Attorney Website Design

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:

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.”

When firms see our Site Manager they are often blown away; it’s easy to use and packed with marketing tools in a single interface. To familiarize our clients with our unique content management system, we schedule a one on one orientation during the development phase to give them a comprehensive lesson on making changes to their websites and utilizing the integrated features such as our Seminar Management tool and E-newsletter feature. Often the entire office, including attorneys and support staff, join in to learn the tool. And while it’s a great idea to get everyone onboard and familiar with the technology employed, it’s important that you designate one person on your team to be the office “webmaster.”

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:

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...

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.

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...

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.

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!