First impressions are important for everyone doing business online, but maybe more so for small businesses that don't have the benefit of name recognition and consumer trust. That desire to make a good first impression, though, often leads the small business owner down the wrong path. They decide their home page needs some pizzazz, or a "Wow! factor", as I've often had it described to me.

Enter Flash. Flash is what makes all those "cool" animations you see on home pages, and gosh, if you're a small business owner, having Flash is like having a piece of Hollywood on your home page. Few can resist the temptation….

Flash is not necessarily a bad thing. There are plenty of situations where a Flash-based movie file is the right way to go. With product demos, for example, Flash can be an educational tool that adds to the user experience. The problem is that Flash is rarely used correctly. The most common mistake -- and one that small businesses seem particularly susceptible to -- is the creation of a Flash-based home page (or "splash" page).

Here's a quick rule-of-thumb: If you want to add something to your web site that requires a "Skip This" button, you're probably making a mistake. But better than that, here's an old quote from Jared Spool of User Interface Engineering, a very well respected usability expert interviewed by the Marketing Sherpa web site:

Your Flash movie may look cool, but the only lasting "wow" you'll get will be something like, "Wow, we're really getting in our customers' way with this, aren't we?"

If you're looking for a "wow" factor, it's best to look elsewhere.

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