Attorney Website Design Blog

If you’re a lawyer with a website, you’ve been contacted by an “SEO expert”; it’s one of the inevitable annoyances of putting your firm online. If you’re a novice, or unsatisfied with your current site’s performance, you’ve probably listened to them and wondered if they can in fact pull off the miracle they’re promising—first page results in a matter of days. The answer is simple, they probably can’t and most reliable SEO experts will promise no such thing.

While SEO strategy seems incredibly complex and the promised tactics of the SEO experts may sound overwhelming, many search optimization tactics are really quite simple and intuitive when you think of the main goal of search engines; they want quality sites directly related to the user’s search to populate the first few pages of the search engine results.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve covered the key statistics (Content, Visitors, Traffic Sources) within your Google Analytics control panel and what they mean for your website. Despite the significance of these metrics and how they play into site success, many website owners fail to regularly monitor and analyze visitor trends.

We are often asked how this is best accomplished; after all, it can be a hassle to log into your Google Analytics control panel and navigate around to each page. Luckily, with just a few simple steps, you can have your Google Analytics report sent to you on a regular basis so these statistics come directly to your inbox.

Members of the Amicus Creative team will be travelling to Denver this week for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Annual Meeting. We will be on hand to provide you with information on our trifecta of advanced attorney tools which include our state of the art website services, LegalVault and our newest offering, Insight In Motion. To help you evaluate your firm’s online presence, we will also be offering a complimentary assessment of your firm’s current website. Please stop by and say hello if you are in attendance.
 

A visually stunning website, although eye-catching, will not necessarily get your firm new business. Content is single-handedly the most important component of website success but, unlike an attractive design, it can be difficult to evaluate. How do site visitors perceive the information on your site and how is that perception affecting their decision to contact (and retain) you? Google Analytics can help you answer these questions with its statistics on website content.

Upon logging into your Analytics control panel, you will find that there is a whole section devoted to content analysis. Here are the key statistics which you should be actively monitoring:

The purpose of a website is to serve as a resource for its visitors. If you maintain a site for your law firm, it is essential that you track visitor activity for new and returning users to evaluate your site’s effectiveness.  Google Analytics is a great resource because it compiles detailed visitor information in a manner that is easy to understand. These details include an overview of the number of visits, absolute unique visitors, and pageviews.  With so much information at your fingertips, it can be difficult to digest the statistics and understand their significance.

Last week, we examined the various ways through which a website visitor arrives at your site with our look at Referral Sources. Today, we’re going to focus on a factor which helps to measure traffic quality--the bounce rate. Simply defined, the bounce rate measures the number of single page visits that your site receives.

This week members of the Amicus Creative team will be traveling to Las Vegas for the Elder & Special Needs Law Annual National Conference hosted by NAELA. We encourage you to stop by and learn more about our amazing website design packages, our state of the art document storage system—LegalVault, or just to say hello. We will have special conference promotions and will be offering free website assessments to those in attendance. We look forward to seeing you there!

Google Analytics is an excellent (and free) program which offers great insight into traffic statistics for your law firm’s website. The site tracks all traffic to your site, storing a wide array of information on referral sources, visitor information and content. With so much being offered, the Analytics control panel can be a bit overwhelming for beginners and even seasoned site owners. Over the next five weeks, we will explore the five most important statistics to consider when evaluating your website’s success. First up: Traffic Sources.

Is it better to have your attorney blog integrated into your law firm’s website or kept separately?

With the rise in popularity of attorney blogging, we are frequently asked this question. In order to determine whether or not your blog should be included as part of your law firm’s website, you must first identify your reasons for blogging and the goals you ultimately wish to achieve by maintaining an active blog.

Logo, firm name, images, tagline, phone number, fax number, office address and email address! Oh, my! Cramming too much information into your website header can be overwhelming and, in most instances, is really unnecessary. When developing your attorney website, it’s important that you limit and effectively organize the information in your header graphic.

Last week, our CEO Fred Cohen gave a presentation on Building an Effective Law Firm Website to members of the New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA). The event explored the main ingredients for a successful attorney website, including:

• Considerations for selecting a domain name
• Effective legal content
• Search engine optimization
• Blogging
• Website manageability  
• Social media integration
• Top of mind marketing

We had an awesome turnout and great participation from the attorneys in attendance. A big thank you to all who joined us and to NYCLA for hosting a great evening of online marketing discussion!