Search Engines

Over and over again we hear about companies that want high rankings and lots of traffic and sales, yet refuse to forfeit their large graphics and Flash animation in favor of good content. Unfortunately, Flash and graphics don't give the search engines much to go by when trying to determine what the site is all about. This forces the engines to figure things out solely based on the title tags, metatags, and the links. That may be enough in some cases, but the best indicator of what a site is about is through the content on its pages. Now, it's true that some search engines have started reading the content of Flash files, but there's generally not much "meat" contained in the ones I've seen!

Never forget that the ultimate goal of most business Web sites is to sell a product or a service. When you see a Flash presentation on a site, does that make you want to purchase their products or use their services? Sure, it might appear cool the first time you view it, but thereafter it only serves as an annoying distraction and/or waste of time. And if you're on a dial-up modem (yes there are still some left!), you probably don't want to wait around to view it. Your great content is much more important.

When all is said and done, most people would rather be presented with information on the types of products or services offered in clear, concise language, right on the main page of the site they're visiting. Luckily for us, that's exactly what the search engines want to see as well!

We are very familiar with search engines, but there is always new information being developed.