Visiting the many golf-related Web sites while doing research for NoBogies is a continual reminder of a major Web design issue commonly seen on business Web sites: using Flash everywhere and especially ONLY using Flash. The only thing I have never figured out is WHY Web designers are doing this in the first place! Perhaps they teach them to do so in college?
I wonder how many companies realize the serious drawbacks and what an extremely poor Web experience Flash sites provide for a very large segment of the Internet-using population? Even among golfers there are bound to be many who simply can not benefit from these types of sites.
Here’s how one exceptional Web Designer and SEO I know replied to my question about whether Flash is still a bad idea:
[NOTE: Mike is the author of an exceptional Web Design SEO blog called UnstuckDigital and offers Web Design and SEO Services. We highly recommend him.]
Instead of reinventing the wheel I will share here what many others have to say about what Flash is good for and why many uses are seriously impacting the effectiveness, usability and find-ability of sites using it incorrectly:
- Why Flash Is Generally A BAD Idea For Your Company’s Web Site
- Why Flash Websites are are Really, Really Bad Idea – Huge debate there from designers who love Flash and Internet Strategists and SEOs who share the limitations [Warning: some bad language.]
- Why Flash Websites are a Bad Idea
- Flash: 99% Bad – Excellent detail on major usability issues
- Creating a More Search Engine Friendly Flash Website
- 25% of All Web Users Are Disabled
Are you starting to see a pattern here? Here is a short list of the issues covered more extensively in the excellent posts I shared above:
- Flash requires a proprietary plug-in that DOES NOT work at all on all systems and must be manually loaded on others.
- No User Accessibility on phones, many PCs, 64 bit operating systems, slower Internet connections, and those with limited bandwidth or who block Flash because they must pay for extra bandwidth.
- Administrative accessibility: can YOU edit your flash files yourself? What will you do if the person who created the Flash is not available to make changes?
- Flash is bad for SEO: Most Search Engines do NOT index flash so your site will have poor search engine placement.
If your site is primarily Flash you simply can not reach much of your intended audience. The solution for those who have already invested in a Flash site is to offer an html version of your site and ALWAYS offer a way to bypass the Flash and get to an html page.
Want to see what visitors to your site see? Turn off Flash or use FlashBlockPro. This is what I see when I visit a Web page featuring Flash:
Imagine someone seeing your site as one large image like that or a page with several smaller identical images. How long do you suppose most visitors who only see these images will stay on your site? The only thing worse than a site full of Flash is one that automatically plays music!
NEW: If you already have a Flash site, are a Flash developer or really want to use it you owe it to yourself to read The Truth about Flash Websites and SEO. Mike specifically explains:
“if your website is driven by Flash a non-Flash version should be displayed for browsers without Flash support”
I would add that you should also provide a way to exit any Flash intro and select the html version manually even if your browser DOES support Flash!
NEW: Many Web site owners THINK they really, really want a Flash site. The solution to this issue and some others is to buy them a copy of the book Don’t Make Me Think. Giving one to the decision makers is a good way to get your points across without being confrontational. I’ve heard of consultants giving copies to CEOs, CIOs, or whomever is pushing for a Flash site. Here is more information on it:
*** Don’t Make Me Think by Steven Krug *** Every person involved in the design, creation, ownership or any other aspect of any Web site should own this book. It is simple, concise, to the point, and easy enough for anyone to understand – even people with no Internet or technical background.
You can read a Sample Chapter from the book. Buying a copy of this book for every member of your Team will be the best thing any Web site owner ever did. You’ll never make obvious mistakes again if you keep this book handy! Have a CEO or Owner asking you to make one? Give them this book! [NOTE: Look for the second edition.]
What do YOU think? Let us know in the comments. We use CommentLuv and all comments are dofollow.
More Resources on Web Design and Flash:
- When Should You Have a Flash Website or Use Flash on a Web site (Jun 19, 2009)
- WheFlash and Search Engine Optimization: The Latest on How Well Google Indexes Flash (Mar 17, 2009)
- When Will Flash Become a Trend? (Mar 11, 2009)
- Seven Opinions to Avoid Flash Like the Plague While Designing Web Sites (Feb 27, 2009)
- Create Effective Search Engine Optimization Using Flash–Yes Flash (Feb 3, 2009)
- Nielsen Norman Group Report: Usability of Rich Internet Applications and Web-Based Tools: Design Guidelines Based on User Testing of 46 Flash Tools
WEB DESIGN MISTAKES:
- Jakob Nielsen’s Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design
- Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 1999 (still relevant)
- Mystery Meat Navigation (MMN) Any non-obvious navigation or text than only appears when you move your mouse over it.
INCREASING CONVERSION RATES:
- Are You Driving Away Your Potential Buyers With These Two Common Mistakes
- Close More Sales TODAY By Implementing This One Free Strategy
- Why Conversions Trump More Traffic Every Time
- How to Grow Your Business In Spite of Gloomy Economic Predictions
- Audio Interview with Steve Krug, Author of Don’t Make Me Think – on Web Design and Usability
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If you’re going to use Flash on your site, you must have an HTML version that displays when Flash is enabled. It can be tempting to put in just a single line or two of HTML as your non-Flash alternative, after all, you’ve done so much work on the Flash site. But since the search engines only see the HTML, that’s what they’ll rank, and you won’t rank high with just a tiny version of your site in HTML.
