5 Reasons Why Flash Is Bad

Many new clients come to me with questions about whether or not they should build their site in Flash. This article will give a helpful overview of why Flash generally isn’t a good medium for business websites.

If this is your first time planning a website for your business, you’re probably wondering if Flash is the way to go. You may have seen another site that had an impressive animation in Flash. You may be thinking your site would benefit from animation too. Wouldn’t it be incredible? Your competition would be jealous, your customers would be wowed, and everyone in the office would be buzzing about it.

In the long run, Flash is usually a very bad idea for your website. Let’s explore some facts and details that I’ve learned since I started building websites in 1998:

1) Most people hate waiting on Flash to load.

There have been numerous studies in which internet users expressed frustration when they went to a site and had to wait for the Flash to load. It slows them down, usually isn’t worth the wait, and some people may become so irritated that they leave the site before it even finishes loading. What a risky way to launch your new business!

2) Flash will kill your search results.

It’s a fact. Search engines cannot read Flash, they do not add it to their search results and everything that is presented in Flash will be discarded. You can forget about keywords, company information, and any other valuable information that you want to come up when people search for your company. If your site is in Flash, you’ll have a much more difficult time getting it on Google.

3) It’s usually unnecessary to have Flash on your site.

Many sites that use Flash don’t really need it. For example, almost all business sites are composed of standard text and imagery. There is usually a company introduction, history, list of services, and contact information. Flash is not required, nor needed, to present them in a visually stunning format. In fact, all of the sites in the Nathan Grimes Design Portfolio are achieved without Flash. You can still have a great site without Flash, and exciting enhancements, such as slideshows and galleries, can be done using javascript.

4) Maintenance and upkeep of Flash is a nightmare.

If you want to edit a Flash website, you will need to keep a copy of the original file it was created from, open it up in Flash software to make changes, re-export it and re-post it to your site. There are many steps and a lot of hassle.

A regular site can be edited using any HTML editor, or sometimes just a simple control panel. For example, Nathan Grimes Design can bundle a very user-friendly control panel that lets you login from any computer to change text or pictures on your site. Hit the “Save” button and your site is updated in real-time. No extra software or files are needed.

5) Flash can make a site very difficult to read.

If you have perfect vision, I applaud you. In fact, I envy you. The fact is that most people begin to notice a decrease in their eyesight by age 25, and by the time they are 45, they probably need glasses for reading. If a site is in Flash, there is typically not a way to enlarge the text. That means if your customers have trouble reading your site, they will just be out of luck. But a regular website will allow users to enlarge the default text so it’s easier to read.

Closing thoughts

I get a lot of re-design jobs from frustrated Flash customers. Their site was built in Flash and they were dissatisfied with the outcome, or simply couldn’t maintain it. So on a regular basis, I have to do clean-up on the mess left behind from Flash sites.

When a new client comes to me and asks for my professional advice on whether they should build their site in Flash, I usually tell them “no.” The only exception is when they have an idea that really and truly would be better if it were done in Flash. But those are few and far between, and usually entail audio or video.

This article should be a great starting point when you’re deciding whether or not to build your site in Flash.
Contact me today for a free website design consultation and advice.

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