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Flash Animation Designs

At Just Template It, we are inundated with requests for Flash website design from clients but many of them are not even aware of what that entails. While it is an intriguing technology that adds flashy graphics and an element of interactivity to a website, it is not the best choice for everyone and we are not afraid to advise clients of this. Flash pages can help to spruce up a website and reduce the level of boredom experienced by viewers fed up with static pages and it can tell a story much better than regular text. However, the effects of Flash on search engine rankings need to be considered before proceeding. Here are a few considerations for those interested in Flash website design.

• What is the purpose of the site? If you are looking to offer visual effects to visitors, Flash is certainly recommended. This is especially the case if you are running a Design/Arts company where visitors learn about your website from somewhere other than the search engines.
• If the purpose of your site is to use SEO techniques to get more visitors to your website, it is best if you severely limit Flash design on your website to certain pages or else not use it at all.
• While things are improving from Flash websites, they are still not as search engine friendly as their static counterparts.
• Most visitors will spend 30 seconds or less on a website so Flash graphics can help to intrigue them in a way that static pages cannot but this depends on your target audience. If your prospects like to read, they probably won’t be impressed by flashy graphics.
• Flash movies become obsolete after a certain period of time so be prepared to update your website with regularity.

Advantages of Flash Websites

The obvious advantage is that Flash makes your website look expensive and glamorous. You can use a host of interactive features such as movies, games and feedback forms to make your site more interesting for visitors. You should also have no issues when it comes to cross browser compatibility so there is no need to worry about HTML codes being subject to different interpretations by the different browsers. Therefore, the Flash elements on your website should look the same on all browsers barring users that need to update to the latest Flash version.

Disadvantages of Flash Websites

One of the major drawbacks of using Flash websites is that they take longer to load than static sites and this could cause you to lose out on the less patient members of your target audience. Those who wish to watch Flash movies may also have to install an update of their Flash player and not everyone will want to go through this process. Additionally, Flash websites still suffer when it comes to SEO as search engine spiders will not be able to crawl over keywords that are written in Flash.

While there are plenty of advantages to the design of Flash websites, we don’t always recommend it to clients because of the drawbacks associated with it. If you read the above information and still want a Flash website however, we would be delighted to design it for you.

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