Back in July 2014, Google announced that they would expand their mobile Flash warnings to people searching online on Google using their mobile devices. Basically, this was to warn people searching on Google using mobile devices that Flash may not work on their devices. Therefore, this meant that the website they were about to visit would not display properly on their mobile devices.
So when a Google search user clicked on a search result/website that had flash on it, they would get a warning saying:
“Uses Flash. May not work on your device. Try anyway | Learn more.”
with an image displaying the warning/error like this:
Then on April 21, 2015, Google began rolling out their mobile friendly algorithm update. The result of this update was Google was now favoring websites that it considered Mobile Friendly. To learn more about this update and whether your website is considered by Google as mobile friendly, click here.
What ends up happening for website owners using flash, is that Google will not show your website on page 1 of Google search results on mobile devices, no matter how much you invest in seo to get your site up there.
Instead, Google now regards your competitor’s websites it judges as mobile friendly, more favorably in their eyes. In other words, these are the websites they now prefer showing people searching on Google.
Now, coupled with the fact that in 2014 mobile internet traffic overtook desktop traffic, with more than 60% of people online now browsing using their mobile devices, this became a huge problem for sites using flash. Because these websites were also not considered mobile friendly by Google.
So, What’s The Problem With Flash?
The problem with flash is that:
a.) Google can’t read Flash. Even though Flash can be flashy, no pun intended, showing splashy and cool animations, Google and other search engines, like Yahoo and Bing, can’t read and understand flash. So those websites using Flash, even though some may look cool, are practically invisible to their potential customers looking for their type of business, product or service online.
b.) Apple and other smartphone device makers no longer support flash. For example, when an iPhone user visits a website using Flash technology, they would get this error message:
This website cannot be c.) The use of Flash in websites is now considered bad website design. Flash was cutting edge back in the early 2000s, but now due to its many problems, a majority of web designers have moved away from Flash onto HTML5, which is much more responsive and actually easier to design a website.
So if you are using Flash in your website, its long past overdue to do a website update and redesign. This is one investment in your digital marketing efforts that you will be very pleased you ever made. Especially when you hire the right website design company, and we know we are that company.
For more information about our web design services, contact us today. You will be glad you did!