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Flash site development has come a long way since its inception in 1996. Seven out of the ten most popular sites on the web incorporate flash and more than half a million web designers and developers regularly use flash to build web sites. Like everything though, there are pros and cons to using a flash site.
Pros of Using a Flash Web Site
A flash web site provides a unique user experience that regular web sites simply cannot achieve. With a flash website, you are not limited to text and still images. You also can incorporate music and other audio files, rich graphics, and fast-paced animation. When you build web sites that incorporate a full blown multimedia experience for the user, your site will be much more memorable.A flash website also gives you the chance to build web sites that include an intro. An intro can be used to inform visitors about your business, products, and services as soon as they enter your site. When used properly, a flash site intro can provide excellent promotion for your business.
Cons of Using a Flash Web Site
Everyone wants to build web sites that load quickly and provide the best user experience. One of the biggest disadvantages of using a flash site is the long load time. Audio, fonts, and duplication can increase the size of flash files. The larger a file is, the longer it takes for a page to load.Because Internet users can be impatient, you may lose some of the visitors who aren't willing to wait for a slow-loading page. However, there are things that you can incorporate into a flash site to make the experience more bearable for the user.
To start, you can build web sites that include what is known as a preloader. A preloader asks the user to please wait while the page loads. You can also limit the wait time on a flash website by preloading only a percentage of the movie before it begins. As the user starts watching the rest of the movie will load.
When you build web sites with flash it is very important to think about the user experience, but it is just as important to consider how it will affect other things like search engine rankings. This is one of the other major downfalls of flash websites. Because of the way a flash site is designed, search engine spiders are unable to read the context or links within a flash movie. This could affect your search engine rankings and your traffic if you aren't careful.
About the author: Cliff Posey, owner of CRP Marketing,and http://webbusinesstoolsonline.com has also operated several other successful web businesses including Love Song Cards and Radio Career Consultants. The content in this article was developed from his experience in these businesses and his continual research into further business improvements.
Do you believe that using flash web sites or any kind of flash is bad for search engine ranking?
I have never used flash web site on any websites that I have built even though I believe it to be a real attention grabber, because many SEO experts say that search engines find flash difficult to deal with.
What do you think?
What Other Visitors Have Said
Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
Flash or no flash, that is the question.
Not rated yet
I think on certain sites flash could be good but everything you do needs to be done to reach a goal.
Flash is just one tools. If it helps you reach a ...
Stay Away From Flash.
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I have heard too many things about flash sites not getting traffic because search engines do not like it so I stay away from it.
Weighing the need for flash.
Not rated yet
Like the person who wrote this article I have heard that search engines don't like flash web sites or flash on a web site that is not totally a flash web ...
