Pros & Cons of Flash Websites

We often get inquires regarding the pros and cons of developing a flash website. In this article we will attempt to outline some of the strengths and drawbacks in having a flash driven website. If your need is to convey information and to have the content be visible to search engines consider utilizing flash components within your site rather than developing a completely flash driven website. If your need is to display graphics with limited content and you are not concerned with search engine optimization then a flash driven website may fit your needs.

Flash is a powerful animation program and as such web pages come to life. Flash dominates in video distribution. Audio files can be directly embedded. There is extensive support for vector based graphics. There is much greater flexibility in the use of fonts. The most current version of Flash now supports 3D animation. Bottom line flash can deliver a visually dynamic and engaging website. However, there are some pretty significant drawbacks in utilizing a completely flash driven design. In order to be able to view a flash site the user must have and/or download the Flash plug-in. There is limited flash support on mobile phones meaning that most flash sites cannot be viewed on mobile devices. Fixed layouts are still the norm with many designs thus scroll bars are needed to view the expanding content. Flash sites are typically larger in size than your standard HTML website therefore taking longer for the page and/or site to display in the browser. (Often a preloader bar will be utilized as a visual display of the download time.) In todays environment many business owners want to manage the content of their own; developing a flash website that generates content dynamically can be challenging and costly. Finally, search engines cannot penetrate flash content therefore web developers need to rely on meta-tags as their only means of optimizing the site.