Attorney Website Design Blog

Join Amicus Creative’s CEO Fred Cohen for Web Presence 101 - Websites and Blogs: The Basics, an informative webinar hosted by LegalTypist.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012 from 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM

Learn how to establish an online presence that will increase exposure, enhance credibility and, in time, supercharge referrals.

In this practical presentation you will gain an overview of effective strategies for building and maintaining your web presence, including:

• How to establish a brand that powerfully resonates with prospects, clients and colleagues
• Search engine basics: how does it all work and how can you increase your firm’s online exposure
• Turning your website into a potent resource
• How to use legal content to convey credibility
• Overview of blogging, its benefits and best practices
• Criteria for selecting a website provider

By attending this webinar, you will attain a comprehensive understanding of all the critical elements of creating an effective on line presence, as well as common pitfalls to avoid.

Register online.

Lawyers tend to love justification of text. Simply explained, full justification is a type of formatting which adds spacing between words (and even within words) so that the text fills the entire line, creating a clean left and right edge to any block of text.  Since full text justification is common in pleadings and briefs, it should come as no surprise then that many of the law firms that we work with ask us to justify the text on their website. While it may be common in some legal briefs and memorandums, text justification should be avoided at all costs on your law firm’s website.

With 1 in 10 internet users now using their mobile devices to surf the web, it’s absolutely critical that all law practices have a site that can be easily accessed on the small screen of a smart phone or tablet. Amicus Creative Media is pleased to offer mobile website development for all law firms to ensure that they are effectively engaging visitors across all devices.  

The mobile websites that we develop contain all of the same information as the firm’s main site but the structure will be different allowing site visitors on a mobile device to more easily move around it. Just as with all main sites we create, our mobile sites will be dynamic so any changes made through the Site Manager account will be instantly reflected on the mobile website. Firms won’t need a second domain name for the mobile site; in fact, we’ve developed a system that is smart enough to detect what device a site visitor is using and will load the correct version of the site that has been optimized for their device. You can see an example of how this functions by visiting www.fredcohenlaw.com. First visit the site from your PC. Then try from your smart phone—same site, just a slightly different layout for optimal visitor experience.

All of our mobile sites are optimized for the smaller screens of mobile devices and boast the following benefits:

• Faster loading times
• Ease of navigation through content
• Intuitive functionality for mobile device operators
• Effortless contact with the firm through a quick link menu which features one touch contact and share buttons.

Contact us to learn more about this exciting new development.

Adding new content to your law firm’s website is an incredibly valuable way to connect with clients and colleagues on an ongoing basis, but how do you effectively share this great information with your network? There are a number of ways to spread the word about your online resources without “selling” your expertise. Consider the following sharing techniques:

If you’re a regular reader, you know how we feel about content; we love it! We encourage law firms to add as much content to their websites, as often as possible, to create an effective online presence. Our love does have some limits though. Sometimes, there really is just too much content on one page. We often find this on the home page. Firms attempt to combine a firm profile, information on multiple practice areas and contact information all on one page—very often the first page that a visitor sees when they land on the site. And while this information is pertinent, guess what happens when visitors see so much information?

Every website has a navigation menu. For most law firms, this menu includes a home “button” and direct links to pages highlighting the firms’ practice areas, office locations and attorney profiles. And while it is a critical component of the site, it is not one that is often carefully analyzed by firms when they set out to create a new website.

To ensure that website visitors have a good experience and are able to easily locate information on your firm, it’s important that you consider the following options when designing your website:

¿Habla español? Parlez-vous français ? If your office is multilingual, it’s a good idea to include website content in all of the languages that you speak so that you can effectively reach and connect with all prospective clients, not just English-speakers. Ideally, your firm should have a separate website in each language or, at the least, several pages devoted to the different languages you (or your staff) speak.  Many firms, however, do not have the time to undertake the translation of site content so they rely on plugins like Google Translate which can be added to the firm’s website and will translate site content once a visitor selects his preferred language. Although convenient, these automated translation services can be detrimental to your business development goals.

A basic component of any legal website is the almighty attorney profile page. There are hundreds of articles devoted to drafting an effective attorney bio which conveys experience while engaging the reader. And while the subject of attorney profiles has been widely explored, discussion of whether or not support staff should be included on a law firm’s website has been rather limited.

The summer has not slowed us down one bit! Over the past few weeks, we’ve launched over fifteen great new websites for law firms around the country.

Here are a few of our most recent masterpieces:

Feuerstein & Smith, LLP—A full service Law Firm assisting clients in NY, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

Law Office of Ronald B. Weisenberg—A New York Firm specializing in Employment Law

Alan W. Clark & Associates, LL – A Medical Malpractice & Personal Injury Firm serving NYC and Long Island

Agris & Von Natzmer LLP – A NY based Intellectual Property Law Firm

Patricia M. Doyle, Attorney at Law – A Marin County, CA Estate Planning Firm

If you’d like to check our more of our work, we invite you to visit our portfolio or contact our offices for a one-on-one demonstration.
 

During the site development phase, attorneys often ask us whether or not they should include their email addresses on their websites. Our answer is always resounding no! If you are considering adding an email address to your site (or already have one up there), we recommend that you reconsider.

When a prospective client stumbles across your website, you can be pretty certain that your site is not the only one they will visit. Chances are they will also check out three or four other local firms online. We hear from many practices that acknowledge this inevitable fate and state that they want the “wow factor” so they really stand out to prospective clients. As a team of marketing consultants and graphic designers, we love when firms want to move outside of the box but we’re often surprised by their vision for “standing out.”