Assessing your Current Status

• No Site
• Old Site
  • Some Questions to Assess Your Existing Site
• New Site – Not Working for the Firm

Assessing your Firm’s Needs

• Online Shingle
• Advertising
• Client Portal

Stage 2:

Getting Started

• Developing a Budget
• Hire a Website Developer
• Get a Full Scope of Work

Stage 3:

Anatomy of a Law Firm Website

• Selecting a Domain Name
  • Availability
  • Practice Relevancy
  • Name Relevancy
  • Clarity
• Website Content for Attorneys
  • Home Page
  • Attorney Bios
  • Contact Page.
  • Practice Areas
  • Resources
    • FAQs
    • Links
• Disclaimer

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Keywords
• Site Map
• Meta-Tags

Stage 4:

• Now I Have a Website, What Next?
• Analytics
• Adwords
• Directories & Link Exchange
  • Paid Directories
  • Free Directories
  • Link Exchange
• Content
  • Blogs
  • Articles
  • FAQ’s
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Newsletters
  • Podcasts
  • Youtube

Stage 5:

• The Future

 

Stage 1:

Assessing your Current Status – You need to understand where you are to figure out where you need to go. Take some time to assess the current state of your law firm’s online marketing apparatus.

• No Site - If your law firm does not have a website, now is the time to begin the development process. If you have been practicing without a website and you have found success, a well designed website will certainly enhance your business. If you are starting a new firm or have been practicing without a firm website, your online marketing plan will be integral to the success of your practice. Do not take the website development process lightly. The more thought and preparation you devote to the process at the beginning the more success you will find with the end result.

• Old Site – Is your firm website out of date? Chances are if you have not updated your site in a few years, it is time to start thinking about an overhaul. Things change fast in the world of online marketing. It isn’t just your website’s design that may need an update; your site’s programming may also need an overhaul to maximize search engine performance.
  • Some Questions to Assess Your Existing Site
    • Does your firm’s website list attorneys that are no longer with your law firm?
    • Is the firm’s contact information up-to-date?
    • Have you added new practice areas that are not listed?
    • Does the design look dated? (Take a look at some other attorney websites and see what newer sites look like.)
    • Was your site optimized for search engines when it was developed?

• New Site – Not Working for the Firm – Many law firm’s pay large sums to design firm’s to develop a new website, but once the site is online they realize the site design is only the beginning and they need a great deal more service to maximize the sites potential. If your firm is facing this type of situation you may not need a full redesign. Make a list of what you need from your firm website. A professional law firm marketing company should be able to offer you a price quote for the additions you need without completely redesigning the site.

• Assessing your Firm’s Needs - What do you want out of your law firm website?
  • Online Shingle – At the very least your law firm website should serve as an online resume where you direct potential clients to learn more about your practice areas, your firm history and your attorney biographies. In essence, every good law firm website should function as an online shingle. Your goal is to instill in visitors a sense of understanding and comfort with the idea of retaining your firm for legal services.
  • Advertising – For many law firms a website is the primary point of initial client contact. The goal of online law firm advertising is to get potential clients to your website. Once you get potential clients on the site you want them to contact you, but you don’t have a lot of time to make a good impression. The Internet gives consumers a vast number of firms to chose from and you need to stand out. An old site or a poorly designed site with very little content will lose visitors and squander potential client visits.
  • Client Portal - While not the only other function of a law firm website, many law firms are beginning to develop online tools and resources for clients and potential clients. While a resource section is a vital aspect of any well thought out attorney website, web 2.0 technology allows lawyers to offer online billing, document management and client communication through their firm website. These features can be expensive to develop, but they can be added on to most websites post development. It is a good idea to discuss these functions with your developer even if you plan to add them at a later date.

Stage 2:

Getting Started - Focus on developing a high quality website with well written content and built in search engine optimization. Having a great site is the most important part of the equation. Why pay for advertising to get people to a website they don’t want to use? Don’t start worrying about Google Adwords or getting the top page ranking in search engines until your site is online.

