subject: What You Should Know About Flash Website Templates [print this page] Flash website templates can make it significantly easier to make a website if you've never done so before. They provide a clean, attractive interface and built-in multimedia options. These templates aren't necessarily the best solution for all sites, however. Because they're based on Adobe Flash, they can be hard for search engines to read and may not work well on all browsers. Here's a look at Flash templates than can help you decide if they're what you need to make your own website.
Benefits of Flash Web Templates
Flash templates are extremely convenient for some types of website. For instance, if you're a professional photographer or another type of artist, a pre-built Flash template gives you an attractive way to show your work without doing a lot of hand-coding. It can also help protect your site from copyright violations.
A Flash website template also comes ready-to-go. You may not need to make any changes at all before you add it to your site. This can make it much easier to put together a slick, attractive-looking page if you don't have much previous design experience. Sites built on Flash allow you to include animations, special effects, games and other extras that basic HTML doesn't support, making them important for some commercial sites.
Disadvantages of Building a Flash Site
Despite their many advantages, Flash Web templates aren't for everyone. Because they run on Flash, they can be considerably more difficult to customize than a standard HTML template or a hand-built page. Flash templates also don't work when the user has certain security settings activated on their browser, or for users who are operating on very low bandwidth. Flash sites may not be friendly to disabled users, such as people with impaired vision or hearing.
A Flash-based website must also be built carefully if you want it to register properly with the search engines. Because a Flash web template doesn't include as much computer-readable text, search engine robots may not be able to identify your site's content or the quality of that content. This can result in a much lower search engine ranking than might otherwise be appropriate for your page.
Flash also produces a much larger file size per page than regular HTML. If most of your viewers have broadband or other high-speed connections, this may not cause a problem. Other users may feel as though your site isn't worth waiting for, however. Embedded sound and video can also be off-putting to some people or make it impossible to view your site at work or in the library.
Things to Consider
Before you build a website, think about what kind of page you want to create. Use Flash templates only when you require the extra functionality that this tool provides. If you do choose a Flash template, make sure you include a robots.txt file that tells search engines what portions of your site are relevant, and make sure you include HTML versions that can help visitors with disabilities enjoy your content.
