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FLASH SITES -- Luxury Real Estate Site Blunders

By
Mortgage and Lending with i Cantu Media LTD

I got off the phone today with a client. They were gung ho on Flash websites. I had to explain that the core content is really not readable by search engine bots. I am not sure how effective I was when I described the situation because their eyes glazed over..... Apparently they had dropped a small fortune into this site.

There are ways you can optimize these Flash sites to an extent..... But for my money, I would rather have an HTML website to get the job done myself.

I would also say no to:

* ASP sites
* Wordpress sites, (for my main website)
* Joomla

I would say no to these styles of websites if I wanted to establish my real estate company. After you have some sort of name or presence you can add different sites to your campaign.

The worst of these in my opinion is definately the Flash sites. You still see a lot of Luxury real estate sites, and luxury living environment sites use a lot of flash. These sites choke up on the browsers too and will not load their movies fluidly. This is a problem if you want to win over some buyers with a slow computer. A lot of your prospects will give up and move onto the next site.

If you have a lot of sexy graphics zipping around there is a good chance the search engine bots can't read it. I also include Javascript in this list.....

You know, the new Iphones will not even show Flash on their platform. Rumor has it that Apple wants to have their own version of Flash. They want to create something that is going to rival Adobe's efforts. So that means when you want to show someone a house on your iphone you will be limited. The Flash animations will not appear on your phones. It comes up as an empty box.

Keep it loose for now, keep it HTML, and keep on selling.

Todd & Devona Garrigus
Garrigus Real Estate - Beaumont, CA
Broker / REALTORSĀ®

Ted - Just curious... Why do you think a Wordpress site is not a good idea for a main website? I was considering building one but I'd love to hear your take on it.

Oct 12, 2010 02:40 PM
Ted Cantu
i Cantu Media LTD - Farmington Hills, MI

I like Wordpress, I think its a great platform. The content is easy to control. But I like to use an HTML platform if possible so I can really manipulate the content and optimize every bit of it for the search engines. 

I like the wordpress to work hand in hand with the website. There is a great way to tie these two together so they work well. But I want the HTML site to take the center stage because it has more options.

Oct 12, 2010 02:50 PM
Ralph Janisch ABR CRS Broker
Janisch & Co. - Conroe, TX
Selling Northwest Houston to good people like you!

Some people just can't wrap their heads around SEO or web marketing. 

Oct 12, 2010 04:40 PM