Flash has long been a sticky subject in the realm of web standards. For lawyers looking to spice up their site with graphics and animation, Flash is an effective and elegant way to do that. Unfortunately it is not as accessible (both for search engines and for users) as everyone would hope. If you have a lot of Flash on your site, plan on using it or just want to know the pros and cons, here’s our take from an SEO and usability standpoint on the benefits of static over flash components on your lawyer website.
Flash Pros
Attractive: Flash banners and other visual elements can be made very attractive. If you or a pro are good with flash, you can make graphical animations, real-life movies and a number of other eye-catching visuals.
Interactivity: Flash is interactive. Designers can embed buttons and other clickable objects that encourage users to interact with the content on the page. For example you can pause and play videos, make choices in story lines, or play games created by the designer. The application for lawyers advertising their services are only bound by the limits of the designer’s creativity.
Compatibility: Flash is supported by all major browsers and as long as software is kept up to date, implementations of Flash should work without having to modify it for different browsers.
Video: Flash works very well for video hosted on your own server (as opposed to embedding something from a video hosting service like YouTube).
Cons of Flash
Device Support: Flash isn’t supported on all devices and most notably Apple devices. Steve Jobs famously denounced use of the proprietary technology and Apple even has documentation from the late Stever Jobs explaining why they don’t support it on their devices.
Proprietary Technology: One of the main (and probably the only reason) why Flash isn’t supported on Apple devices is because it is a closed system and proprietary technology. In other words Adobe is the one who updates it, regulates it, sells it or otherwise makes it available. That also means that browsers need to be up to date with it which ultimately means website owners have to rely on Adobe to make sure their content displays correctly for users.
Requires Specialized Knowledge: Have you ever tried using Photoshop or other Adobe software? It’s excellent but requires a lot of time to learn how to use which is a big draw back for attorneys (who don’t have a lot of extra time). If you are doing your own marketing, Flash is not a good tool for you unless you already know how to use it.
It’s Expensive: Flash is a software program and it’s worth every penny of what Adobe charges for it. Regardless of what your definition of expensive is, Adobe products are top of the line and their price reflects that.
Accessibility for Search: Search engines cannot see Flash content. There are work-arounds similar to providing an alt attribute in an image but other than that, any content rendered by Flash is lost to search. That is perfectly acceptable as long as you don’t use it to render content important for search engines to index.
![web-images]()
Pros of Static Images
Easy to Make: Whether you’re making ads or just putting images on web pages, you can usually get everything you need done really fast and on your own. Whether it’s downloading images from a stock image website or using your own images, most of the time all you’re doing is cropping them and uploading them to the web.
Cheap: I say that with a grain of salt. If you hire a photographer obviously your images may not be as cheap. In general though using images for your banner advertising or for other purposes is much more cost-effective than using Flash.
Accessible: Images can be seen by all browsers regardless of version and pretty much no matter what the browsers settings. As long as they are delivered using HTML, it’s a safe bet that users will always be able to see your images.
Device Support: Images can be seen on any device including mobile phones, tablets, desktops, laptops and any other device enabled to browse the web.
Cons of Static Images
No Animation: While there are other ways of creating animations online without Flash, if you’re using images you can’t do it no matter what.
They’re Static: By definition images are static and do not change. That means you miss out on the opportunity to send more messages with the same real estate unlike Flash or other methods of delivering advertising messages.
Not Competitive: A lot of advertisers use some kind of format that allows for movement in their ads or on their website. Whether it’s HTML5, Javascript, or actual video, the new standard is to use interactive or animated graphics in messaging. Images can’t accomplish that.
What do you think? Should attorneys use static images, Flash or something else for their advertising needs? Join in the conversation by commenting below.