Attorney Website Design

While much of the country has spent the past month shoveling out and trying to stay warm, the Amicus Creative team has been working around the clock to create awesome websites for the attorneys we serve. In the month of February alone, we launched 16 new sites! Below you’ll find a small sampling of our winter wonders:

In your time on the web, you’ve undoubtedly stumbled across an “under construction” page. All too often, these place holders include a generic message to visitors to “check back soon” along with a photo of a construction cone or a stick figure in a hard hat. While some of these graphics may be cute, these templates don’t help the visitor learn a thing about your practice.

Every so often, we get a panicked call from one of the attorneys we work with. Our client has been contacted by an online marketing company who ran his site through their “industry leading website grader” and his site got a failing grade of a D. As you can imagine, our response is one of less concern and reassurance that the site is not in any way a failure. After all, we’ve been doing this for years and we know how to develop an effective website.  So what’s the deal with these automated website graders?

We are only a few days into 2015, and it’s already shaping up to be a great year here at Amicus Creative. We’re so pleased to announce that we recently partnered with the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys on two exciting initiatives.

As we enter the final days of 2014, there is no more perfect time to reflect upon your firm’s successes, and shortcomings, of the past year. With your website serving as the focal point of your online marketing campaign, it's important that you take time to evaluate its performance. With Amicus Creative’s integrated performance tracking tools in our industry-leading Site Manager, you can learn a lot about your site without spending hours glued to your computer. Consider the following aids to help you understand your site’s success:

Over the past 8 years, we’ve watched the web undergo some serious changes. And we are grateful that we played a role in that evolution, helping the legal industry make its mark with hundreds of powerful websites and blogs. This fall alone, we launched nearly 30 new sites for attorneys across the country. You’ll find a few of our autumnal gems below:

Law Office of Adam B. Crickman, a family law practice located in Fredericksburg, VA: adamcrickman.com

Ettelman & Hochheiser, PC, a premier corporate and commercial boutique law firm located in Garden City, NY: e-hlaw.com

Cerussi & Gunn, P.C. a boutique civil litigation firm that represents clients in New York and New Jersey: cerussilawfirm.com

Slade Neighbors, A Professional Law Corporation that represents employers, insurers, self-insureds and third-party administrators in the defense of workers' compensation claims throughout California: sladeneighbors.com

Edwards & Associates, a family law firm representing clients in the Atlanta metro area: eafamilylaw.com

To all of the attorneys who have launched their sites over the past few months – congratulations! We can’t wait to see your practice reach new heights. 

A domain name is a key component of website development, so it’s no surprise that we’ve covered the subject of domains in the past. We’ve written about key considerations when selecting a name, understanding the various settings associated with a domain (the DNS) and even the correlation between SEO and your domain name. Each day, however, we encounter dozens of questions from our clients surrounding domain names. Below we tackle some of the most common questions that we are asked during the website development process.

Increasingly, with the rise of social media and technology, individuals are becoming more accustomed to real time results.  With most daily tasks, we can complete them immediately. Want to hear the weather? You don’t have to wait for the segment on the morning news, just head to the app on your phone. During your late night T.V. viewing, you see a commercial for an upcoming comedy show but the ticket office is closed; no problem, Ticketmaster online is open 24/7. We are increasingly becoming conditioned to expect instant gratification. The same is true of your website visitors. Are you providing real time value and ways to connect with your practice immediately?

Each year, the Web Marketing Association holds its annual WebAwards, evaluating websites across 96 different industries. Each site is reviewed by 3 or more judges evaluating a number of site components including design, innovation, technology and ease of use. We’re so pleased to announce that four websites developed by Amicus Creative were recognized in this year’s competition!

The following websites received awards for “Legal Standard of Excellence”:

TrustBuilders Law Group

Manos & Associates, P.L.

Pozzuolo Rodden, P.C.

The site for Attorney Allan Weinberg received an award for “Outstanding Website” which is awarded to industry-leading sites that receive an impressive score of at least 60 points (out of a possible 70).

While just four of our clients’ sites took home awards this year, we know that all 800 firms that we serve are winners, working hard to deliver high quality information to their clients and colleagues, and we’re so grateful to share in their successes each and every day! 

We have a lot of joyous moments at Amicus Creative Media: having a new attorney join the Amicus Creative family, watching the firms we work with grow and of course, launching a new website. This summer was truly a great season of highs and we got to experience all of the above; most notably, we launched 50 new websites! Now it’s not the number that gets us excited, it’s the fact that 50 practices have incredible websites that will allow them to connect with prospective clients, colleagues and current clients, and help them build a powerful web presence. 

Below you’ll find a small sampling of some of our summer launches:

Borowsky & Hayes LLP, a San Francisco Business & Civil Litigation Firm: borowsky.com

Kirkpatrick Law Firm ,  Palm Beach, FL Estate Planning & Employment Attorneys:  palmbeachflattorney.
Read more . . .

Not just an annoyance but a downright security threat

Most law practices build websites to be found by prospective clients and generate new leads. With these firms, the main objective is to encourage site visitors to make contact (and come in for a consultation) so naturally they take great efforts to bold the telephone number and prominently display a contact form. We are often asked whether attorneys should also include their email addresses on their respective websites, after all, isn’t that the ultimate sign of accessibility? Our stance has always been no, but in the wake of increased malware email campaigns, our response to that question is a resounding NO.

Here’s why your email address should NOT be included on your firm’s website: