Attorney Website Design Blog

All attorneys are subject to strict rules when it comes to communication with prospective clients and advertising.  If you’re in the process of developing a new website for your law practice or outsourcing the project to a web designer, it’s absolutely essential that you take the 5 actions outlined below to make sure you’re in compliance with all state bar requirements.

It’s not at all uncommon to see law firms include a list of upcoming events on their websites. After all, it’s a great way to showcase your expertise, demonstrate an active presence in the community and inform clients and colleagues about these events so they can attend or spread the word. Unfortunately, far too many attorneys let this powerful resource fall to the wayside—allowing it to become outdated, stagnant or fail to implement tools which will make the listing of events a true resource for site visitors. If your law firm is considering future events and making these a part of your website, be sure to utilize an integrated event management system which features the following tools:

The Amicus Creative team has moved to a new headquarters in Port Washington, NY. Over the past few years, due in large part to the tremendous support of our clients, we’ve seen great growth and our team has expanded. The new office space will allow us to continue to grow and offer even more great features to the law firms we serve. Please note that our new address is 10 Harbor Park Drive, First Floor, Port Washington, NY 11050. Our phone number will remain the same.

 

Although you may be able to find a good photo in a Google search, chances are you can’t use the image on your law firm’s website without purchasing the license or, at the least, without having written permission from the photographer. Far too often, we hear from attorneys who have received a large bill from an image provider because they did not have the proper license to use the photo. While purchasing the original image may have only cost the firm seventy five dollars, the bill for damages and licenses can wind up costing the practice thousands of dollars. To avoid this common mistake, follow the tips below:

With the New Year upon us, there is a renewed sense of excitement around the office. We’re working on really great projects, helping dozens of new firms develop sites that will propel their practices in the coming months.  Only four weeks into 2013 and we’ve already launched a few great new sites.  Check out these gems below:

Backer Law Firm, P.A. - Boca Raton Community Association Lawyers

C. Mark Murrah, Attorney at Law - Houston Industrial Business & General Counsel Attorney

Devero Taus LLC - NY/NJ Employment Law, Bankruptcy and Family Law Attorneys

Law Office of Justin A. Zeller - New York Unpaid Wages and Overtime Employment Lawyer

Rosenberg Calica & Birney LLP - Garden City, NY Transactional & Litigation Law Firm
 

For years, Adobe Flash has been the leading technology used by web developers to incorporate movement into the graphics of a website. Despite its popularity, Flash animation has been widely criticized. Many argue that it should be avoided for two main reasons: 1) when not properly implemented, Flash animation can be detrimental to SEO and 2) Apple does not allow Flash to run on iOS, the operating system which runs on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Apple TV.

Next week, we will be travelling to Orlando for 47th Annual Heckerling Insititute on Estate Planning. During the conference, members of our team will be on hand to discuss the trifecta of tools that we have developed specifically for estate planners. Please visit us at booth 229 to learn more about our custom website development services, LegalVault, our secure document and exchange system, and Insight in Motion, our comprehensive legal newsletter and blog content publication and distribution system. We promise to have great promotions for all conference attendees.

SEO, meta tags, SEM, cloaking, bots, latent semantic indexing, white hat, black hat, algorithms, PPC, keyword cannibalization…search engine optimization can be overwhelming and downright confusing to law firms trying to build a powerful online presence and increase site visibility. While you don’t need to master all of the optimization lingo to develop and maintain an effective website, it is important that you understand the basics of SEO to ensure you don’t fall victim to the many SEO scams pitched to law firms each and every day.

Amidst the flurry of last-minute shopping and holiday parties, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past year. 2012 has truly been a year of great growth and innovation here at Amicus Creative Media. Our family grew with the addition of new staff members and a record number of new firms; we now work with over 500 law firms in 49 states.

Adding photos to the content area of your website can be a great way to enhance your site’s appearance while giving it a more customized feel. Many content management systems, like our own Site Manager, allow site administrators to add photos directly to the site. With the ability to add photos, come many questions. What’s the best size for photos on the site? Should they be cropped? Should I apply any effects to the photo (sepia looks pretty cool, right)? In this post, we’ll explore some photo basics and best practices for adding photos to your law firm’s site.

You draft a clever email message and send it off to hundreds, or even thousands, of contacts and there you have it – your firm’s monthly e-newsletter. Seems simple but without the right program, these email blasts can do more harm than good. Just yesterday, we received an email blast from a law firm which committed all of the cardinal sins of e-newsletters. While the greeting was a nice one, the delivery and presentation of information was grotesque and potentially unethical on the part of the firm. We thought we’d share these mistakes so you can make sure your firm doesn’t repeat them by using a well-designed e-newsletter program.