It happens occasionally.  I’ll get a client who asks about getting a website developed that is high on creativity…inevitably leading to the question of using Flash for the site.

My answer is usually not as simple as just “avoid it.”  I like to give advantages and disadvantages to my clients so they can make an informed decision.

So with that in mind, I also looked for some credible resources to feed their opinion on the subject.  In a world where SEO techniques are growing more and more in demand, I find that drives the decisions of most people.

My main arguments against Flash for full site design include:

• many Flash sites reside on one page which means bookmarks are useless,
• search engines like Google are learning to spider Flash but sometimes you get very undesirable results,
• it becomes very hard to maintain your own content which ties you to a web developer,
• it is another program that not everyone has access to (a bug with IE8/Vista on my computer refuses to install it) so some people may miss your whole site,
• you have 10 seconds to win someone over to your product – most Flash sites I’ve been on take 3-5 seconds to bounce up a navigation…unless you’re selling “Loading” and percentage rates, you’re wasting valuable attention grabbing time, and if your site doesn’t respect their time – do they think your product will?
• customers don’t care about cool effects – they want to know if your product is worth while, if you are selling Flash design then maybe it is worth demonstrating, but most of my clients are trying to sell something else,
• Flash is costly to develop and update,
• and with JQuery you can do many of the things Flash can do to a lesser degree but with much better search engine results (see one of our customer’s non-Flash pages).

For Flash in general, I am also not a big proponent.  I can say that I’ve been to some very nice Flash sites…but I have never bought anything from one of them because their site has a fancy Flash presentation.  In the business world, that speaks volumes.

So what are my pros for using Flash?  It makes me a lot of extra cash as a web developer….it looks nice if done right, and it is less annoying than having a site with white text on a black background (I start seeing spots when this combo happens!  …by the way, if you like this combo…bookmark this Google page for your searches: Blackle)

Other articles to read:

• Search Engine Journal Article
• SEOmoz Article
• Conversation Marketing Article

Have something to say on this subject?  Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you.