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Expert Web Design Tips

Turn your firm’s site into an effective and informative tool.

By Amanda Flatten  

Law firm Web site design isn’t for the faint of heart. There are many aspects to consider: the look, navigation, content, search engine optimization and more. Some firms take on Web design internally, but unless you have the time and expertise, that might not be the best move. Here are some tips from Web design experts on how to pull off an effective site that will attract visitors and potential clients.

Getting Around and Looking Great

Simple and clear navigation is the name of the game when it comes to clients easily moving around a law firm Web site. Navigation should be intuitive and follow industry standards. Having a unique or unconventional navigational structure can confuse visitors.

Dale Tincher, president of ConsultWebs.com Inc. based in Raleigh, N.C., said law firm sites should strive for a balance of navigation options. “Design the site so that when Web novices land on the site, they quickly understand what the firm does and where to go for desired information,” he said.

Jay Jaffe, president and chief executive officer of Jaffe Associates based in Washington, D.C., agreed. “The last thing you want to do is surprise a visitor to your site with a ‘creative’ navigation scheme,” he said. “Navigation schemes need to be consistent on every page of the site. Horizontal or vertical navigation bars with drop-down boxes are a must, and most good Web sites employ both.”

Chris Costa, president of Lawyers Court/Costa Technologies Inc. based in Chicago, also recommends law firm sites have a dual navigation structure with links at the top and bottom of every page. And, he said, the bottom navigation links should be text links.

Planning is the key to good navigation. “You need to outline your site navigation as the first step in the Web site process,” said Peter Boyd, president of PaperStreet Web Design in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “Start with a site structure that is in bullet format. Once you have outlined what content will be on the site and how people will move through the site, then the navigation falls into place pretty easily.”

Strategic marketing consultant and Law Office Computing columnist Larry Bodine has several suggestions for navigation best practices, such as placing the firm logo or name in the top left corner and properly setting the home page to display in one window without making users scroll down the page. “Have the same navigation choices on every page and a visible title on every page so visitors know where they are,” he added.

Prominent, consistent placement of the search function is helpful for visitors, and site maps can keep visitors from getting lost on your Web site. “A link to the site map should be on every page,” Costa said.

The aesthetics of a Web site play an important role in attracting visitors. Swati Agrawal, CEO of Firmseek based in Washington, D.C., said when considering the look of a site, it’s important to balance content with graphics and headers. “A unique integration of the firm’s brand that doesn’t sacrifice Web site usability makes for a winning combination,” he said.

Tincher said the characteristics of a welcoming site include consistent design, font colors and sizes. “White space, neutral colors and limited graphics are more attractive than flashy, noisy, bright designs,” he said. “The site’s visitors are looking for information, and design should not overshadow content.”

High-resolution graphics and a striking color scheme, coupled with a good layout, are essential. “Nothing says ‘amateur’ more than grainy images and washed out colors,” Jaffe said. Bodine said animation and moving graphics have no place on a law firm site and will distract visitors. He also suggests using pictures of clients or client industries, not the generic images of gavels, columns or courthouses, or campy animated images.

“The Web site needs to be a marriage of strategy, content and design,” Agrawal said. “If you don’t have all three, you are missing the big picture.”

Relevant Content

Content is king when it comes to law firm Web sites. “A good law firm Web site should be informative, promotional and should include newsletters, articles, press releases and other news items,” Jaffe said. “News tickers or dynamic information boxes on the home page are good ways to keep content fresh, improve search engine rankings and entice visitors to dig deeper into your site.”

Tincher said because some Web site visitors might be looking for an attorney, while others might be researching a topic, it’s important to have content available for both types of visitors. “Including information and links on your Web site such as accident-prone roads in your area, known asbestos work sites, cerebral palsy support groups, state trucking regulations, etc., will help to make your Web site a resource destination for potential clients,” he said.

Jennifer Veesenmeyer, lead search engine marketing specialist at FindLaw, said firms often struggle with providing the right amount of information. “Some law firms believe that too much information will either confuse potential customers or inspire them to solve their problem pro bono,” she said. “However, the right information on a Web site can be the fastest way to establish credibility. Information should demonstrate the law firm’s expertise and use language visitors can easily understand.”

