This year, the trend we’ve seen at Bella Web Design is the leap from Flash animation to HTML5 or JQuery. We’ve redesigned many sites that have been built in flash simply because they are not smartphone or iPad friendly. When we talk to clients, we can’t stress enough how important it is to NOT build an entire or even part of a site in flash. Sure it is sexy and cool looking, but Flash doesn’t give the user the best experience.
And there are two things critical to your site’s success: 1.) The site is easy to index by search engines and 2.) The site is easy to navigate once the user gets on the site.
Technology has evolved to the point that so many users not only have just a PC or laptop but a mobile device and perhaps even a tablet. In fact, millions of iPads have been sold so far. Did you know that a site created in flash cannot be viewed on mobile devices or iPads? Apple continues record-breaking sales of iPads and iPhones with those making up $33 billion of the company’s total $46 billlion in revenue.
When users are browsing your site on their mobile device or iPad, they are most likely looking for information to make a decision fairly quickly. Perhaps they are ready to buy your product or want to dine at your restaurant. If your site has flash, they won’t be able to see your content necessary to make their decision and will most likely move on to your competitor.
Reasons not to use Flash:
Flash sites take longer to load. In the age of internet, users landing on your site don’t have much patience waiting for your site to load. If it takes more than a couple seconds they will move on. Flash sites take far longer to load vs. non-flash sites.
Flash is not SEO friendly. Flash is not indexed by search engines. If search engines cannot “see” your site, then they can’t refer anyone there and no one searching for your product or service will find your site.
Can’t track analytics. Your analytics are key in understanding what is working on your website and what needs to be tweaked. With analytics you can track referrals to your site, how much time is spent on different pages, what users click on and even more information. However, most flash sites only load one url. This means none of this data is trackable. So, how will you know where you need to improve?
Making changes with Flash is costly. Sites built in flash are difficult to update. That means you are paying your web developer lots of money to change your site on a regular basis. Compare this to a WordPress site, which most Bella websites are built in, which only takes minutes to update and you can see why this is a much better way to go.
Poor User experience. With Flash sites, a user cannot bookmark your url and they are not able to press a back button. Have you ever been on a site where the back button was disabled? How many times did you visit that site again?
The bottom line, if you have any Flash on your site, it’s time to bite the bullet and find someone who can convert your animation to another mobile-friendly format. In most cases, this doesn’t have to be an expensive proposition but it will take some time. Your site will regain it’s original “flash and dazzle” it had when you first launched it in no time and on every platform.
