Web Marketing for Lawyers

Almost two-thirds of potential clients begin their search for an attorney online these days. Law firms of any size are now expected to have a website that clearly communicates the firm’s main practice area(s), the profiles of each attorney, helpful legal content for the consumer and contact information. In the end, sending a clear message about your firm’s expertise and any real-world successes you have had is more important to a prospective client than a bunch of bells and whistles. Whether you are developing a new website or evaluating your current website, this article contains valuable tips on how to make the most of your investment and how to improve what you already have.

Developing a New Website

If you don’t already have a website and are developing one for your practice, consider the following:

• The Design: Don’t let your partner’s nephew design your website unless they are a seasoned professional. Your website is a reflection of you and your practice. It should look good, perform well, provide valuable content and give a potential client enough of a feel for the firm to make her want to call you and not one of your competitors. Interview multiple designers and ask for references. Call past clients and ask about the quality and timeliness of the work, as well as the reasonableness of the fee. Check out other websites designed by the same group or person. Make sure their designs work on multiple browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc.).
• SEO: Your website should also be designed with SEO (search engine optimization) techniques in mind. Proper SEO strategies will help place your website in a favorable position when potential clients search for a lawyer in your area using Google, Yahoo or any other search engine. Your designer may already understand and use these strategies. If not, you may need to consult an SEO specialist. Check out the next issue (May/June 2009) of Legal Web Briefs for more information about how to find an SEO specialist.
• ADA Compliance: Make sure your new website complies with the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Bring this up with the designer. Compliance is relatively easy by using alt.tags where the images are placed in order to describe the images in text.
• Domain Name: Pick your own domain name and go for something that is easy to remember, like the name of your firm or your tag line. You are in essence branding your service when you choose a domain name, so choose wisely.
• Content: Provide your own content. Unless your designer is also an expert in your practice area, you should write your own content (or hire it out to an experienced writer). The content should be helpful, informative, professional and meaningful. You will likely need to provide the content in advance to the designer. Designers usually do not design web pages in a vacuum.

Evaluating Your Current Website

When trying to decide if your website is doing its job well, look at your traffic statistics on a regular basis. Also determine how long people stay on the website and then how long people stay on each page. Either the website can be set up to do this for you or you can use Google Analytics if the amount of traffic you receive has reached a certain level. If your site is set up using Google Analytics, Google will track many different types of information about your site, including traffic and users, and provide reports that you can access privately online.

Here are 10 key questions to ask when evaluating the strength of your website:

1. How many new clients have come to you through your website?
2. How does the website look compared to your competitors?
3. Is it easy to navigate?
4. Is the content interesting?
5. Is your contact information clear and easy to get to?
6. Do you include profiles of all the attorneys in your firm with photos?
7. If you visited your website, would you hire one of your lawyers?
8. Can you answer some frequently asked questions by clients on the website?
9. Do you have articles on the website written by your attorneys?
10. Do you have a form where potential clients can submit details about their case?
11. Do you include testimonials on the website written by clients?

Remember that your website is a critical part of your marketing plan. Don’t just put it up there and forget about it. Be constantly monitoring what it looks like, its traffic, and its effectiveness in getting your firm’s message across. Check in periodically with a designer or other specialist to ensure that your site is not getting stale.