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Should ecommerce sites use Flash?

Written by: Jonathan Briggs

November 12, 2005 [3613 views]

I often get asked by students whether I am right to criticise the use of Flash for ecommerce sites. Surely this technology makes the shopping experience more visual, more fun and more "on brand"?

While all of this is true, we have found (along with most other serious developers in the industry) that overuse of Flash puts up barriers to customers having their needs swiftly and effectively met. An even bigger issue is that search engines such as Google really ignore Flash and if your whole store is in Flash then having it ignored is going to seriously damage your bottom line.

Here is a useful article To Flash or not to Flash?.

Recent comments:

On November 30, 2005 at 11:39 AM, Mitul wrote:

Interesting article.

I don't know if this would make any difference, but well designed Flash movies that use dynamic data extract content from other files that are stored on the server.

i.e:

Content = aboutus.doc
Flash Movie = main_movie.swf (content 'aboutus.doc')
Home Page = index.html (displays 'main_movie.swf')

Would this not mean that the search engine (such as google) will still index the page? (as the content is visable via the doc file)

P.s. Hope I have not confused you...

Thanks

Jonathan replies: The key is whether the google spider can see the content and in the above example, I don't think it can.

On December 5, 2005 at 6:55 PM, Ari wrote:

Well you can intergrate flash with XML data so in theory if a spider reaches the site and begins scanning the directories, it should pickup the xml file data.

According to the information on the site:
http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Search-Engine-Optimization-Help/Write-a-Robotstxt-File/ robots have the ability to locate and read XML data. This can potentially be used to help rank a site.

How strong this will be is another matter.

http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Search-Engine-Optimization-Help/Write-a-Robotstxt-File/

Jonathan replies: You can! This was not meant as anti-Flash but to point out that you need the help the spiders see round it.

What do you think?






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This site is an educational resource, a research project and a publication channel written by Jonathan Briggs, Professor of eCommerce at Kingston University.
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