is using flash in website design a good ideaSmall business web design has many responsibilities. In many cases, it is the business’s store front for its target customers and in other cases the design of the small business website is the sole means for attracting and converting customers and many a times the website is the only presence of the business. All its activities and processes are conducted using the website. All this means that the website design plays a very important role in ensuring the success or failure of small businesses. This also means that the question of using Flash or not assumes critical importance.

Flash Benefits

To answer this question let’s first take a look at all that Flash animation can help accomplish. Flash helps designers offer a highly impressive visual element to their website visitors. Secondly, it makes the site more engaging, and interactive, if it is used in the right manner. Overall, with Flash, website visitors are enticed to spend more time on the website. All in all, it looks like a very good deal for any website. But is it?

What small business websites need to do?

In the first paragraph, a few objectives of small business websites have been underlined. Let’s take a look at what small business have to do to fulfill these objectives. Firstly, they have to get prospective customers on their websites; give them the information they are looking for quickly; website visitors need to take a positive decision regarding the products and services on the site; and if they can buy these products and services, they need to be able to go through the shopping process quickly and conveniently.

A good small business website design

So, the first thing that the small business web design needs to be is that it should be SEO friendly, so that SEO professionals can optimize it in order to attract visitors to the site. And we all know that Flash is not SEO friendly at all. Moreover, the design needs to be simple so that it is able to convey information without confusing the website visitors. It also needs to have call to action buttons that prompt the website visitor to buy the products and services on the site. And lastly, it needs an easy to use navigation button which allows users to go through the website without wasting any time.

As can be seen, there is no need to use Flash web design in the site at all. In fact Flash might just go on to complicate matters and confuse website visitors.

Not a Good Idea

Everything has been leading up to this answer — When it comes to small business web design, Flash is definitely not a good option. It will make the site visually appealing, but in turn, it can take the attention away from the objectives of the site. Also, there is a good chance that the site will take its own sweet time to load if Flash is used – something that puts a small business website visitor off, big time; a chance that small businesses shouldn’t be willing to take.