• Developing a Budget – Once you know where you are and what you want from your site, it is time to figure out what you want to spend to get there. There is not a set monetary figure or amount of time that will equal a great law firm website, but there is a strong correlation between the two factors. If you do not have time to develop your own site content expect to pay a great deal for high quality customized site content. You should be leery of companies that are use recycled text to deliver on the promise of cheap website content. Reused content will ultimately hurt your search ranking.
• Hire a Website Developer – You can find separate subcontractors to handle your design and development needs or a law firm marketing/website development company that will handle everything. Do some shopping around and be sure to ask a lot of questions. If a developer doesn’t have time to answer your questions before you hire them, they will probably not be very communicative once you do hire them. You will work closely with your contractor; find out who at their company you will be dealing with and make sure you speak with them and not just a sales rep.
• Get a Full Scope of Work – Make sure you get a full scope of work from your contractor. A scope of work for website development should include, but is not limited to, the following:
  • Complete list of objectives and goals for the project (Actual work to be completed)
  • Timeline for Completion
  • Complete list of Information Required from Client (Content, server compatibility, pictures…)
  • Total cost and hourly rate for any work completed outside of projected scope.
  • Contract terms (What happens if projected date of completion is not met? How much money is due upfront?)

Stage 3:

Anatomy of a Law Firm Website

• Hosting – In order for your website to be available online, it must be placed on a web server. You do not need to host your law firm’s website with your website development vendor. There are many companies which offer affordable hosting for as little as $99.99 per year. If you plan to host your website with a vendor other than your web developer, the site and server must be compatible. To make sure they are compatible, provide your vendor with detailed information about the server.

• Selecting a Domain Name– Your law firm website needs a domain name. You can have multiple domain names, but we will save that for later. You may want to consider the following issues when selecting your domain name.
  • Availability - Your domain name must be available and you need to register it for use. Network Solutions is a good place to register your domain and check for availability. If someone else holds the domain you want to use you may be able to purchase it from him or her, but you will probably have to pay a pretty penny. You best bet is to find a name that is not already in use.
  • Practice Relevancy – Make sure your name is relevant to your site. If you have one main practice area using it in your domain name will help your search ranking in that area. For example taxlawyer.com or personalinjuryattorney.com would be great for their respective practice areas. These types of domains will be more difficult to obtain since there is a lot of competition for these types of practice areas. You will need to get creative to find domains that are relevant to your practice and not already in use.
  • Name Relevancy - You may also consider using the name of the firm or your own name, if a solo practitioner, as part of the domain (i.e. Joesmithattorney.com or Smith&JohnsonLaw.com). If you have an uncommon name this will be easy to obtain, but be weary if your name is hard to spell it will be hard for potential clients to remember and even hard for them to find via a search engine.
  • Clarity – Beware of jumbled and excessively long domain names. These types of names will be difficult for potential clients to remember, they will look awkward on business cards and letterhead and may be difficult to read (i.e. Joesmithinjurylawervirginiabeach.com) You want your law firm domain name to be easily discernable, at first glance, in web browsers and on printed promotional material.

• Website Content for Attorneys – You do not have to write all of your law firm website content before your site is designed, but having a solid outline of what you would like to have on your site will help you coordinate with your designer and will help you to see the big picture.

• Home Page- Your sites home page text should include basic introductory information about the firm. Below are some suggested areas to touch upon.
  • A brief message to potential clients about your practice. (i.e. your elevator speech)
  • Years of Experience
  • Practice Areas (It is a good idea to list your practice areas.)
  • Jurisdictions (It is a good idea to list the courts and counties where you practice.)
  • Updates – A portion of the front page should be reserved for important firm updates. These can include new site content, blog posts, new attorneys or links to pertinent news articles relating to your firm or applicable practice areas.
• Attorney Bios - The attorney bio is the page most visitors check first after the home page. Include as much information as you can about your law firm’s attorneys and your practice. Try and build a personal connection. You want the visitor to feel like they know you and that you are not just another fill-in-the-blank attorney.
  • Number of Years Practicing
  • Practice Areas
  • Education
  • Special Certifications
  • Bar Affiliations
  • Community Service
  • Organization Membership
  • Publications
  • Speaking Engagements/Events Attorney Bio
  • Why you practice. (Tell your visitors why you do what you do. Why do you practice law? Why your particular practice area? This is your chance to build rapport.)

• Contact Page- A contact page will allow visitors to your law firm’s website to easily contact your firm. It will not need a great deal of content, but it should be clear and easy to use.
• Practice Areas - List all of your practice areas and be as specific as possible. The more you list the better. Also, be sure to include practice areas that many lawyers in your area do not cover. These have a good chance of boosting your search ranking because there is little competition.
• Resources
  • FAQs or other information that may be useful to potential clients.
    • For Example: A chart listing DUI penalties in your state, or an FAQ on what to do if you are facing divorce. The more information you provide the greater the likelihood that potential clients will find your site.
  • Links to sites that might be helpful to your potential clients - Linking to other respected and high traffic websites will help improve your law firm website’s search ranking. Adding links to the DMV, the State Supreme Court and other useful sites can work to improve your own search-ranking placement.

