Adobe Flash can produce some really neat effects and do some really nifty things to show off your site. Many companies that I do work for ask me if I know Flash. I tell them that I know some, but that I wouldn’t suggest using it if they really want their site to be popular and be found online.

Here are the pros to Flash and why companies are intrigued by it:

• Shiny and animated
• Very dynamic and interactive

Here’s why companies shouldn’t use Flash and why it could actually hurt them:

• Not easily indexed by Google (or at all by some of the other search engines)

It’s considered on giant image by the engines and we all know images aren’t really helpful in search even with the “alt” tag.

• Not accessible by screen readers for those who can not see
• Not viewable on the iPhone or many major handsets in the market today
• Susceptible to hacks
• Doesn’t always view the way you want across browsers or systems
• If don’t badly it can look really bad

The best part is that these are just some of the problems with Flash. Many Web designers, myself included will not code a site completely in Flash. It just doesn’t make sense, because it hinders our clients sites to the point of obscurity. The primary tenet that I stick to is: If you want your site to be found… don’t code it in flash.

So is there anything Flash is good for?

As a matter of fact yes. Flash does have some positives. If used mainly as an accent piece, like in a header or as a graphic on a site, it can add a nice bit of pizazz. But beware, when doing this designers and companies need realize that some visitors out there don’t have the most recent version of Flash or don’t have it installed at all on their computer and won’t be able to see these images and elements.  So if Flash isn’t necessary, just stay away from it.

Personally, Flash is better suited for instructional purposes, as in training modules and kiosk displays than anything for a Website.

Are there alternatives to Flash?

Yes. The new standards coming out HTML5 and CSS3 will be doing a good job of animation and interactivity. Also videos are a great way to add some multimedia to your site without it hindering the overall experience. Video hosting/viewing sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.TV and Viddler allow you to host your videos on their site and embed them on yours. And once HTML5 becomes standard these videos won’t have to be running through Flash at all.

So you’re pretty much saying don’t use flash. Right?

Yes. Unless you’re a huge company like Microsoft with a huge advertising budget to drive traffic to your all Flash site, just stay away from it.