already seen the intro five times. Very frustrating.

Web designers at advertising agencies love to use Flash. It lets them apply all of their traditional marketing techniques to the web. But what you end up with is a very expensive website that isn't well tuned to what works effectively online. But it is (or at least can be) beautiful.

The allure, the atmosphere, the experience of your spa is crucial, and bringing that online is important to your spa's image. But it can be accomplished without Flash, or very judicious use of Flash. Some tips if you're going to use Flash:

• Don't make it a core part of your site. Make sure your website is still effective if the Flash doesn't show up.
• Don't put any content in Flash, or have that content reappear in another way on your site so that people can find it when using search engines.
• Don't use intros. Go immediately to the home page of your site. Use a relatively small section of your site to show off what would have been the Flash intro.

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One Response to “Don't let your website be a Flash in the pan”

1. Andrea Says:
   March 30th, 2006 at 2:21 pm

   Hear, hear! Another reason to not use Flash: viewers who are using alternative browsers, especially those on mobile phones and PDAs.

   I cannot tell you how many times I find a business website and want to contact them to determine hours, etc, and their website is essentially invisible to my PDA browser because it is entirely in Flash.

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