Attorney Website Design Blog

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:

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:

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...

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.

 

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.

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.

Over the past five years, Amicus Creative Media has emerged as the proven leader in estate planning websites and marketing. To help supercharge the marketing efforts of even more firms in 2012, we will be attending the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning in Orlando this week. Several members of our team will be on hand to showcase our unparalleled trifecta of online marketing tools which include

• Cutting Edge Attorney Websites that will ensure your firm is recognized, retained and referred. Our exclusive platform boasts a plethora of interactive tools such as our Estate Tax Calculator, Seminar Management System and Integrated Attorney Blog which help to keep your site interactive and your visitors engaged.
• Legalvault, an advanced document storage and exchange system puts your documents at your clients’ fingertips and your firm on their minds.
• Insight in Motion, a comprehensive legal newsletter and blog content and distribution system which helps to drive referrals by fostering long-term connections with clients and colleagues.

Stop by our booth to learn more about these phenomenal tools and how they can propel your practice to new heights.

With the New Year just days away, you’ve probably already decided upon your New Year’s Resolution. Like many, you might have vowed to drop a few pounds, spend less money eating out or promised yourself that you will finally master that guitar that has been taunting you for years. And while setting a New Year’s resolution is generally related to personal betterment, it is also a good idea time to reflect on the need for improvement in your professional life and set goals for your practice in 2012.

Very often in day to day operations, the firm’s marketing plan and the online cornerstone of that plan, the firm’s website, takes a back seat to the “billable work.”  Unfortunately when this happens, most firms lose their marketing momentum and it can be difficult to regain even when business slows down. To help you get started once again and set your 2012 website resolution, consider the following...

With the holidays just around the corner, your inbox is probably overflowing with promotional messages from retailers and service providers.  And amidst this influx, you’ve probably noticed an increase in holiday greetings sent out from neighboring law firms and colleagues by way of e-newsletter. With the number of people using email continuously increasing and the cost of postage sky-high, it seems that electronic newsletters are a no-brainer, but finding a good provider for your firm can be difficult. There are many different options on the market. Some companies simply provide a distribution system for your e-newsletters, allowing you to send out an e-mail blast. Others provide a more substantial database management and distribution system while a few others offer even significantly more with content options.  So how to choose one?

During our initial design consultation, we often ask our new clients if they have a tagline, or quite simply a motto, that they have used to describe their firms in past marketing pieces. Many times, they respond with the following: “I’d love to develop a tagline but I don’t know where to start.” Developing a tagline can undoubtedly be difficult. After all, how do you summarize what your firm is all about in a few words? In this post, you'll find a few pointers to help you get started and get the creative juices flowing.

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.