Web Development

I Hate Flash Intros and Banners...

OK, so "hate" might be a strong word.

Let me ask you though, are potential customers coming to your web site to be entertained or to gather information? Unless your answer is "to be entertained," don't waste your visitors' time with Flash.

Reasons to avoid Flash:

  1. While flash intros and pages may win design awards, they lose by being slow and harder to navigate than html.

  2. Everybody's in a hurry. Why would you make someone wait 20 seconds to get through an animation to find out your message when you could otherwise deliver it instantly? Show your visitors some respect!

  3. Bandwidth hiccups can make you look stupid. Face it, even on a high speed connection you still get some connectivity ups and downs. Your Flash looks like crap if this happens before it's loaded or during its load time.

  4. It costs you money. I have yet to see a single a/b test where a Flash home page beat a static page in terms of conversion.

OK, now I've got that off my chest.

P.S. If you have a requirement that Flash can help you fulfill, by all means go for it. As a tool it can be brilliant - as a strategy it's horrendous.

P.P.S. Yes, I know there are some great Flash web sites out there. However, they are almost all for brand oriented companies who don't sell online (liquor, soft drinks, etc).

Home Page Strategy - Compromise Kills

In building out a home page, many companies try to be inclusive and make compromises to satisfy all stakeholders within their organization.

Avoid this like the plague if you want an effective home page.

I know this sounds harsh, but the truth is that every additional item on a page that does not serve the main goal of the page ends up robbing from that main goal. With this in mind, you definitely want to reserve the bulk of your home page for the one or two main products/services of your organization, relegating the rest to much lesser prominence.

So how do we keep all areas of the organization/site happy and make sure they get appropriate promotion and exposure? Here's some thoughts for different areas:

Customer Support
First off, anyone looking for support will definitely find it as long as you have a clear "Support" link in your top menu. Additionally, give Support a TON of prominence in any purchase confirmations, newsletters and customer communications. After all, nobody needs support until they've started using the product

Smaller Products and/or Sales Channels
"I know sales are still small, but how will we grow sales if we don't put it on the home page?" This is a familiar refrain from product managers the world over.

That said, if a smaller product only contributes 10% of total sales, you'll be losing money like crazy through the opportunity cost of giving it significant prominence on your home page. The solution: a keyword-rich mini-site or landing page devoted 100% to this product. This, combined with significant merchandising of this product to existing customers will garner significantly better all-around results for the product and the company.

Partner and Affiliate Recruitment
A link in your main menu will suffice for qualified partners and affiliates. If they are truly qualified they will have the insight and motivation to click on a menu link without other forms of persuasion being necessary.

Community and Resources
These are areas dear to my heart, but with the exception of specific circumstances (lead generating contests, etc), don't usually deserve major coverage on the home page of an e-commerce site.

Communities and resources, like customer support, should instead be pitched hard to existing customers/members. As well, bear in mind that one of the huge values of community and resource sections is that they are a huge SEO asset, and usually generate the bulk of their new visitor traffic through search.

There are obviously times to break these rules, but don't do so just to take the path of least resistance. If you stay true to these rules and only break them when there's a clear business reason, your home page will be much the better for it!

Questions?

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We'd love to hear about your unique business challenges. Don't worry about any persistent salespeople calling and harassing you. We'll answer your question and have a look at your web site. If we can see some ways to help you reach your goals in an ROI-positive manner, we'll let you know.