The Cons of a Flash Website
Flash websites may look visually appealing, however there area number of drawbacks to full flash websites.
Whenever a client comes to me and starts talking about a full flash website, I let them know the drawbacks and suggest maybe adding some splashes of flash here and there. Maybe a banner, or a flash image, or a flash header, but I strongly suggest for them to stay away from full flash websites.
Ultimately your website design must be user friendly for everyone who may potentially come to your website. If it is not, you are potentially driving clients and customers away. You want to make sure everything you do to market your business drive people to you, not away.
A few of the cons are:
Search engines can not read flash: Flash is not search engine optimization friendly. Flash is not html, therefore search engines can not read your content. When you have a flash website, your website simply will not rank well in search engines, because the search engine can not read your content. The only way that flash websites do well in search engines, is if there is two versions of the website. The first one being flash, and the other being html. The downside to that is that you have to maintain two websites.
Bandwith and page loading time: If you choose to have a full flash website, you will need to remember that someone who may have a slower connection will have to wait a very long time for your page to load; if at all, depending on the size of your flash website. A full flash website will also create a big impact on your bandwith as well. One thing to remember, if someone attempts to load your site, and can not (or if it loads very slowly), most likely the person browsing your site will leave your page.
Requires a plug-in: Flash is a very common plug-in, however not everyone is going to have flash installed on their computer. If someone coming to your site can not view it, or has to download a plug-in to view you, you can potentially drive that person away from your website. Not everyone is going to want to download the plug-in, just so they can view your website. If they do not have flash installed, they just may move on to the next site and leave your website for good.
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