Legal Websites 2
Transcript of Legal Websites 2
Outside of a great education and years of experience, one of the most crucial
parts of successfully running a law practice is having a great website that
professionally represents you and your firm. In many cases, your website will be
the first way that potential clients connect with you, and your first opportunity to
convert prospects into clients. It is an essential piece of your firm’s marketing
efforts. Today’s clientele expect that you’ll have one, and chances are that you
already do. But it can’t just have a “nice design,” some photos and list your
services. Your website needs to do one thing well – convince visitors that you are
the best lawyer for their needs.
Many law firms create a website that they think is well designed, or purchase
a template that is “customized” with their business information. It may seem
like an easy solution requiring little time and effort, but in fact this step is as
critical as choosing your practice areas. Just because it feels easy, doesn’t make
it so. When publishing a website, a common misconception is that people will
just show up. Unlike a personal referral or premium office location where you
may receive walk-in traffic, on the internet over 100 million other websites
are competing for site visitors. Unless you take action to drive traffic, the only
people visiting your site will be you and your competitors.
Enticing a website visitor to call your business is quite literally a science,
something easily done incorrectly. On the internet, people are easily distracted
and are always one click away from leaving your site and visiting your
competition. Every choice made with regard to headlines, navigation, usage of
links, photography and graphics, and color combinations can drastically alter
your websites effectiveness and usability. As well, new and fresh content is
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Next Generation of Website Design & Functionality
Legal Websites 2.0
DESIGN. INNOVATE. PROMOTE.
critical to a website’s success. In a recent study 63% of businesses reported they
update their website weekly. This frequency of updating or adding new content is
critical to success with search engines.
Think of how the majority of potential new clients will find you. In cases where the
situation is private, or the need is urgent, the first place a lot of individuals turn to is
the internet. It’s anonymous, it’s fast, and it’s convenient. A study conducted in 2009
showed that over 82% of people use search engines to find local services, such as a
good lawyer. Online searches by consumers looking for local businesses have nearly
doubled since 2005.
It has become common place for law firms to own multiple domains and operate
multiple websites to help promote their firm, attorneys, and practice areas. Each of
these websites has a different purpose, but in full these sites should be strategically
aligned with the firm’s goals and objectives.
LAW FIRM WEBSITESUnlike many other businesses, marketing a law firm requires walking a fine line between
aggressively promoting its services while still maintaining an ethical and professional
tone. Law firm websites are critical to marketing your firm and are expected by your
prospects. These websites are closely monitored and scrutinized by several governing
bodies. There are strict rules and guidelines that a firm’s website must adhere to.
Keeping up with these requirements can be difficult. Selecting a partner to help you
navigate through these legal standards and industry guidelines is important.
(Sources: Kelsey; Nielsen)
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Legal websites are typically comprehensive and should contain multiple forms of
information. Select a domain that is meaningful and easy to remember. Web domain
names that are lengthy and use commonly misspelled words are less effective. It
is important your firm’s website showcase your practice areas, members of the firm,
successes of the firm, associations and memberships of the firm, and why a potential
client should choose you.
With the continued proliferation of the internet, many law firms are already on a
second or third generation website. With enhancements in technology and increasingly
competitive landscape, many firms find themselves behind. To level the playing field,
firms need to learn from other’s experiences and take advantage of next generation
of website 2.0 technologies. Firms should be utilizing tools to integrate to social
networks, embed videos and podcasts, and take advantage of dynamic forms throughout
their website(s).
More than ever before, the technology your website is built on is an extremely important
decision. At InfinaLaw we recommend and provide a dynamic Content Management
System (CMS) as the foundation for all our clients’ websites. Our experience has shown
this enables our clients to achieve the highest level of success both during the initial
launch and the ongoing maintenance of the website.
The CMS allows our clients to easily update and maintain their own content without
having to know HTML and other complex programming languages. The easy to use
interface makes it simple for non-technical personnel to update the website as often as
desired. This eliminates design and programming expenses and significantly reduces
the time to publish new content. Keeping your content relevant and fresh is a way
to ensure your firm is highly ranked by search engines. Not only do search engines
drive considerable website traffic, almost every search-based visitor is looking for your
specific services. Beyond your websites effectiveness at driving qualified traffic to your
business, the great thing about online marketing is that everything is measurable. When
it comes to balancing marketing funds, having a resource such as your website that can
provide measurable results is key to making better business descisions.
ATTORNEY WEBSITESWith the internet, attorneys can now easily market themselves and build an online
reputation. A first year attorney can immediately start to build a positive presence online,
beyond just their local community or within the law firm. This same thing is true for
junior attorneys, sole practitioners, and partners of medium or large size law firms.
Today with over 1.1 million attorneys in the United States competing for business, we
are seeing more and more attorneys have their own website which in turn promotes
themselves as well as the firm they represent. In most cases these have the same look
and feel as the firm site but provide an outlet to showcase this attorneys education,
Types of LegaL WebsiTes
firm Websites
attorney Websites
practice area specific Websites
Custom online blogs
DESIGN. INNOVATE. PROMOTE.
®
successes, published works, memberships and affiliations,
awards and recognitions, previous employment, and personal
interests. Choosing an attorney is a big decision for most
individuals and providing this level of current detail on the
person responsible for their case is beneficial to the consumer.
PRACTICE AREA WEBSITESMany firms offer their services for many different practice
areas, however there might be a handful they consider their
“bread and butter”. In these cases they might showcase a
practice area on its own website. Also, this is another great
way to drive traffic to your website as the practice area itself is
likely what prospects are typing into search engines.
Practice area specific websites showcase the firms experience
in a specific field and cross-promote the firms strengths.
These sites should have new content and contain relevant
resources pertaining specifically to that practice area. These
individual practice area websites help give the consumer a
comfort level that this is your area of expertise and that you
are the right firm for their case.
GAINING VISIBILITY AND BUILDING CLIENTELE ONLINEChoosing a lawyer is an incredibly important decision—yet
most people have no idea how to go about doing it, and
resources to guide them are scarce. Your website is where
prospective clients, businesses, and the legal community will
rely on getting current information about your legal services.
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