Among these many wonderful capabilities lie a few [major] items for consideration. Here are three I can think of off the top of my head:

1. Search Engine Optimization
Google recently announced their new ability to search and index Flash sites (a very exciting!). Their new technology can read any text and most URLs with in Flash. However, because this is only the beginning, they are still not able to guarantee that all text, content, or links will be indexed. Google does a great job of outlining these points here.

2. Purpose and Intention
I am absolutely in love with Flash. However, it is simply not practical to recommend it for every website. Three questions I ask myself when assessing a potential client’s needs are:

1. Can I achieve the same quality of work using HTML/CSS?
2. Would it be easier to build the site and less complicated for the client to update content/images, etc. if we used Flash?
3. What is the project budget? Flash work is typically more costly. Designers/Developers can be more intentional in more ways using Flash which takes more conceptual work and potentially more time in general.

If a site will be information heavy and the content changing frequently, I would most certainly choose PHP/HTML/CSS option (couple with content management, WordPress rocks) over Flash. The site will have better optimization and exposure in searches. Watch this (a little outdated, WordPress 2.7 is most recent, but still relevant). However, for an image heavy or portfolio focused website, Flash would be the way to go, providing faster download speeds and graphic quality (ability to deliver higher resolution images/graphics using less bandwidth).

3. Who Cares?
Websites are an online marketing extension of a business. As with any marketing piece or campaign, the business needs to determine who they are trying to reach. Young? Old? Businesses? Individuals? Corporate? Independent? Savvy? Or..not? Using Flash does not automatically mean your audience needs to be young, savvy and into “flashy” things. Counter to many people’s initial thought, it can be an elegant addition, executed with intention and professionalism. Regardless, a business needs to determine whether or not having a Flash element or a full Flash website will be a value add to their users.