If you must use Flash as your site, and you want to rank well in search engines, you need to be prepared to write your site twice – once in Flash and once in HTML.
Websites based on Flash can work fine but it depend on what you want to achieve. We’ve used Flash technology AS3 and Papervision3d and maybe we will never be on high position in SERPs but we’ve won FWA award Site of the Day and as you know it’s very prestigious award.
Flash are generally good to use, but I will agree they have some few bad negatives. I think the advantages out number the drawbacks
.-= Watson Nji Fru´s last blog ..Secret Gold Guide: Honest Secret Gold Guide Review =-.
Perhaps, the point is that flash design is really popular and like with all the new things eevryone wants to see it, both the designer who does the job and the customer for whom this job is done.
I agree completely that Flash is not an appropriate technology for building a website. HTML and its variants are designed for that purpose – Flash was designed as an animation tool, nothing more.
I would go even further and say that if your website’s front page depends on JavaScript to fully render (whether to load Flash or something else), you’re also in deep trouble. Millions of us use the NoScript plugin and all we see are blank spaces with little icons. Our next likely action is either the back button or the stumble thumbs-down.
Twitter: @GrowMap
Hi ZigPress,
I totally agree and until I finally got direct wireless that is EXACTLY what I saw because I had to limit bandwidth or HughesNet (AVOID THEM!) would make my Internet unusable.
Many have the disadvantage of believing everyone else’s life is exactly like theirs and that is far from the truth.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Instantly Acquire 76 High Quality Incoming Links =-.
I agree. Flash is really bad if you are thinking about SEO and you are wishing to support as many web visitors as possible.
But Flash is really really good for online applications and corporate browser based software which is not supposed to be seen by everybody.
Another thing that Flash is good for is of course Flash Games.
.-= Temujin@Online Browser Games´s last blog ..HTC Hero Flash Games =-.
Twitter: @freegamesgallery
I think a huge drawback of flash is lack of support on phones and mobile devices. Adobe just announced they are going to get it done for the windows mobile platform, but still I think the blackberries and iphones are going to be a long ways off. That means all those users cannot fully access your site…
.-= Free Games´s last blog ..Square Jump =-.
Twitter: @saurabhsnv
I really agree with you, Flash is really bad if you are thinking about SEO and webmasters als0 don’t like flash sites.
i agree with you.flash is not appropriate technology while creating a website but still it is very popular but i think its not appropriate for seo.nice post.keep sharing.
Flash is sooo bad for web design in my opinion. Firstly because of bad search engine results, if any results at all. Then, pages load way too long. They can’t be accessed on mobile phones.
Way too many drawbacks to use flash in my opinion.
Twitter: @tanmay2346
Flash are generally good to use, but I will agree they have some few bad negatives. I think the advantages out number the drawbacks
.-= Tanmay@Online games´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.
Twitter: @alinkbuilder
Now Google has started crawling the sites build in the Flash and i think that Google can now take the keywords from the pages which are build in flash. although they take some more time to load but there appearance is also better than the old html sites.
Thanks for the resource.
Twitter: @alinkbuilder
Its very useful info,
Thanks for the resource
Twitter: @muqtada123
Google crawler also crawls your Flash embedded clips and this is the biggest move that the one you really wants to use Flash in the website despite of reading about serious draw backs for using Flash in the website. Its a great news for such people.
flash is very good for online application but seo point of view its bad.it depend upon what type of work you are doing.well i got many key points here thanks.
java script and flash, are always an issue when talking about SEO. i hope to see that changed in the future.
I personally stare clear of flash. I think unless you are a very competent user of flash then its probably not worth using it. It does have a few things that can trip websites up for novices designers.
.-= Ana @ Crayola Glow Dome´s last blog ..Crayola Glow Station =-.
Twitter: @alinkbuilder
yes this is true and i think flash website is not good for seo point of view.because i have heard that Google generally don’t crawl the flash pages.
Come on! silver light is picking up. Forget about the flash and enter a new world with fun. Try few things in WPF and silverlight they are actually verygood
.-= GridView Edit´s last blog ..WPF TreeView Binding With Relational Dataset =-.
is there such thing as ALT tags (search engine readable description for images) for flash movies so it can be search engine friendly?
.-= Jan@Primary Work at Home´s last blog ..New video for Primary work at Home =-.
well we cant say flash is not good it depend upon your work.if you are doing seo than flash is not good because crawler doesn’t crawl the flash pages but on the other side it make the site attractive.
.-= monikaSEO@Bingo Hall´s last blog ..Bingo Chat Phrases =-.
Twitter: @amitbarfa
I have read on google that the search engine bots have started crawling the Flash so for the SEO we can also optimize the flash sites.
Thanks for the info.
