2010 AmLaw 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices Research Results ILTA Webinar – 12.16.10...

2010 AmLaw 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices

Research Results

ILTA Webinar – 12.16.10By Deborah McMurray, CEO/Strategy

Architect Content Pilot LLC

Why Foundational Best Practices?

Launched Amlaw 100 research in 2005 Firms were spending millions . . . and visitors weren’t

any happier 2005, 2006, 2007 and now again in 2010 Certain of the Ten Foundational Best Practices have

evolved in the last 5 years The Web industry has changed Visitor expectations of websites are much higher Buyers of legal services have told us what they want

from a law firm website The 2010 list reflects these changes – and into 2011

2010 Ten Foundational Best Practices

The 2010 list:

1. Communicating your message

2. Graphics and design

3. Navigation

4. Lawyer biographies

5. Narrative content

2010 Ten Foundational Best Practices

The 2010 list, continued:

6. Web site interactivity and outreach

7. Site search

8. Site optimization for online awareness

9. Firm citizenship

10. Site “hygiene”

Foundational Best Practice #1

Communicating your message

Logo, firm name and strategy copy stand out

Practice and industry focus is apparent

Geographic reach is apparent (one office/40 offices)

Contact info is clear and easy to find

Site features (if consistent with strategy/brand):

• Links to foreign language translations

• Personalization if it supports strategy

Amlaw 100 - Foundational Best Practice #1

Avg. score of AmLaw 100 – 80.1 Good


Graphics and Design Web site uses consistent graphics/colors/imagery that adhere to

clearly established design style

Typography is legible, uniform, Web compatible and complements the overall Web site design

Layout is effective in its use of page real estate

Site is compatible with mobile devices

Site is compatible with most popular browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, AOL)


Avg. score of AmLaw 100 – 87.2 Excellent


Navigation Home/global navigation is obvious and allows visitors

to find what they want in 1-2 clicks

Global and local navigation styles are consistent—visitors don’t have to relearn navigation in different parts of the site

Cross-linking promotes easy horizontal travel from one section of the site to another (bios to practices to articles to news, etc.)

Logo on each interior page has a consistent location and anchors the site by linking back to the home page


Avg. score of AmLaw 100 – 86.5 Excellent


Lawyer biographies First 2-3 sentences of the bio are current, compelling and relevant

to lawyer’s practice (visitor and SEO benefit)

Bio is SEO friendly (think how humans search for people)

Current photos—ones that show personality and support messaging

Full contact info is easy to find and links to v-card

Includes links to social media profiles and pages

Bios list and link to practices/industries, articles/news/events

Bios include deals/cases info that is the most relevant to the practice

Bio design provides for listing most recent deals/cases, pubs and presentations, with a link to >>view all


Avg. score of AmLaw 100 – 65.5 Fair


Narrative Content PRACTICE AND INDUSTRY DESCRIPTIONS

Visitor/client-focused content has consistent language use and is specific

Content is organized intuitively, by services and expertise clients buy, not how the firm is organized

Practices and industries are broken out separately. Add geographic regions as a third option

Descriptions include specifics of deals/cases including client names or descriptions of clients

Cross-linking to other sections of the site is maximized


Narrative Content, continued

NEWS AND PUBLICATIONS

Media contact is clear and easy to find throughout the site

News/press pages are maximized for PR benefit and use by journalists

Headline news populates the home page (SEO benefit)

Sections include “subscribe” features for firm publications


Web site interactivity and outreach

Client extranet is offered and accessible

RSS feeds throughout the site

Alumni center

Newsletter and other info sign-up

Links to firm/lawyer blogs on bio, practice and other relevant pages

Offers educational Webinars and podcasts

Effectively uses LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter on careers or other pages

Effectively uses video to further key messaging


Avg. score of AmLaw 100 – 39.5 Poor


Site search Site offers full-site keyword search and advanced search option

throughout the site

Advanced search enables visitors to narrow or refine the search in multiple ways

Search results are clear and well organized

• Most relevant results appear first

• Annotated search results show the context of the search term

Site offers multiple searches, including detailed lawyer search and news/publications/articles/events searches

Separate experience/deals/cases search

Law school alumni search in careers


Site optimization for online search Metatags, keywords, page title and meta descriptions are

correctly used/placed

Page titles are optimized

Images have alt tags that provide alternative text when images can’t be displayed

What is the site’s online awareness—comparative analysis of:

• Google® PageRank

• Number of pages indexed by Google

• Link popularity

More about Foundational Best Practice #8

Site optimization for online search – Firms failed in the following areas: No meta-descriptions or keywords on any pages but

the home page, or the meta-content was very weak (not descriptive enough)

No alt-tags on lawyer bios Every site had source code in it for alt-tags on

images, but few utilized the resource to optimize it No html content on the home page (such as not

including cross-links or an expanded footer) If the domain changed (because of a merger), low

SEO scores – PageRank very low and few indexed pages


Firm citizenship

Site has a statement of core values

Site illustrates firm’s commitment to sustainability

Site illustrates firm’s commitment to diversity

Charitable and civic commitment is described and evident

Pro bono commitment is described in detail, highlighting stories and specific matters


Site “hygiene” Includes up-to-date copyright

No error pages are found

No broken links or images appear during a spot check

Pages print and email easily

Most pages include dynamic “print to PDF” option

Copy and content have been checked for spelling and grammar

2010 Amlaw 100 TOTAL


2010 Amlaw 100 Top 25

Excellent – 86-100Good – 71-85Fair – 51-70Poor – 26-50Unacceptable – 0-25

2007 Amlaw 100 TOTAL


Deborah McMurray

[email protected]

214.351.9690

Contentpilot.netLaw Firm 4.0 Blog

mailto:[email protected]

2010 AmLaw 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices Research Results ILTA Webinar – 12.16.10...

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