I am redesigning my website... I target the small biz market and the consumer market I would like to have to big buttons on the home page...like Click here if you are a "small business owner" AND "consumer"? Could this damage my ratings on Google?
It depends. Here at pearltrees.com, we have a 100% flash web site. We didn't optimize it yet, but we have already some ideas about it. The point is if you have a 100% flash home page you should create some HTML behind it. So put your flash in a absolute div on the top of your site and keep a strong optimized HTML page with some internal links. Creating a sitemap might help as well.
ok thanks for the advise Cyno and Astounded. At the moment the content for the business customers is a turn-off for the consumer products and services. Likewise, the consumer offering could be a turn-off for the business customers. Is there any other way I can "channel", the two different sets of customers to tailored content?
Well google bots cant crawl flash material unless you have the proper coding in the site like meta tags, descriptions, keywords etc... Not really a fix but helps.
I think it depend how you optimize your site but somehow you must minimize the flash for fast loading.
Is there any other way I can "channel", the two different sets of customers to tailored content from my homepage - other than using Flash?
If I'm honest i would avoid flash design sites like the plague. google has big trouble indexing them and you wont get much longtail traffic. go for html websites/pages with lots of text with a few flash bits and bobs on the pages
We build a heck of a lot of Flash websites, many of which do very well with SEO. I suggest utilizing proper, relevant titles, descriptions, and page content. With strong backlinks your site will rank well. One option is to break each page into an individual flash file with its own title and meta description, which has worked well for my clients. I hope this helps. -Aaron
If you need a flash only site I would do it exactly the same. Each page with it's own .swf, title, keywords, description.
Thanks guyz for that advice on flash. Is there any other way I can "channel", the two different sets of customers to different parts of the site from the homepage?