Although Agrawal agrees that the more meaningful content on a firm’s site, the better, he said many firms’ Web sites make the mistake of not distinguishing between client publications and general-consumption publications. “If one of the benefits of being a client of the firm is getting the latest, greatest publication, you eliminate that value by making the publication available on the site.” Agrawal suggests making some content available for all site visitors, but only giving clients full access to content. Another way to meet the needs of current clients is via client extranets accessible from the Web site, Boyd said.

General firm contact information should be easy for visitors to spot and be included on every page of a firm’s Web site. Most Web experts agree that individual attorney contact information also should be included and prominently placed on law firm Web sites. “It’s people you are selling, and they must appear approachable,” Jaffe said.

“It’s better to put a real person’s name and contact information on a Contact Us page,” Bodine said. “Fillable generic forms are terrible; they turn away inquiries.” He also said firms should avoid using anonymous generic e-mail addresses because it’s impersonal and turns off visitors.

Unfortunately, many firms shy away from having so much contact information on their sites because spam bots can harvest e-mail addresses. “If you are concerned about attorney e-mail addresses being harvested by spam bots, then consider listing e-mail addresses as .gif files — these will fly under the bots’ radars,” Jaffe said.

Search Engine Optimization

Sites such as Google and Yahoo have bots that scour the Internet looking for information to assist in search rankings. Adding fresh and unique content relevant to your firm’s practice areas is one of the best ways to make sure your Web site ranks high on Internet search engines, leading potential clients to you.

Bodine said content should be updated at least twice a week. Veesenmeyer added that each page should have at least 250 words, use critical phrases often and alternate versions of keywords (e.g., use attorney, attorneys, lawyer and lawyers on each page).

“Your home page … should have content that describes your firm, its location and lists all the firm’s practice areas with links to the specific practice area pages,” Costa said. “Each page should have a unique title with your most important keywords contained in the title.” In addition, Tincher suggests giving important practice areas their own page and sprinkling keyword-rich content throughout the pages. Another way to make sure your site ranks high on search engines is to ask other legal sites that rank well to link to your site and provide reciprocal links.

Metatags, HTML-coded information that search engines look at when crawling on your Web site for information, also boost search engine optimization. “In the simplest form, metatags consist of a title tag (although technically not a metatag, it’s the most important tag), a description tag and a keyword tag,” Boyd said. “To optimize the Web site, your firm should decide on the most important words to place in title, keyword and description tags. In addition, your firm should create different metatags for each page of the Web site. This will allow each page to be indexed differently by the search engine.”

Bodine said while title tags and metatags can help, firms should avoid using cheap tricks to boost optimization, such as mirror sites and hidden text — white text on a white background — because the search engines are well aware of these tricks.

Your Web site needs to be registered with the top search engines and as many other Web sites as possible, according to Boyd. Costa said two directories in which your site should be listed are the Yahoo Directory and the Open Directory.

Should You Blog?

For the past few years, blogs have been all the rage. But should your firm have one? Experts say “yes,” with a few conditions. You must be able to keep the content fresh, updating it at least once a week, and you need to have a specific niche or focus for the blog. “If developed as part of a cohesive overall marketing campaign, law firm blogs can be very effective,” Tincher said. “They can enable the blogger to distribute information quickly and in a more personal fashion.”

Blogs also can help establish a firm or specific attorney as an expert in a highly specialized field and keep clients current on ever-changing legal information, Veesenmeyer noted. Bodine is of the opinion that having several blogs is better than one. “The blogs compliment the main Web site and send traffic to it,” he said. “The blogs can take the place of paper newsletters, client alerts and other public communications.”

There are some things a firm should consider before jumping on the blog bandwagon. For example, will people read it? Tincher said firms should analyze the target market to determine if a blog would be a cost-effective tool. He also said firms need to consider the ethics and libel implications associated with the blog. “Be sure that it doesn’t appear to be giving legal advice,” Tincher said. “This can be a difficult proposition since legal expertise and advice are what many potential clients are after.”

Measuring Effectiveness

Measuring Web site effectiveness is subjective. It really depends on the goals you set for the site. Goals can include increasing Web traffic, revenue and general inquiries, or attracting and retaining new clients, Boyd said. If attracting and retaining cases is the goal, Tincher said measuring a site’s success can be simple when the firm traces the origin of cases with an intake sheet.

