Want to Annoy Your Visitors, Turn Away Customers and Screw Up Your Google Rankings? Great, just add a Flash Intro to Your Site
January 22nd, 2008 by Vishen Lakhiani Read more about SEO, Website OptimizationI was Googling to find the company “AIESEC Michigan”, a recruiting firm in Ann Arbor.
Their official site is AiesecMichigan.com
But here is what Google shows:
Take a look at the last link on that page. Yup that’s the site they want to draw traffic to.
SKIP?
Not only is their flash website killing their search engine rankings (How is Google going to index a bunch a flashing colors and animated lines?)
But the one piece of text on their site “SKIP” (as in Skip the Flash Intro) is the only piece of descriptive text revealed by Google.
Guys — Flash Intros are idiotic. This is the web we’re talking about. Not TV. People want info fast. Wasting your visitor’s time for silly little animations (no matter how cool you think they are) is not wise.
If you have a flash intro on your site. Lose it IMMEDIATELY.
Always, always go for text and info over design and animation.
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About the Author
Vishen is a co-founder of MindValley.
Before MindValley, he was an exec in Silicon Valley and New York for several internet and technology firms. He turned bedroom entrepreneur at 27 and by the time he was 31 had founded 6 web businesses and never had to work a conventional job again.
Check out other posts by Vishen Lakhiani
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Vishen Lakhiani
[…] I normally don’t write a post that isn’t much more than a comment on another post, but the folks at Mind Valley Labs have just blogged about one of my biggest pet peeves; Flash intros. These were hugely popular about 3–5 years ago, when everyone was learning how to “tween”, but nowadays, not only is it lame, it’s actually detrimental. […]
Second to this annoynance is the “Enter” link. Enter? Isn’t that what I’m already trying to do?
There’s actually a bank in Malaysia that has a Flash intro — http://www.midf.com.my
It’s amazing how clueless some web development companies are about the web.
You’re right, flash intros serve no purpose and they are a pain. But AIESEC isn’t exactly a company, it’s an International Student Organization, which runs a bunch of programs, including Exchange (of traineeships, or jobs if you like). So the Michigan organization, like all others is probably run by a bunch of students, and they just do this along with their life
[…] is the SEO challenging, but you have to build in contingency plans for ranking in search engines, proper descriptive text in search engines, as well as those pesky surfers with outdated Flash […]