Car dealers are notorious for going over the top with their promotions, so it is no surprise that many dealers have flashy websites. But have they ever thought about the fact that these types of fancy websites may be driving away leads or keeping potential customers from even finding their site.
Many car dealer website firms use heavy flash designs. This allows these sites to have flying cars, lightening strikes and even one of those bobbing air people. While it may look visually appealing (to some of you) these types of designs have multiple flaws. In the end you will pay more for the design , loose thousands of dollars from lost prospects and have to deal with the hourly fees your provider charges for custom flash updates.
Lets dive deeper into the reasons an website done entirely in flash site is hurting your car dealership:
Flash is expensive
Your provider is going to charge hundreds of dollars for the slightest change to your flash design. Most car dealer websites based on flash do not have content management systems. So if you want to change the verbiage on the homepage or add a graphic be prepared to pay a flash developer anywhere from $ 100-200 an hour for custom work.
Flash is invisible to the search engines
Some car dealer website companies claim to to have search engine friendly websites but are actually far from it. Many companies will hide text behind a flash movie Lets do a quick experiment to see how a flash site looks to a search engine. There are two ways to quickly check this we can look at a sites code an cached file. Lets take a look at the provider Dealerskins.com . A search for the company in Google brings up their websites homepage. Click on the link that says “Cached”.
This is what you should see:
No there is nothing wrong with your screen. This site is invisible. So lets at least be fair and take a look at the code. There is the typical meta information and titles and then this:
This bit of code is the typical way a company with flash sites claims to make sites visible to the search engines. However this is a rather “Gray Hat” SEO practice. Gray hat refers to SEO techniques that may cause your site to be banned or penalized. The rule of thumb is if a user can't see it, it is no good. This is one example of why flash is invisible and the “Gray Hat” measures companies have to take to even show up in the search engines. Why build something that needs this type of flash ghetto rigging?
Limited Search Engine Saturation
Your website may be hundreds of pages but if it is mostly flash based the search engines aren't going to pick it up. Want to see your saturation? Use this Google operator “site:www.yourdomain.com” . You should see your entire inventory indexed. If not you are missing out on the complex phrases that your customers are typing in for the longtail of search.
That Flash is a little too Flashy
Flash can enhance your site but you don't want to have a distracting and hard to navigate website. Multiple studies show that flash sites that have too much movement tend to drive visitors away and hurt conversions. Would you rather have your user submit a form or follow the screeching tires of a Mustang driving across the screen? The point is use flash conservatively. Let it enhance an experience rather that force one, with in your face distractions and typically......cheesiness.
Too Long to Load and Stubborn
Flash files can be enormous and not everyone has the convenience of high speed internet. This is especially true if you are a car dealership in the middle of nowhere. In the near future more users will also be accessing your site via mobile devices which still have slower bandwidth. If your site is flash good luck having someone on a slow connection wait for it. Flash sites generally don't resize for a users screen so smaller devices will have problems displaying sites that are built for an 800 x 600 resolution. This holds true for bigger resolutions as well. So when your site is viewed on a newer wide screen monitor it looks like a cute little pop up rather than a usable website.
In Conclusion
There can be benefits from flash but proceed with caution. Flash should be used to improve and enhance a users experience. I prefer sites that use a hybrid design, where the majority of the site is in html, with a few flash elements to liven things up. Think about your favorite sites and how they compare to your car dealer website. Give your car dealer website an evaluation and make sure you are not loosing potential leads because of a flash design.
<br /><p><br />Dealerskins automotive web site designs for new car dealership websites and used car dealer web site design service creation developer hosting business company e commerce Dealer Skins Internet sales turnkey web site developers of automotive dealership websites for car sale service parts finance from template to custom car configurator price guides reviews comparison parts accessories catalog inventory polling for automotive website built from the inside out by Dealerskins<br /></p></pre><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This bit of code is the typical way a company with flash sites claims to make sites visible to the search engines. However this is a rather “Gray Hat” SEO practice. Gray hat refers to SEO techniques that may cause your site to be banned or penalized. The rule of thumb is if a user can't see it, it is no good. This is one example of why flash is invisible and the “Gray Hat” measures companies have to take to even show up in the search engines. Why build something that needs this type of flash ghetto rigging?</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Limited Search Engine Saturation</span><br />Your website may be hundreds of pages but if it is mostly flash based the search engines aren't going to pick it up. Want to see your saturation? Use this Google operator “site:www.yourdomain.com” . You should see your entire inventory indexed. If not you are missing out on the complex phrases that your customers are typing in for the longtail of search.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">That Flash is a Little too Flashy</span><br />Flash can enhance your site but you don't want to have a distracting and hard to navigate website. Multiple studies show that flash sites that have too much movement tend to drive visitors away and hurt conversions. Would you rather have your user submit a form or follow the screeching tires of a Mustang driving across the screen? The point is use flash conservatively. Let it enhance an experience rather that force one, with in your face distractions and typically......cheesiness. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Too long to load and Stubborn</span><br />Flash files can be enormous and not everyone has the convenience of high speed internet. This is especially true if you are a car dealership in the middle of nowhere. In the near future more users will also be accessing your site via mobile devices which still have slower bandwidth. If your site is flash good luck having someone on a slow connection wait for it. Flash sites generally don't resize for a users screen so smaller devices will have problems displaying sites that are built for an 800 x 600 resolution. This holds true for bigger resolutions as well. So when your site is viewed on a newer wide screen monitor it looks like a cute little pop up rather than a usable website.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">In Conclusion</span><br />There can be benefits from flash but proceed with caution. Flash should be used to improve and enhance a users experience. I prefer sites that use a hybrid design, where the majority of the site is in html, with a few flash elements to liven things up. Think about your favorite sites and how they compare to your car dealer website. Give your car dealer website an evaluation and make sure you are not loosing potential leads because of a flash design. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>