Other ways to assess the site’s effectiveness are monitoring Web site traffic and analyzing Web statistic reports. “Most Web hosting companies allow you to monitor traffic on your site,” Jaffe said, adding that statistic reports can identify the number of unique visitors to the site, their origin, the pages they viewed and how long they stayed.

Veesenmeyer said other considerations include special phone numbers that identify which callers obtained the number from the Web site, as well as the option to sign up for the law firm newsletter or a white paper. “If your site is effective, you often will get unsolicited feedback from clients, potential clients and recruits,” Agrawal said. “Also, if you conduct client surveys, be sure to include questions about the site.”

Web Site Faux Pas

Common mistakes on law firm Web sites include cliché images, bad navigation, lack of updated content, broken links, misspelled words, hard-to-find contact information, no search engine optimization, cheesy music, poorly formatted text and too many colors. These Web site mistakes turn off visitors and negatively reflect on the law firm.

The experts agree: Long, distracting use of Flash is a big mistake. “Web research shows that 98 percent of Internet users click on the ‘Skip Introduction’ button before the Flash presentation is through,” Boyd said. “In Web design, it’s important to remember that just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should.”

Veesenmeyer said when visiting a law firm site, potential clients are looking for answers to three questions: Does this firm handle my type of case? Is the firm any good? Is the firm located near me? “If these questions are not quickly and easily answered, the client will continue [his or her] search,” she said.

Every page on the Web site should print out without cutting off the right edge, Bodine said. Visitors often print out Web site information to read later. Discovering that the end of each line is cut off is annoying. Also, it’s easy to lose visitors if your site isn’t cross-platform/browser compliant, Boyd said. Agrawal noted most people only skim a Web site. “Anything that makes it impossible to skim and interferes with easy navigation is overkill,” he said.

Lastly, Tincher said trying to save money by having an attorney or staff member develop the site often results in a Web site that poorly reflects on the firm and can hurt its image. Sometimes, you have to leave it to the experts. “An effective Web site requires an on-going investment of time, focus and expertise,” Tincher said.

Questions for Consultants

Some firms can handle creating and maintaining a Web site in-house, but most firms rely on Web design experts and consultants to handle the task. When considering a consulting firm, it’s important to choose one that has a proven track record and experience designing legal sites. “A design firm with legal experience will save you time and trouble since they probably will have experience with ethics requirements, legal marketing and legal content,” Tincher said.

Before choosing a design firm, you should interview multiple design companies and ask them to provide requests for proposals to compete on price and features, Bodine said. It’s also important to look through the designer’s portfolio and contact legal references to find out what their experience with the designer was like. Be sure to ask designers for specifics, such as what programming language will be used, what type of content management system will be used, how long it will take to create the site, the various types of fees involved, what level of support and maintenance the company will provide and if there are any conflicts of interest. “You also should clarify what level of involvement is required of the law firm in developing and maintaining the site,” Veesenmeyer said.

“[A developer] should be able to create a database-driven site so law firm employees don’t have to know HTML code,” Bodine said. “The developer should sell the software to the firm, and not require the firm to lease or license the software forever. And, the developer should be able to create a Web site, extranet and intranet all at once, if requested.”

Boyd said law firms also should consider other services the design company offers, such as advertising, print, logos, content and photos, in case additional services are needed later.

Standing Out

Entire contents copyright © 2005 James Publishing, Inc.

All Rights Reserved.

Examples of Well-Designed Sites

Chris Costa, president
Lawyers Court/Costa Technologies Inc.
Chicago
(630) 393-0460
chris@echicagoweb.com
Lawyers Court provides Web design and Internet marketing services for lawyers with a focus on search engine optimization.

