Beware the Flashers!

Flash enabled have been popular for the past few years and as more features are put into Flash it is sure that there will be a lot more sites around than at the present. Some people love them and some hate them.
Regardless of this they are here for the duration.

OK they looks good but there is a problem. You will end up with a website that nobody ever finds. Why? Because if your content was presented in Flash, most search engines wouldn't be able to index your content. Hence, you will not rank well in search engines and there will be considerably less traffic heading to your site.
As I have stated often, there is not much point having a great looking website that nobody finds! Still the choice is yours and here is my take on the issues associated with Flash designed websites.



Here are the For's.



• Interactive Opportunities



Flash's Action opens up many possibilities. Programmers can use Flash to create interactive features ranging from feedback forms to simple games. This level of interactivity can attract a certain profile of visitor back to the site.



• Standardised Site

Browser compatibility is not a problem, you will not have to worry about what browser your potential customer is using.


• Animation



Flash is a lightweight option for animation because it has smaller file sizes as opposed to the Real "movie files" that are much bigger in size.



And now the Against's



• Flash player

Unless they already have it, people will have to download the Flash player to view your site. So, just by using Flash your visitor numbers will decrease because not everyone will be willing to download the Flash player just to browse your site.





• Loading time

Flash content loads slower than HTML and many visitors will lose their patience and click the Back button rather than hang around.



• Search Engine Friendliness

It isn't.
I make my living as a SEO Company and if I was designing a site I personally would steer well clear of using much Flash if any. The search engines can simply not read what is on the page and because of this, getting found can be one heck of a slog.
My name is Lyndon Ogden and I am the Managing Director of a SEO company named Your SEO Services. Our website at http://www.your-seo-services.co.uk features SEO services, SEO tools, SEO advice and an RSS feed available to bring our new content to your desktop.