It's sexy, it adds sizzle, and graphic designers love it, because it provides fertile ground for their creative energies, and because they can charge more for it. But should you use Flash in your Web site? The even bigger question is: should you build your whole Web site as Flash?

If you've seen the "flashy" animated graphics that seem like fluid slide shows, or highly animated web ads that even allow you to "click-around" within them, you've seen Flash. Flash is used to create animated graphics, little automated movies, and even complete web sites, navigation and all. Macromedia, the company that sells the software that creates Flash graphics, makes a big point of how many web surfers have computers that can play a Flash graphic, because years ago, most couldn't. Nowadays the ability to see Flash is pretty ubiquitous. NPD Online Research reports that "96 percent of Web desktops" have the ability to play Flash.

Unfortunately, one of the most prevalent uses of Flash is for the front page of web sites, otherwise known as "splash" pages. People seem to think that their visitors want to see a little slide-show movie every time they enter their site. These shows are really nothing more than commercials, which is why every "Flash-splash" page I've ever seen has a prominent SKIP THIS button. People don't come to your site to sit passively through a commercial, they come searching for content, so in order to not scare away these badly-desired visitors, designers add the SKIP button. So I ask you, why not just skip the Flash-splash and send them to what they came for in the first place? Once they are in your site, ASK them politely if they want to see a Flash movie: "Click here to see my Flash movie."

What's even worse than Flash-splash pages are agent web sites built entirely from Flash. Maybe if you are a rock star, a slick, Flash-based web site will work well for you. Rock stars need to communicate style; substance is often secondary. Flash is ideal for this. But real estate agents? Visitors to a local agent's web site are looking for information, not style. Flash definitely gives you a leading edge feel, but what has that got to do with converting visitors to leads? Sure, a slick looking site might increase your credibility with your visitors, but you don't need to make your entire site Flash to accomplish that. By building your entire web site out of Flash, you are bypassing the very language upon which the web is built!

You see, the web speaks HTML, which is literally "Hyper Text Markup Language". All web pages are built with HTML. But when you make your whole web site Flash, you are for the most part bypassing HTML. All of a sudden, search engines can't read your site! Your content is practically invisible to them. And bookmarking ("Add To Favorites"), which is one of the most basic and important things you can do on the web, doesn't work.

Flash graphics also cost more than standard web graphics, in my experience. Build your whole site out of Flash, and watch your costs skyrocket. Why? Because Flash is literally a little movie, filled with dozens or hundreds of images going though all kinds of movements and changes. It is complicated. I've seen first hand how the designers in my company work with Flash, as opposed to the more standard graphical formats, such as JPEG (filename.jpg) and GIF (filename.gif). You can do a lot with Flash, but it is much more involved than creating standard web graphics. It requires more experienced designers to pull it off: Complexity + Higher Per Hour Fees = Not Cheap.

And what's more, after the site is built, sooner or later you'll want to make changes. If you want to make changes to anything built with Flash, you'll find that the fees add up faster than if you just built your web site out of standard web stuff.

I hope I don't get a lot of e-mails from offended Flash devotees, because I like Flash. It's hard not to. And I intend to have it included as an integral part of all the sites my company builds in the future. It's a slick and powerful graphical medium. You can create eye-catching images that look like they came straight from Madison Avenue. They also download reasonably quickly. Flash is a great way for making a web site look like a million bucks. And that's exactly how you should use it.

But Flash is so slick and powerful that you and your designer can get carried away with it. It's an easy trap to fall into: "Start with a house. The door opens and I appear in a shower of fireworks! A phone rings! A cell phone magically appears and floats to my ear as a parade of homes goes by in the background..." I can already hear visitors to this site screaming, "Get me out of here!" as their mouse makes a beeline for the SKIP THIS, or worse, the BACK button.

So, if you are going to use Flash, how should you do it? First, take a deep breath. You need to steel yourself against the seductive nature of Flash. Its slickness is as much a weakness as it is a strength. Remember, your web site visitors are looking for information. Graphics, such as Flash, are for how you present the information; in other words, how you wrap the package. The surest way to lose visitors forever is to present them with a slick package that turns out to be empty. Don't do this! Instead, use Flash to make your content look fantastic.

Adding Flash to your web pages, instead of building your web pages entirely out of Flash, makes a lot of sense to me. Go to Macromedia's site, find their examples of successful Flash implementations, and get a sense for what this medium can do. (Notice, by the way, that even Macromedia did not build their site entirely from Flash.) Then, look at your site. Where could you add a Flash graphic that will enhance the presentation of the information that is already there? (If you don't already have an abundance of excellent, in-depth, unique-to-you information on your site, forget Flash and get back to basics.)

For example, simply converting your logo, or the graphic that sits at the top of your web pages, to Flash, could dramatically enhance the appearance of your site. Instead of just sitting there, a Flash-based graphic can move, change, and display different marketing messages. They can even include links, and sounds. All of a sudden, your site has that leading edge feel you want. This is what Flash is all about.

Flash is also great for making little movies that can communicate complex ideas visually. (Just don't hang them on the front door of your web site please!) For example, Flash movies can promote unique and high-end properties, which require a story to be told about them, beyond the usual text, photos and tours. Flash can paint a powerful picture of a flamboyant former home of a movie star, or the background of a special historic building, in a more compelling way than clicking through standard web pages ever can. And high-end properties also have accordingly higher marketing budgets required for something like this.

If you ever place ads on web sites to generate traffic for your site, such as the local newspaper's site, see if they will accept Flash-based ads. Flash can make a lot happen in a small space. With the right message, I think a Flash-based advertisement can double the response.

A successful agent web site gets lots of traffic and leads, and you certainly don't need Flash for that. But Flash is a pretty powerful graphical medium for the web, and could be a nice enhancement to any site.

Published: June 29, 2001

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Lawrence Schoeffler is Vice President of Dominion Homes Web Services and founder of NUMBER1EXPERT. Dominion Homes Web Services includes Advanced Access, Agent Advantage by Homes.com, and Best Image Marketing, and is a division of Dominion Enterprises. Advanced Access is the industry leader in agent websites. More agents invest in an Advanced Access website than any other. Agent Advantage is the official agent website service of Homes.com, one of the most popular real estate portals in America. NUMBER1EXPERT by Best Image offers America's Top Performing Web Sites, with traffic and leads unequalled in the industry, sold exclusively to Top Selling Agents. Email Lawrence at .