Flash websites are not search engine friendly. Don't use fix-sized html/css templates - not required anymore. Test your website with most popular Internet browsers.



When developing websites, you should make many decisions which can be crucial to the success of you website. Here I would like to present some real statistics which can help you to answer the following questions:
  • Flash website or fixed website layout or full screen?
  • What browser is most popular? What browsers to test when developing website?
  • What operating system is most popular?

Flash website?

Flash is a program developed by Macromedia and now owned by Adobe. Using Flash you can create interactive content for websites, media rich advertisements, presentations, and games. Flash provides unlimited design options and control over layout. Because Flash animations are vector based, designers can create interactive animations with relatively small file sizes.
If you plan your website will be found in search engines - DON'T USE FLASH. Search engines will almost completely ignore the content of your flash site. Search engines cannot index a flash websites (actually now they do, but not all types and still very limited), which means that all of your written material within your website will never be found. And if your website can't be search engine optimized, why spend the time, effort and money creating one? When to use Flash website - games or content that you doesn't want to be returned in SERP. Otherwise, use HTML/CSS websites, which are search engine friendly. I saw many fixed html templates still offered and many new websites still developed with 800x600 resolution. This was right decision 5 years ago, when most of us had old displays 14', 15' and 17'. Back then it was right decision to create websites which good seeing with 800x600 (of course resizable pages are better which fit any width). We analyzed Google analytics data for some of our websites during 2008-2009 period and found, that developing websites with fixed 800x600 is not good at all. It even creates bad user experience and your website looks too narrow and a lot of space is simply wasted.

Screen resolution in 2008

Screen resolution in 2008 		  

Screen resolution in 2009

Screen resolution in 2009
As you can see the most popular screen resolution in 2008 and 2009 is 1024x768. The 800x600 moved from 9% to 4%, meaning the trend of 800x600 declines over the time. And this is logical and explainable, since flat-wide screens are now most popular and are affordable to wider population.
Screen resolution over 2008 - 2009

Don't create fix-sized websites, as it will only satisfy 4% of your visitors, while majority will see your page taking half screen only.

Which browsers my website should support?

Of course the answer is all available browsers. But, creating website with compliance to all browsers is very costly from development, testing and supporting point of view. Unfortunately we have too many browsers and not all of them following the w3c standards.
We found that most popular browser Internet Explorer (55%), second place taken by Firefox (32%) and Safari (~7%) still ahead of Google Chrome.
Google Chrome browser is relatively new and it's popularity will definitely increase.
Browser popularity in 2008 - 2009 : IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome

I recommend to test your website with Internet Explorer (IE6 and up), Firefox, Safari and Chrome.

Another aspect that can be important when developing website is what end user most popular operating system. And it is no doubt it is Windows.
Operating System (OS) popularity in 2008 - 2009 : Windows, Macintosh and Linux

Use HTML/CSS non-fixed websites (don't use Flash and don;t use fixed 800x600). When developing website, make sure it is working (good seeing) under most popular Internet browsers, like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome. If your website also has dependency on user's operating system, Windows is the most popular and very dominant.



This analysis based on the data taken from free classifieds websites listed below:



Disclaimer: Please note, this survey and conclusions are based on the data coming from the listed classifieds above and may not represent the rest of the websites around the world.