Google Preview: An Important Reason NOT to Use Flash on Your Website Home Page

Yael and I have written blog posts before about the problems using Flash on your home page can create, including slowing down the loading time so that people get impatient and click away to another site.

Now Yael has pointed out to me a more serious problem with using Flash on your home page:

Do a Google search and get the search results returned to you.

On the same line as the site title (which is a hot link to the site) on the far right-hand side is a little magnifying glass – this is Google Preview.

You can click on that magnifying glass to see the site's home page WITHOUT LEAVING the Google search results.

If your website's home page consists entirely of Flash, nothing is returned except for a grey puzzle piece.

This is because, at this point in time, Google Preview cannot read Flash. (If your home page uses Flash only for a segment of the page, your home page will be shown.)

Obviously you do NOT want your home page to appear as a grey box if someone clicks on the magnifying glass after your site comes up in the search results. Why work on having your site come up on the first page of Google if you're going to hinder people's willingness to click through to the site?

And along with this warning goes another caution:

Although we had never seen this before, when Yael and I looked at a website that uses Flash for the entire page of every page on the site, each page did NOT have a separate URL. Each Flash page showed as the URL of the site.

While we do not, of course, have any knowledge of the Google search algorithms, one has to wonder what Google would think of this hodge podge of different pages all sharing the same URL. It probably isn't conducive to Google respecting the content of this site.



Bottom line? When you come up with very "cute" ideas for your website but these cute ideas require full-page Flash on the home page, think again whether you want to make it easy for people to be interested in your site. Or will you be happy just having the "cutest" site on the web.

P.S. We have a brand-new FREE report – "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets." Download it now at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-social-media-consultant

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) and her social media marketing partner Yael K. Miller (@MillerMosaicLLC on Twitter) are committed to taking the mystery out of social media so that individuals and companies can utilize the power of social media to attract more business.

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