Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Help!  I had a very talented webmaster create my site in flash and I was wondering why I wasn`t receiving traffic and I met with an internet marketing company and they told me that the search engines only read html and I need to re-design my site.  So, to re-do my website and do the keyword stuff.  The proposal came to $4200!!  I had figured that it might cost $1200 but now I`m not sure what to do.  Suggestions????

You can check and see what pages from your site have been indexed - try these searches:

Google index
Yahoo index

So you`ve only got a couple of pages indexed, and they`re probably not doing you much good.  Generally search engines are not huge fans of Flash - whether that means you should drop $4200 on a redesign strictly to try and rank well in organic search results is another story.

What many website owners who want to use Flash will do is create a more search-friendly version of their site using non-Flash methods (html/css), and offer Flash and non-Flash access to visitors to their homepage.

Beyond the accessibility of search engine spiders, this is good practice for human visitors as well - some people don`t have Flash installed, can`t view it on their computers, or just don`t want to view it - you`re cutting all of them out by only offering Flash.

That being said, if your only goal is to attract some more visitors, it`s not as though you don`t have other options - you could invest that $1200 in a search advertising campaign and generate a significant amount of traffic - looks like yours is a regional business, and the level of local targeting available now in pay-per-click advertising through Google, Yahoo and others is a really powerful option.

But if you do want to generate organic search engine rankings and traffic, you are going to need to look into options for delivering your website content in a manner other than Flash.


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chuck fuller

Well, they`re right that you want more plain HTML.  However, the way that your particular flash is designed, you could basically port over your navigation and content (and do away with the animation and such) and have basically the same site.  It should NOT be a hard project at all.  I`d find yourself a web designer to port away from flash and into HTML first, and worry about the marketing once that is done.   Every web designer worth his price knows the basics of search engine optimization these days, you really don`t need to be spending your money on a specific service for that until you`ve got your feet firmly under you.



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Personal: http://www.morinfamily.com/blog
Geeky: http://duanesbrain.blogspot.com
Shakespeare: http://suchshakespearestuff.blogspot.com

Hi Naviaux

Try the folks at http://www.golivestudio.com.

I had a similar problem and they were amazing. Did the work for just under $500 bucks. Touch base them.

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Just do it!

Hi-

I tried www.golivestudio.com and it doesn`t come up.

Suggestions?

OK, totally off topic here: 

By any chance, are you related to Jon Naviaux here in Portland?  He and his wife Anne are long-time friends and clients.  A few years ago I even spent a month with them in Italy with a group of friends.  I remember them saying at some point that some relative was an interior designer or architect.

In regards to your site, it does sound like you are being taking for a ride with the $4200 figure.  The problem you experienced is one reason I try to discourage clients for over-using Flash in their web sites.  There is such a thing as being "too Flashy." As ChiefKuuya suggested, you should be able to find an inexpensive fix to the problem - and then you would have much more to spend on other efforts to drive traffic your way. 

Try using some press releases to get the word out about your recent projects to various "home" magazines in the area.  Write a column, or articles, for a local publication.  Volunteer to do a possible design segment for a local television news or feature program.  Research free directories online for services such as yours.  Consider writing a blog about design with links to your site.  Make sure your web site URL is on EVERYTHING that goes out of your office - emails, letters, proposals, marketing materials, etc.

Good luck!  - J.







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Jeff Fisher | Jeff Fisher LogoMotives | Tweet! Tweet!

Hello Naviaux!

I have a quick workaround for you until you make up your mind only if your website have a network of pages that are linked in someway and have appropriate descriptions and keywords.  Create a SITEMAP page! The sitemap will be an html page and will have a tree-like structure leading to or from the various links in your website (pretty easy!).  Add a link to this sitemap page to the footer of your current pages and now the search engine can find it`s way to crawl your site better....

You shouldn`t give up the idea of converting your current site to html.  It can be converted to html and css and still utilize the exsiting design because there isn`t much animation going on there.  We have done this before for one of our clients.  The homepage of your website can then ask the user if he/she would like to enter the flash or html version of the website.

Also, this doesn;t mean that your investment in this flash website is lost! You can utilize the existing design by burning it to CDs and use it as a give-away portfolio of all your products/work that anyone can browse offline on his/her computer ...  This is an excellent marketing tool...

For the price...I am not so sure about the total flash content of your site but if it is as simple as it looks it should definitly not cost $4200 and should be a fit for your current bugdet ($1200) or even less, especially if no new design will be created.  I also noticed the site has a flash gallery.  This will need to be replaced with an html gallery.

Hope that helps.

Riham.