Twitter: @muqtada123
But still it is advisable that you should use only 15 to 20 percent flash for your website otherwise its a new thing we came to know that Google is indexing flash scripts so we should only try some of that not fully depend on that. Right
Flash can look good but often creates more problems then it solves. People who are not web savy can get confused by flash and will just leave your site. This is not a good thing if you do business online. You generally want people to stay on your site as opposed to leaving immediately.
info that u have given in this blog is really impressive..Iam very happy to visit ur blog
Watch lates movies online or Download movies for FREE in HD at http://www.onlinemoviehouse.com ….. Best Quality
Twitter: @muqtada123
Oh, it needs a high speed internet, i cannot watch even a clip in my internet speed situation, but anyways your link is useful
well just the fact that search engines do not pick up text in flash is one reason to not use flash, although i have been told you can write a script now that sends your data to the engines right within the swf file, but i could be wrong
Twitter: @muqtada123
That is why i never suggest flash for my website.
Twitter: @saurabhsnv
In my opinion flash is good to attract visitors but its not good for crawlers points of view.Flash also takes high speed internet as well.
I never use flash for my site because not everyone have a high speed Internet connection. By the way, it’s not SEO friendly
Just my thought. Cheers everyone. Great topic to share 
.-= Aaron@Malaysia web design´s last blog ..Top 5 reasons to avoid cheap Web Design Services =-.
Thanks, this is a great insight into the problems of using flash, and thanks for the recommendation of the guys blog,i have regular checks to see if he has any more tips x
.-= Eden@Megan Abott´s last blog ..Why Do People Play Online Bingo? =-.
But still, flash sites tend to look awesome. Its much easier to create a good looking site with flash graphics, it’s all up to your decision
Or you could just behave like a normal person and utilise flash in a sensible manner, you know to make your site look better without creating the entire thing in flash.
its nice info for web developers
Flash is very popular in these days but it is not appropriate for seo.
Thanks for shearing
I think that flash can be an amazing tool for interactive programs on your website and for fast loading, good looking animations over the internet. Though some designers tend to overdo it and use it just for the sake of its pretty visual effects. You’ll probably find that due to compatibility issues, or from people being too impatient to wait for your site page to load; you’ll lose a lot of visitors to your website. If you’re using flash for a personal page or for a specific animation, then it can be useful; but I wouldn’t use it for a business website that needs to present its services clearly.
.-= Brian@stone wall panel´s last blog ..A manual juicer is the perfect addition =-.
To be honest I don’t like flash sites. Plus flash sites are very hard to rank high in Search Engines….
I agree. Flash is not good for SEO. Especially for older computers.
However flash games are great for free entertainment.
For example http://www.dmcgames.co.nz
.-= DMCGames´s last blog ..6 Sixers Cricket =-.
Twitter: @ronniedare
Flash as web design can be done in effective or SEO friendly way. Just make sure, there is enough description or text along side that site. As well as strong title tag and meta tags will help too.
.-= RonLey´s last blog ..Make Money With Twitter =-.
Twitter: @iamkaiser
FLash in not really good for SEO before but I guess google can not read Flash content based on Matt Cutts blog. you can also add description and other tags to make it more SEO friendly. If you really want to have a good ranking site you need to create text based site or site with few flash maybe on header only
.-= Kaiser´s last blog ..What is Jejemon? Definition of the Word JEJEMON =-.
Twitter: @ZonePlay
I think that flash is on the uprising way. Since Google can read text in flash documents, flash maybe gets some SEO potential in the near future. But for now I would prefer a mix between flash and html content as at the moment Google is not ready to fully understand flash documents.
.-= Andreas@PlayZone´s last blog ..Dragonball Z: Burst Limit =-.
Google for right now and I believe for a while will want nothing to do with flash. Google loves text and content. But I do hope one day they can find a way for us to use flash that will benefit SEO.
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Twitter: @tanmay2346
Hi
I agree with u according to u Flash files, especially those using sound effects, embedded movies or bitmap images are big in size and can take a while to load. Hence, if it takes too long to open your page, visitors will no longer wait and transfer to the site who’s loading faster. Also, analog users will definitely have a problem in loading of Flash webpages.
Thanks !!!
Twitter: @_printingblue
Well i am not professional but Flash is great because you can do a lot of creative things with it, such as making Cool Websites or even buttons or design stylish text boxes. but i never ever understand why search engine don’t like flash websites.
Flash does provide rich content for websites, but a big problem with it is that it doesn’t work well with Blackberry or Apple phones. Since these two brands are both very popular, this problem affects many people.
.-= Rachel@Web Design Chicago´s featured blog ..Improve Conversions with Remarketing =-.
Using flash, websites can be made stylish and fabulous, it is too useful and great, Thanks for this blog.
Nice and superb article which explain about the flash and there importance for which the website looks good and stylish, Thanks for giving this blog.
Like other posters have stated, it is really all about what you’re trying to accomplish. To get better results on you SERP reports, you may want to steer clear of Flash. However, if the site is established, it is nice to have.
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