Have "wow!" assets like Flash presentations increased return traffic to your Web site?
As we add more digital media and Flash content to our corporate Web site, I wonder how much it will draw traffic back for repeat visits. My hopes are for strong efficacy.
Answers (11)
The short answer here is this: don't go overboard. Too much is way too much. People want things quickly and often find themselves annoyed with flash. When it comes to success, take a lead from Google and Apple. Both websites are as simple and straight forward as can be! Neither one uses flash.
Remember, your website should be about the content you provide, not the "cool" way you provide it. Some flash is good, more than some: people will run as far and fast as they can.
Links:
Brad N
Graphic Designer
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Hey Kevin,
Like so many elements of design, Flash and other "Wow!" elements fall into the "it all depends" category.
While it doesn't look like the Flash elements RiceLake.com were necessarily meant to be updated frequently, I do appreciate how they contribute to the company's polished and professional look–something that many in the industrial market tend to overlook. This will help your company in the long run because it helps the web site stand out above others in the field.
On the other hand, you want to be careful as search engines are still pretty blind to "Wow!" elements. This means that pretty much any content you put into a Flash image, for example, will be excluded from the criteria used to rank pages.
Overall, the best way to attract repeat visitors is with engaging and *continually updated* content. Whether that is Flash, video, or simply interesting blog entries determines the ease, frequency and cost of creating those updates.
I see Rice Lake has a quarterly magazine. What if you kept the home page fresh by highlighting a particular story from the latest issue in the main area of your home page, rather than limiting the magazine to the far right corner?
Hope that helps.
-Brad
Christopher B
Graphic Designer
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I agree with Mak. People visit websites for the content, and return for the content. Some of the sites I visit most are just simple HTML pages, no photos, no flash, no animations. I return to these sites because they provide the information I am looking for.
Flash or any other multimedia that exist for no purpose, other than providing WOW, tend to be annoying after the first viewing.
Think about the information you want to provide to your clients. Think about content that will bring them back. Then consider the best way to present that content. Then consider your audience. Are they technologically savvy? Will they have Flash installed? Will Flash make it easier for your clients to view or get to the information they need, or will it hinder them?
If new clients visit your site and have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get to what they need, chances are they will leave with a negative impression and may not return. But if your site is well organized and easy to navigate and has compelling, updated content that is relevant, they will return.
Paula H
Owner & Principal, Rabbit Mountain LLC -- web design & development, internet marketing, content management
Personally, I hate "wow" -- including Flash, javscript and other programming candy (with the exception of AJAX since it actually adds to usability and user experience) -- and steer my clients away from it at all costs:
- As new browsers, language updates and software updates (e.g., the Shockwave/Flash plugins) are released, "wow" elements break... backwards-compatibility is a major issue
- "wow" does not translate to mobile. If any percentage of your target audience is on planes or in cars a lot of the time, you've automatically lost them if they can't access your site via their mobile devices.
- "Wow" isn't sticky. People don't hang out at your site to look at the cool graphics, they stay because your content is relevant and easy to find.
- "Wow" interferes with scalability unless you plan it from the beginning and execute it very carefully
- "Wow" does not lend itself to viral sharing... no one can forward a Flash graphic to their colleages' email addresses and actually have it work
- "Wow" interferes significantly with search engine optimization, accessibility, and usability unless your web team REALLY knows what they're doing
A corporate site does not have to include "wow" elements to achieve polish and professionalism. In my opinion, these communicate a lack of respect for the website user, for all the reasons listed above.
That being said, Flash does indeed have excellent uses for developing interactive applications, such as you find at automobile manufacturers' sites for building your dream vehicle or at clothing sites to view different outfits on a virtual model. Unless you're doing something along these lines, I personally recommend staying away from Flash and stick with XHTML/CSS and non-moving graphics. Put your resources into developing excellent content and into usability/user experience.
Joel H
3D Animator and Rich Media Developer
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Don't let Flash haters fool you Kevin! A well done interactive element (Flash or AJAX or plain old JavaScript or rollover images) can make a site memorable and deliver a strong return on investment, even though these interactive pieces are typically the more expensive parts of the site. I don't know that return traffic is the ideal measurement for this, as it all depends upon your goals.
Case in point: I have a client who has a mechanical product that is marketed to engineers and machinists. I put together a basic animation that finishes with the product on the screen and "hotspots" that show internal components and feature/benefit messages for each. It looks very nice, with transparent parts and glows, so the Wow factor is there, and now the company uses it as a tool for explaining what the various components of the product are to potential customers. So it turns up being part of their face to face sales tool arsenal as well, an unintended use case but one that adds a lot of value. The fact that you can publish out a Flash movie as a self-contained executable (.exe file) and push it out to your sales force (or customers on a flash drive) is gravy.
So look at what you are trying to accomplish, and make sure the interactive design supports that. If you want to boost overall traffic, make sure you have a "share this link" or other viral call to action in there. If it is return traffic you want, make sure there is a compelling reason to check in again with freshly updated content. Finally, always be looking for other ways to re-use and repurpose this kind of content!
I think that Flash is overused for things that adds nothing to website content. I think that it is not a Flash problem, it is how Flash is applied.
I'm not a Flash fan. I develop websites based on Joomla platform and I don't like Flashy pages with nothing to show and loud music that makes me adjust my computer volume level everytime, but I think that Flash could find its place if only web developers, understand that it should be used, mainly, when an animation is better than still images to explain something, as in Joel Howe mechanical product example.
I think that Google make a great use a animations too, sometimes they are videos, sometimes they are animations, and with Chrome they used a comic style magazine. It is more a how-we-use-it problem than a what-we-use.
In terms of traffic return, I think that it all depends on a website-content / flash-annoyingness ratio. :)
I think "wow" is based on attracting attention. Anything a company can do to attract more of its global market, it will do. I think that is part of advertising . Using perClick() or Google Analytics to data mine traffic is where you will likely find your results. Multimedia is not always suitable for company sites but its purpose is to draw people in.
-Michael
No. I used to have a flash website with some "wow" factor. My traffic was dismal. Then I switched to a blog format and now my traffic has increased by more than 100 times.
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Glenn B
Owner at High Concept Media,LLC
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Flash is useful as a more compelling alternative to PowerPoint presentations. The animations can give prospective customers a realistic demonstration of a product or service.
Flash is also great for banner ads. I particularly like floating Flash, which can overlay an entire Web page.
i'm not a designer, but personally i dislike a few Flash quirks that people / companies use, i dont know the technical terms for them:
1. browser resizing, if i want my browser to be the full screen size i am more than capable of doing it
2. pop-up redirectors, so let me get this straight, i take the time to go to your website and you tell me how to view it? what is the purpose of having the web address if i can view anything on the page without another window opening?
3. the most important thing! what if i dont have the latest version of flash installed on my computer! if i am at work or at a public computer i may not have the ability to update without the network admin. being there, what a pain!
Nancy H
Client Relationship Lead at ADi
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I think that users will come to expect more rich media experiences as TV and the web converge even more over the next few years. That said, the rich media you add should support your story and not detract from it. Rich media such as flash and animation can be very helpful for content that has a "how-to" aspect to it. OR, if you need a more emotional hook to your story with words, musci and movement. But, people will return for the content, so you need a good long term content strategy as well.
