Google Now Crawling and Indexing Flash

Don't get too excited though...

If you are marketing to brides online and have a Flash website there's good news, sort of, for you today.

Google just announced it has a new algorithm that is crawling and indexing Flash and Flash web pages. So, Happy Days for all those with Flash websites.

Right?

Well, not exactly, there's a "but." Actually, a BIG but...

And here it is: Don't be overly optimistic that your Flash website will shoot it's way to a top ranked position at Google or any other search engine, anytime soon, as a result of this change.

Don't think your Flash site (or pages) are still not at a dis-advantage to static/crawler-friendly pages.

I still think VERY crawler-friendly websites, that are professional-quality search engine optimized, the static/html type, will beat out Flash websites for a VERY long time - at least two more years.

Why, you ask? For no other reason than there are dozens of other factors involved with an effective search engine optimization strategy and this new algorithm is only a small piece, although a step in the right direction (if you like Flash), so it really doesn't mean a lot right now.

On a similar note, I spent a lot of time yesterday poking around at a lot of different wedding photographer's and wedding videographer's websites.

I have to tell you, I'm not impressed with Flash at all. What aggravated me the most was the WAIT.

Wait for this to load, wait for that to load...

Oh... and then load some MUSIC on me.

Oh... make it almost impossible for me to read (white text on black backgrounds, graphic-based text vs. text-based, framed windows that I have to scroll, pull-down options that don't work... the list is LONG...)

Add on some navigation that doesn't work or start the whole process of waiting again.

Folks, the web is NOT a TV commercial and frankly I would bet lunch a website that focuses MORE on INFORMATION instead of we'll-impress-them-with-our-Flash, will convert more of your traffic into inquiries.

Actually, I can give you at least 5 examples of wedding photographers who went "Flash" and were totally frustrated that brides couldn't find them at Google, Yahoo!, or MSN.

Even driving traffic to them with Google Adwords (pay-per-click) didn't work. The conversion was horrible.

Bottom line: Flash may still not be the most effective way for marketing to brides online.

I know I'm not going to make it on the Christmas card list of all you folks out there with Flash sites... and Flash developers are sticking another needle in their Chris Jaeger Voodoo Doll - but at least you're hearing it straight from someone.



Chris Jaeger