As a online retail marketer, fashion blogger and generally geek-loving girl, I always pay close attention the best practices for optimizing fashion websites. An major debate is about the use of Flash in web design and organic search engine optimization (SEO). Most fashion marketers think that flash can’t be used and it kills SEO. Well, that’s only a half truth. You can have a site with a flash lay over that is super duper SEO’d.

Making a flash site that is SEO friendly is not difficult – for someone who knows what they are doing. It takes a time and it takes effort. If you want use Flash, you must use JavaScript to progressively load the Flash content for search engines to index the contents of the Flash files; you must separate content from presentation and behavior.

There are many coding languages, but which one is best is is dependent on the site and its purpose. Just because Flash is ARTISTIC, doesn’t mean its better.

You have to think about what the goal of site, what is it supposed to communicate? What is message? Does it fit the medium?

In reviewing and dissecting 25 fashion websites that are completely based in flash, or heavy use of flash, it seemed that each site was seeking to create an experience. Do these sites really need to be in flash to tell a story or convey a message to their customers? Absolutely not. If anything, they are complicating the user experience.

A great example is Zara’s website: http://www.zara.com, though not an e-commerce portal for the company, the site is base is based is Flash and video. Zara is telling a story, but it’s over the average user’s head. The navigation is a series of cascading pop ups that if you miss the link your trying to click on, it collapses back down. For an older customer who isn’t as web savvy as their 20-something counterpart; the site is confusing, a bit frustrating and makes the customer leave because of usability issues. If Zara took H&M’s  (http://www.hm.com) approach, the site would be more successful. The site could still have Flash components, but a static navigation bar makes the site much more usable and inviting.

The primary function of  a site is to build awareness of that brand/retailer online, bring customers seeking a certain product or products to the website and convert them into sales. If search engines can’t read beyond the first page, then what is the point of having an e-commerce portal?

Flash & Content Related Drawbacks

Fashion sites can have hundreds or thousands of images, audio, podcasts, movies and graphics.

Search engine robots can’t see your graphics, can’t hear your audio, and won’t execute JavaScript or Flash. They need alternative descriptions (ALT tags) of non-textual content and navigation that works when JavaScript and Flash are not available. So none of that content is indexable.

Internet users can choose to disable JavaScript and applets in their browser’s preferences and some browsers do not support these technologies at all. “Likewise, search engines’ “browsers” do not read scripts; therefore a webpage’s usability should not be crippled when scripts are not supported. Otherwise, search engines may not even index the page, let alone rank it well” (Andy Hagan).

By keeping the language simple, you maximize your marketing efforts and income potential. You don’t need Flash to create the user experience, with the social tools available today, your content and your users’ content does that.

Retailers & brands can create great experiences for their customers through creative design, quality product (even three dimensional) photography and social marketing tools (Facebook, YouTube, blogging, forums). And all these tools can be used to leverage search engine marketing campaigns.

• Quality product photos can be used for blog optimization (alt image tags) and community sites like Polyvore.com.
• YouTube accounts for 25% of Google searches, video titles and tags can be used to rank for key word placements.
• A retailer with their own forum can get instant market research on product ideas/concepts or ask it’s community for photos of how they wear the clothing or accessories they purchase. Those assets are invaluable.

Should an fashion brand have a flash website?

No. While it looks pretty and exciting, for viewers on a slow connection, it takes forever to load.

No. Flash sites are not viewable on PDAs – a major outlet for clients that make our products.

No. Because it does hurt your SEO, as do graphic intensive sites.

If you have one, make sure there is an HTML/Mobile version.

Related Resources:

• Geoff Stearns – Flash Object
• Andy Hagan - White Hat SEO
• Google – Webmaster Guidelines

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