Google Instant Preview – The Death Of Flash?
November 15th, 2010 by Simon
Google has recently rolled out Google Instant Preview. Whilst there has been a lot of hype about Google Instant and its impact on SEO, this new update focuses on the design of your website, so it is not just your title tag and description that will impact your CTR (Click Through Rate).
The video above shows a fascinating evolution in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). But what about your site? Categorically, flash has always been bad for SEO. But this rollout could prove to be catastrophic for flash-based sites.
Above is a clear example of the impact it has on site preview. Adidas is a massive brand, so on-page SEO isn’t much of a necessity. But this kind of preview destroys their brand image significantly. From an e-commerce perspective this could be devastating for their CTR and visits which they need to make sales.
With changes like these and the potential impact on websites, it begs the question of just how ethical Google are with these constant SERP changes. If these previews impact on CTRs as much as I feel it will, then these e-commerce merchants will take a loss in sales and will need to redesign their sites to compensate.
It’s still in its early days and is not accessible to all. But it really strikes the fear in the principle of having all your eggs in Google’s basket. Google have mentioned they will be updating the ability to render flash. But should we be public beta testers on things so important?
What are your thoughts are on this?
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Possibly how search engine spiders see the site when they try to cache it?
Sites that will be hit the hardest by this new feature are definitely those low quality made-for-Adsense sites.
I never did like flash. I have been a designer since the early 90s and pretty much stuck in my old fashion ways. A lot of text and less flash. Of course that doesn’t work for everyone, but it has and is working for me.