For the love of Beer—No more Flash!
I am a fan of microbrews. Why, because they are homegrown, fun, unique, tasty, and… more interesting than the average bottle of suds.
Perhaps it’s these wonderful qualities that get them in trouble when it comes to their websites. What’s the trouble? All-Flash sites! I have nothing against Flash, in small doses.
The main issue I have is that an all-Flash site makes it hard, if not impossible, to find new microbrews to try. Why? You know it…lack of search engine optimization (SEO). I am not an SEO expert (those of you that are please chime in, there’s a beer in it for you!), but I know the basic rules. If the site doesn’t utilize text, links, keywords, tags, etc. search engines won’t find it. If search engines can’t find the beer—then I can’t find the beer. Unless I dig, and well, I’m lazy and I don’t want to do a bunch of digging. I’d venture to guess that the average beer consumer doesn’t want to dig either.
Check this out, two microbrews that both have pale ales: Magic Hat #9 and Roosters Polygamy Pale Ale [sorry, as you know, I can’t provide a specific link for either brew]:
Now, a Google search for pale ale:
Do you see Magic Hat and Roosters? Neither do I! [Note: there weren't any ads either.] If it weren’t for the kindness of friends (word of mouth works again!), I wouldn’t have found out about Magic Hat. And that would be sad…because it’s really great beer.
So, why would SEO be great for microbrews? The Search Engine Guide offers up the following:
- Obtain Increased and Higher Quality Sales
- Increased Search Engine Visibility
- Brand Recognition
- Enhanced Credibility and Legitimacy
- Investment in your Domain Name
- Competitive Edge and Research Advantage
- Ad Spend predictability and High Return on Investment (ROI)
- Passive Business Development
And I get it…they are “micro” and perhaps searchability, brand, competition, etc. really doesn’t matter and they are happy with where their revenues are. But the truth is…Flash sites are sometimes just not very nice to look at, lack functionality, and are just plain hard on the eyes.
I’d ask microbrews to keep in mind when thinking about their cool, all-Flash website how many people won’t be finding them…and the lack of beer happiness for us.
Tip: Here’s a really great article from Search Marketing Gurus that discusses the disadvantages of an all-Flash site.
This is just my opinion, what do you think? Are you a friend or foe of the all-Flash site? Have any tips or best-practices for SEO that I am missing?
[Image: Purchased from iStock]
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9 Responses to “For the love of Beer—No more Flash!”
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I hate flash sites on general principles. Usually a lousy user experience, and then, as you rightly pointed out, there is no searchability. In an AdWeek interview, David Armano (Logic+Emotion blog) said, “Flashturbation is a symptom of a bigger disease: bright and shiny object syndrome.” Just because you *can* do something on a web site doesn’t mean you should.
@connie, agreed! I love how David Armano expressed it. A few things that I didn’t mention are 1) design costs associated with all-Flash sites are much higher than a normal site and 2) companies with all-Flash sites give up the ability to manage ‘on-the-fly.’
couldn’t agree with connie more!
flash sites in general just suck for optimization, and just because Google can read a flash file now, doesn’t mean that it going to get these sites to rank. These all flash sites generally are lacking the text they need to get any thing going in a search engine.
Beyond that, Flash lacks the ability to allow the pages to actually be pages. Meaning have their own title tags, and descriptions. Add in that you cannot logically separate your content to guide the search engine to know what’s most important and what relates to what on a page, all you have is this “Text”.
sending you to that Triumph Brewery site with the note (don’t cringes its all in flash) must’ve gotten your brain going Beth!
~Li
RE: “sorry, as you know, I can’t provide a specific link for either brew”
In addition to the SEO implications, there’s also a word-of-mouth marketing impact. Let’s say I, as another fan of Magic Hat, were to ask you, “Hey, have you tried the Roxy Rolles?” If you hadn’t, I’d then likely be compelled to show you where it is on the Web site, so you could catch a glimpse of the label and be on the lookout for the varietal on your next trip to your favorite beer purveyor.
“OK, go to magichat.net, and click on “Yes” to say you’re 21. Then in the upper left corner, click on “Our Elixirs.” No not “Our Beers.” They call them elixirs.
“So once you’ve selected “Our Elixirs,” you’ll see a sub-navigation has appeared. Click on “Flavors and Facts.” You’ll arrive on a page that looks like an assembly line, with Magic Hat #9 appearing as the default. Click on “Seasonal Ale” at the top. I know, the navigation is in a different spot than when you were on the home page….
Now, here comes the tricky part. Just below that top nav, you see the name of a beer, and then there’s a double arrow to the right of that. Mouse over one of the arrows, so that the beer names move. You’ll see “Roxy Rolles” flash by. To make the scroll go slower, move your pointer to the middle of the double arrow, then click on Roxy Rolles once you get it to stop.”
Wouldn’t that have been a whole lot easier if I could just say, “Go to magichat.net/roxyrolles.” No such luck with that tactic, though. It’s a 404 page.
Don’t get me wrong. Flash has its place. Once upon a time I worked in a newsroom, and Flash was a great story-telling tool in our toolbelt. It helped us bring news stories to life by adding additional dimensions — sound, video, even simulated 3D — to show how something happened.
But using Flash just because you can is the wrong motivation.
All ye with Flash sites, how many marketing opportunities are you losing by making your content difficult to find — for customers or for search engines?
@lievans, see….didn’t I say I’d buy you a beer for a comment?!
And it was a micro to boot…too bad Triumph has an all-Flash site, because their Saison & Irish Red are really good, and yet, and I can’t share a link w/anyone to let them know how good they are. I really wish that agencies and graphic designers would stop promoting all-Flash sites…they are a detriment [even if Google can read an all Flash site].
@spolay, thanks for stopping by and linking my post on your blog. Nice to meet you!
I give you credit for sticking on their site longer than I did…it was giving me a headache. And I really wanted to learn more about their variety packs, but the type was too small.
That said, I did go back and what I found [after some digging that I don't normally want to do.] that’s odd is they have YouTube videos, a blog, AND are on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace…and have a normal site (People’s Place). Looks like they are utilizing social media tools but they don’t optimize their main website. It’s just such a disconnect!
Likewise, Beth. And I meant to complkiment you on your post, too. Of course, I am biased, because I love beer and the Web. You did a great job combining the two.
Beth,
I have real concerns with all Flash sites – much the same as Connie.
However Google recently started indexing them in much more effective ways, so tis may help with search listings for Flash sites.
This may not necessarily be a good thing however!
For the micro-brewery, maybe they need to engage in some social marketing as well.
If people find out about them by word of mouth, then they could provide a Facebook application or similar that their fans could use to spread knowledge of their brew faster.
Support your key influencer, help them to increase their credibility and reach and you help your brand.
@CraigThomler, what’s funny is that I did find another link on their crazy site that led to a blog, YouTube videos, and a normal site (People’s Place)! They are also on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace… (might need to follow them on Twitter!) So, they are utilizing social media tools (except it doesn’t seem like they ‘listen’ via Google Alerts, etc. because I haven’t heard from them). It’s a disconnect for sure.