I am new to the game and the forum. My current website is offering legal services. Does anyone have an opinion whether a flash opening page is better or worse than a simple opening navigation page. I am getting upside down on commissions v. adwords real quick, so any advice would be appreciated.
Flash intro pages are bad, don't do it. I find them annoying and always hit Skip, I think the only people that watch them are the creators. Ohh ya, it's terrible for SEO since there is no content on the page as far as search engines can see.
I appreciate the comments. My concern is that I am not a programmer, so my openining navigation page is just "blah." On the other hand, with a flash intro page, I thought I could make a good "first impression."
I am curious about mrmonster comments that flash intro page is not seen by search engines. What about if the page has information. For example: www.supportpublictelevision.com has an intro page with some significant info. Is that seen by a search engine?
Search engine is "blind" about any flash content. So it will not crawl it - whatsoever may be the situation. Any text which is outside the flash content is absolutely visible to the SE!!!
Flash intro pages aren't recommended because as mentioned earlier users generally skip them anyway, and they don't help your SEO. If you have a legal services site you probably don't need some slick flash site anyway a solid landing page with good copy will do more for you than the flash ever would.
Flash is good when you are building a studio portfolio website or and graphics community website but for marketing all tho a small flash header is ok.