• Disclaimer - If you do not have an existing website disclaimer you may wish to consult your state bar association for the latest preferred disclaimer text.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – You will hear a lot about SEO from potential vendors, but don’t be fooled into thinking there is a quick and easy method of achieving SEO. The best way to build your law firm website’s search ranking is to have a well built site, free of errors and filled with relevant content (see above). At the very least your site should include the following SEO tools:

• Keywords – What keywords will potential clients use to find an attorney in your practice area? Be sure to include the state and or the localities you serve. Your developer should be able to assist you in the development of relevant keywords. There are several good programs that can help you analyze potential keywords for your law firms website. You should have a list of keyword and also include them repeatedly in your website text. Keep in mind the text should still read well, don’t over do it.

• Site Map – Your law firm website should include a site map (an index of all the pages on your site). This is more to help guide search engine crawlers than regular visitors. It helps them recognize the logic behind your sites construction. Your site should make sense to regular visitors without the help of the site map.

• Meta-Tags – This should really be taken care of by your developer, but you should make sure they are properly tagging your site. Meta-tags are used on pictures and headers throughout the site. They help your site by strategically placing keywords throughout the code. Again, this will not be visible to regular visitors but will help search engines rank your sites relevancy.

Stage 4:

Now I Have a Website, What Next?

• Analytics – You need to track your law firm website’s statistics. Analytics allows you to look at a wide range of statistics that will help you hone your site content and design to increase the number of visitors and conversions. Make sure your developer inserts the proper code for Google Analytics or another similar program. Analytics is free; so don’t let your developer charge you an arm and a leg to set it up. If you pay for anything it should be for training in the basics of using Analytics. You can view our Analytics Cheat Sheet for Attorneys here.

• Adwords – Google and Yahoo both offer paid advertising that places your site in the sponsored sites section at the top of the search page for specific search terms. These are not organically produced search results; instead you will bid to have your site appear under specific search terms and pay when someone does click on your site. Popular search terms can be extremely expensive on a pay per click basis, but it is only worthwhile if you are converting those clicks into clients. Make sure you understand Adwords before you start spending money. There are training sessions available online, but beware of companies that will charge you an arm and leg to maintain your Adwords account.

• Directories & Link Exchange – Long considered the best way for attorneys to advertise online, directories have declined in relevancy and increased in price.
  • Paid Directories - Search engines have taken the place of paid directories as the go to destination for individuals searching for attorneys online. Save your money and steer clear of paid attorney directories, unless they only charge when you retain a client through their site.
  • Free Directories – Free directories are a great way to expose your site to visitors at no cost. You should make sure the directory is relevant to your practice area or the legal industry and isn’t a link farm (sites listing a large number of links with no meaningful relationship to each other). Also, make sure you register your site with search engine directories.
  • Link Exchange – Trading links with other law firm websites will help your site. This is a commonly excepted method of SEO. While you probably do want to link to the sites of your local competitors, linking with attorneys in other practice areas or localities will help your site in the long run.
• Content – There is a saying in the online industry that ‘content is king’. The saying carries a lot of truth. Without frequently updated content that offers visitors useful information in creative ways your site will flounder.
  • Blogs are a great way to build a framework for fresh content into your site design. Do not start a blog that you will not update, because there is nothing less useful or detrimental to a law firm website than a blog that goes weeks, months or years without an update. If you simply do not have the time for a blog don’t bother starting one.
  • Articles are a good alternative to attorney blogs. You don’t need to publish them as frequently, but you will need to spend some more time polishing them. You might want hire a copywriter to give you a hand.
  • FAQ’s are a great way to pull visitors into your site and introduce them to your firm. Think of them as your free consultation. Make sure you give the visitor enough info to realize they need to call you and retain your firm’s services.
  • RSS Feeds allow visitors to subscribe to your sites content updates. When you publish a new article or blog post they will receive notification. This will help bring visitors back to your site.
  • Email Newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with past and current clients. There are many companies that can help you with content and distribution of an email newsletter. If you are not already doing so, make sure you start gathering email addresses from clients.
  • Podcasts allow you to provide visitors and subscribers with video or audio sessions or topics of your choosing.
  • Youtube allows you to place videos on your law firm website and on youtube at large. This has the potential to provide you with a large audience. Make sure you are promoting your site and your brand. There is a great deal of competition on youtube, so make sure your video stands out from the rest.

Stage 5:

The Future

• Unfortunately, the job of maintaining a website and advertising online is never finished. New technologies and programs become available all the time. The most successful sites take advantage the advances without jumping on every trend.