Flash is not supported on mobile devices

If your one of those people who have fallen to the Apple hype and bought an iPhone or iPad, you’ll soon discover why Flash websites are a bad idea.

Flash websites don’t work on iPhones or iPads!

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been quite vocal in the fact that he considers Flash to be a lost cause (see Steve Jobs comments), and has refused to support Flash on Apple’s mobile devices. Considering how well the iPhone and iPad are selling, thats a big market your missing out on.

Flash is slow to load

This was a major problem back in the day of dial-up connections, but even with faster broadband connections, a Flash website is slow to download. You might be thinking “Well, my visitor’s want to see my product, so they will wait”, well people using the Internet tend to be impatient. If they can’t find what they are looking for quickly, they will go somewhere else.

Flash is hard to update

With the state of the world economy, every business needs to save money. That’s one of the reasons Content Management Websites are so popular. Rather than having to call a designer in to add a update to your website, you can log in and do it yourself. That is not possible with a Flash website. Every time you want an update, you can expect an invoice from the design company.

Not everyone has Flash

Most Internet browsers don’t come with Flash included, the owner of the computer has to go to the Adobe website and download the Flash player for their browser.

Also, some people block Flash in their browser to avoid adverts. So if they are block those adverts, they are blocking your site too.

Flash is invisible to Search Engines

Above all else, this is the most important reason not to have a Flash website.

Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo etc find your site by looking at the text on the page. If all your information is buried in a Flash file, your website is invisible to them. It would be like printing a billboard for blind people.

In Conclusion

By now, your probably wondering why Flash even exists any more. To be fair, Flash still has its uses. Many movie studios use flash based websites for their movies to provide interactive entertainment (for example Disney’s Tron Legacy website), but these websites are usually supported by very large and expensive advertising campaigns.

But for businesses that want to get found on the Internet, attract new visitors and make money, a Flash website is about as much use as handing out flyers for your business at the North Pole.

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