You’ve seen the web sites, they’re full of flash. It’s sometimes fun from a user experience standpoint. Flash generally opens the door up to be more creativity in how your web site functions and interacts with users. From video to on-page interaction, when used effectively flash can be a useful addition to any web site. However, you can go too far. Also, you need to keep in mind some rules when thinking about how your web site will rank in the search engines.
Firstly, web sites that are 100% flash are generally invisible to the search engines.
Google has only begun to figure out how to index flash, but in reality they cannot see behind your flash code, thus to them all the content and copy within your flash web site is invisible. That’s a big deal because what Google can’t see they can’t rank. You must give the search engine something to grasp if you’re going to rank for anything. What they find they’ll try to rank you for. If they find nothing then you’ll receive little to no traffic directly from search engine results.
Secondly, full flash web sites load slowly. These days server speed is a big deal, and if it takes 5 seconds to load a flash element then you’re delivering a below average product. Page load time will start to play a greater role in the overall ranking mechanism employed by Google.
Lastly, full flash web sites can detract from the overall purpose. I usually skip right through ornate flash intros because they have little to do with the information I want to find. It’s merely a cumbersome addition to a web site that I try to skip. It’s rare that I find a cool flash intro that I sit around to watch.
So how should you approach flash? It IS a useful took to add to your web site arsenal. It’s NOT, however, a mechanism to employ as your primary function. Flash should only be used as ornaments on a web site and should never dominate. At worst you’ll never be found in the search engines and thus can only depend on referral/bookmark traffic. At best you’ll make people sit through a preview they’d rather ignore thus degrading the overall user experience.
What are you thoughts on the use of flash on web site? How are you using flash now? Should you adjust?