This summer, SEO blogs turned their attention to the news of the moment:  Googlebot is now indexing .swf (Flash) files.

Does this mean that now, finally, using Flash on your website is OK?

In a nutshell, no.  Here's why — its about designing your site to be friendly to your audience, first and foremost.  What do your visitors want?  According to on-the-ground studies, they want to know:

1. How to find you.
2. How to contact you.
3. Your hours.
4. Your prices.  (Maybe)
5. Everything else, including:  events, specials, your story, photos, testimonials, newsletters, ambiance, and a "spa experience".

Do I sound harsh?  I don't mean to be.  A well-designed site can be elegant and still convey all of the most important information that your customers want.  But, if it is a lovely site with Flash elements and a preponderance of images that take a long time to load — especially on a mobile device — a potential customer like me isn't going to come in.  Why not?  If I cannot go to the website and immediately find an address, a phone number, and business hours, the website is almost useless.

Once I have that information, I'll likely stick around and read about the business, investigate my options, spend more time.  But first I need the basics, and it is all to easy to overlook those when designing with an eye towards graphics and motion as the first priority.