Horowitz & Weinstein: While the site is pretty basic, it gives the user just enough information to contact the firm. The site also ranks well with search engines for all keywords related to the firm’s practice. The firm has attained many new clients via the Internet. (*SEO by Lawyers Court)

Fetterman & Associates: This site has a lot of very good content and has a nice setup. The firm tracks every inquiry it gets and keeps track of how people found the site. (*SEO by Lawyers Court)

Law Offices of Stephen M. Frailich: This site contains good content related to breast implant litigation. It’s easy to find key information and to contact the law firm. The firm has gleaned most of its new business via the Internet. (*A Lawyers Court site)



Dale Tincher, president
ConsultWebs.com Inc.
Raleigh, N.C.
(800) 862-6590
ConsultWebs provides law firm Web site design, search engine optimization, Web marketing and consulting, content development and Web maintenance for more than 200 law firms and legal organizations.

Miller Nash: This large-firm Web site provides extensive content, many opportunities for the visitor to interact with the firm and effective utilization of technology. It also was a finalist in LOC’s 2004 Best Law Office Web Site Contest in the large firm category.

Munley, Munley & Cartwright: This attractive small-firm personal injury Web site provides significant content and information for visitors, ranks very well in search engines and generates revenue for the firm. (* A ConsultWebs.com Inc. site)

Brady, Nordgren, Klym & Morton: This small estate planning firm’s custom Web site is attractive and provides comprehensive information, content, downloadable forms and other information to support existing clients and attract new business. (* A ConsultWebs.com Inc. site)



Jay Jaffe, president and CEO
Jaffe Associates
Washington, D.C.
(877) 808-9600
jaffej@jaffeassociates.com
For more than 25 years, Jaffe Associates has been the premier media relations advisor to the legal industry and is the largest, full-service legal marketing and business development consulting firm.

Orrick: This site gets it right with a clean home page, easy navigation and robust search functions. It also is LOC’s 2005 Best Law Office Web Site Contest winner in the large firm category.

Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti: Navigation is intuitive and important information is easy to find. Features such as “Attorney Spotlight” and “What’s New” keep content fresh and give returning visitors something new. (* A Jaffe Associates site)



Larry Bodine
strategic marketing consultant
(630) 942-0977
Lbodine@LawMarketing.com
Web site audits and plans, advice on blogs, speaks at partner retreats on marketing with technology, individual business development coaching for lawyers and law firm strategic marketing plans.

Ropes & Gray: This Boston firm’s site lists representative clients, industries and success stories. It has a search box, site map and persistent navigation. The home page displays on a single screen and the pages print out properly. Traffic to the site is very good, as reflected in the six (out of 10) Google ranking and a high Alexa ranking.




Peter Boyd, president
PaperStreet Web Design
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
 (954) 523-2181
peteboyd@paperstreet.com
PaperStreet creates new Web sites and revitalizes aging ones. In addition to creating engaging Web sites that get results, services include Web, print and marketing.

Law Office of Michael Lowe: Michael Lowe, a solo practitioner, has received more than 1,000 inquiries per year for the past two years directly from the Web site. (* A PaperStreet site)

Watt, Tieder, Hoffar & Fitzgerald: The new firm was able to brand itself as a construction-only law firm with a new logo, Web site and advertising campaign. (* A PaperStreet site)

Fowler Rodriguez Chalos: This New Orleans-based law firm was able to update its Web site online, in real-time from its Miami office, thereby telling employees and clients (many of whom are oil, gas and shipping companies) how to contact the firm during the hurricanes. (* A PaperStreet site)



Swati Agrawal, CEO
Firmseek
Washington, D.C.
(202) 429-9200
swati@firmseek.com
Integrated marketing and technology services to enable law firms to be more effective and efficient in their marketing activities, including Web site design and development, automated print marketing materials, proposal generators and more.

McKenna Long & Aldridge: The site includes a law student extranet that displays customized information to law students who are coming in for interviews with the firm. The firm has gotten an outstanding response to the extranet from law students, giving it an edge in recruiting. (*A Firmseek site)

Gilbert Heintz & Randolph: This site has been described as the law firm “site of the future” with its edgy look and user-friendly navigation. It also was LOC’s 2004 Best Law Office Web Site Contest winner in the small firm category. (*A Firmseek site)

Powell Goldstein: The Web site redesign helped generate a 50 percent increase in the number of monthly client publications produced by the practices since its launch in November 2004. The number of outside visitors to the new site is consistently 25 percent higher per month than it was to the old site. The site also includes a module for generating proposals and printed collateral material, which saves the firm eight hours a week in preparing collateral materials. (*A Firmseek site)