Flash v. HTML – what’s right for your site.
Over the last few years Flash, originally developed by Macromedia who was bought out by Adobe, has grown in it’s popularity for website development. This is particularly true for designers and developers who wish to have streaming video content and also stunning visual presentation. With it’s smooth transitions and integrated use of sound effects, Flash offers some capabilities that simply cannot be matched using pure HTML code, such as animation, dynamic content generation and user interactivity. Much of this capability stems from the Actionscript, which is the scripting language used in the Flash environment. Actionscript allows for developers to create complex animations, incorporate streaming video and provide unparalleled interactivity.
So if Flash offers the best visual experience for a website, why wouldn’t everyone want to use it? A few key considerations are cost of development and Search Engine Optimization (SEO for short). Developing Flash based websites requires the use, and at least some level of mastery, of the Flash program from Adobe itself. This means that unlike HTML, which is much easier to learn and edit through freeware programs, Flash requires someone well versed in programming the dynamic effects. This mastery is generally associated with a higher development cost than a strictly HTML site alone. So if you are on a budget, Flash probably isn’t going to be the best answer to your website construction needs.
Search-engine optimization is another important consideration if the website will rely on search engines to generate traffic. When looking at how a search engine will index a website, pure HTML offers the best choice. The reason is that search-engine spiders were originally designed to interpret and understand HTML code and only in recent years have search engines made progress at indexing Flash content as well – and even those strides can leave results that are lacking. So if you are counting on native search engine rankings to be a key component of your business plan, you are probably going to want at least a good portion of your website developed in HTML.
There is also the option of integrating both together, or if budget is not an issue for your company, developing dual-sites that allow for the detection of the Flash player installed in a user’s browser which would then automatically direct users to the greater visual experience of the the Flash site. But at the same time search engine spiders would be able to interpret the HTML based version of the site for optimal rankings. And best of all, neither would have to know the other is experiencing a completely different website. As most could probably expect, the cost of developing dual-sites is nearly double that of just choosing one or the other.
So in short, the choice between Flash and HTML is really one of aesthetics, cost, and functional need. If you are looking to start a site, and are in the process of choosing a programmer, make certain s/he is more than capable in programming in the language you feel is best for your site but also listen to the recommendations of the pros.
Tags: CSS, flash, html, search engine optimization, seo, web design, website, website design