Tuesday, May 15, 2012 Amicus Creative Attends the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Solo & Small Firm Conference
This week, members of the Amicus Creative Media team will be heading to Atlantic City to attend the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Annual Solo & Small Firm Conference. The day-long event hosts attorneys from around the state and provides them with practical advice and tips on building a successful practice. Our team will be on hand to discuss our starter website package, developed with solo practitioners in mind, and will provide complimentary website assessments for all attendees. Stop by to say hello, learn more about our services and see how we’ve taken over 500 small law firms across the country to new heights.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012 Don’t Be a Victim of Your Website’s Success2308.jpg)
You set up a great looking website. You blog daily, writing insightful posts oozing with keywords and helpful tips for clients. You send out e-newsletters every week, and you reach out to referral sources and have them link back to your new website. You put in the work for website success, and in just a few short months, you start getting big cases from your website; your site is optimized and will continue to bring in business, right? Not so fast. Read more . . .Friday, May 04, 2012 Creating a Landing Page for Your Law Firm’s Online Marketing Strategy 7324.jpg)
There are countless legal marketing scams out there. Companies regularly target law firms trying to sell them costly domain name renewals (when already set to renew with existing host), expensive yet ineffective directory listings, a mobile version of the firm’s website or engage them in a link scheme. We hear all about these rip-offs from our clients who call us to ask if it’s worth the investment or whether there is any merit to the claims that these sales teams are making. Recently, we’ve heard from many clients who have been solicited by multiple companies who make “landing pages” for the firms in hopes of increasing online exposure for a particular set of keywords. Before you decide whether or not this is a valuable strategy for your firm, it’s important that you consider how they work and why they’re generally ineffective (and may actually be harmful) marketing tools. Read more . . .Tuesday, April 24, 2012 Designating an In-house “Webmaster” for Your Firm’s Website
When firms see our Site Manager they are often blown away; it’s easy to use and packed with marketing tools in a single interface. To familiarize our clients with our unique content management system, we schedule a one on one orientation during the development phase to give them a comprehensive lesson on making changes to their websites and utilizing the integrated features such as our Seminar Management tool and E-newsletter feature. Often the entire office, including attorneys and support staff, join in to learn the tool. And while it’s a great idea to get everyone onboard and familiar with the technology employed, it’s important that you designate one person on your team to be the office “webmaster.” Read more . . .Tuesday, April 17, 2012 Tips to Help You Conquer the Dreaded Attorney Profile Page5803.jpg)
In theory, writing your attorney profile should really be the easiest part of building your new website, but for many of our firms, the development comes to halt as the attorneys put off drafting their biographies for inclusion on the site. The truth is, most people don’t like talking about themselves and they find it challenging to present their background in a way that is interesting and engaging to a complete stranger. Here are a few simple steps which will help you put pen to paper: Read more . . .Monday, April 09, 2012 Are you harming your site with crude SEO strategies?
Last week one of our clients received a notification from Google stating that their firm’s site was in jeopardy of being removed from the search engine’s index because there were too many “unnatural links” to the site. You see, the firm had hired an “expert” to help optimize their site. In an attempt to game the system and increase the client’s PageRank, the “expert” had amateurishly added links to the client’s site from a variety of topically disparate and questionable websites. The large majority of the sites that contained these links were completely unrelated to the firm’s practice areas and included sites for car dealerships and photographers. And while this helped the site move up the SERPs initially, it ultimately backfired as Google caught on to the Black Hat-ish strategies being employed.
On our blog, we spend a lot of time highlighting ways you can help your website but equally important is an understanding of the tactics that can actually harm your site. Here are some top Black Hat strategies that you need to be weary of if you are working on your site or hiring a professional to assist you with optimization: Read more . . .Thursday, February 16, 2012 But I get all of my business through referrals...7305.jpg)
When we give presentations to attorneys, we inevitably hear one or two say “I get most of my business through referrals, I don’t need a good website (or a website at all for that matter).” What these attorneys fail to realize is that a firm’s website is not only a business generating tool but also a big part of the firm’s overall appearance and reputation. Even firms bursting at the seams with new clients need to have a good website. Here’s why... Read more . . .Friday, February 03, 2012 Talking Tech Trends
With the rapid evolution of technology, it can be difficult for attorneys to keep up to date on all of the advancements that can be useful in their practices. To help their nearly 27,000 members better understand current trends in legal technology, NYCLA held their first Tech Trends Meet-Up last night. Amicus Creative’s CEO Fred Cohen was one of five presenters at the event, speaking to attendees about the key elements of an effective attorney website. He spoke on the importance of captivating design, quality content, search engine optimization and provided some insight into the best way to evaluate and select a website developer.
We were happy to sponsor the event and get to share some of our expertise with the enthusiastic attendees. If you work with an organization that could benefit from a presentation on attorney websites, please contact our offices. We’re happy to speak on a wide array of online marketing topics from website basics and search engine optimization to integrated site tools which can engage visitors.
Thursday, January 26, 2012 Website Photos Are Worth a Thousand Words 9470.jpg)
One of the law firms that we work with recently contacted us to let us know that a prospective client had called them after finding the site in a Google search. The web visitor said that he felt a sense of immediate comfort when landing on the home page explaining that he could relate to the photos used (featuring middle aged caregivers and their senior parents). After just a few moments on the site, he called to schedule an initial consultation and later retained the firm. Read more . . .Friday, January 20, 2012 “Resources” On Your Website8979.jpg)
Many law firm websites include a "resources" page with a long list of links to legal, governmental, news, search engines and general websites (like weather.com). For the most part, these links are useless to visitors. How many clients come to you to figure out what the weather is like or how to find the link to the White House’s website? When developing a resources page for your clients and colleagues, it’s important that you put some thought into what visitors are looking for when they arrive to your site. Read more . . . |