5 reasons Adobe Flash is killing your website

The web is constantly evolving and changing, almost always for the better in my opinion. One positive change over the years is websites moving away form Adobe Flash. Remember those long winded Flash intro pages, or splash pages, that were so prevalent online? They are disappearing, yes. I still see top navigation, or headers for sites that still use Flash. Or even worse, entire websites built in Flash! Yes, they still do exist.

For everyone still using Flash, I hereby proclaim my 5 reasons to abandon your video:

1. Flash cannot be indexed by search engines.

Your beautiful, soul-expanding, triumphant Flash video moves website visitors to tears. Everyone who watches your intro video immediately buys your product. Too bad no one will ever find your website. When the Google-bot indexes your site, it skips right on by your video (the Google-bot doesn't have a soul, anyways). The text in your video is never analyzed by Google and never used in keyword search.

2. People are not going to sit still and watch

The web is not TV. YouTube has its place, and in a way, it can be used as TV. Your website is not YouTube. Your website is competing for web visitors with countless other sources of information. If you get 5 seconds of someones time, you better make use of it. Please, I beg you, do not use those five seconds making the user idly watch intro video, only to bounce away, having already forgotten you.

3. Apple and Flash cannot coexist

The iPhone and iPad are the future of mobile computing. Your Flash video is not compatible on these devices, it never will be. If you are using Flash on your website, especially for anything important, you are basically telling all iDevice users to go away and never come back. Is that a segment of the market you feel safe ignoring?

4. Flash is commonly used for online advertising

Wow, cool ad. It's like a movie, with sound! No one wants to watch ads though, so many people turn off Flash so they don't have to see them. Then they come to your site, and your corporate logo and navigation bar are blocked because they are Flash.

5. Flash video takes forever to load

Again, no one cares enough about your site to sit around. Do not make your users wait for your bloated Flash video to load. When I think of all the things I could be doing while your video loads, I am already itching to hit the back button away from your site.

Comments: