Designing a Web Site on a Budget

Designing a Web Site on a Budget
A presence on the Net can improve your bottom line.
by Michael W. Newcomb
Oct/Nov '01 Issue

Internet & Intranet Tools

Depending on your practice area, maintaining an Internet presence through a Web site can be a marketing boon. Almost any practice that markets legal services directly to individuals and businesses can benefit from a Web site.

Take my firm, which is a small business and technology law firm in San Diego: A few years ago, I created the firm’s Web site and have paid approximately $20 per month in hosting fees. I personally spend about two hours a month updating the site’s content. Over the past three years, my firm has obtained a number of excellent clients who have contributed more than $100,000 in billables due to our Web site presence. It has paid for itself many times over.

In order for your firm’s site to be productive, you must appreciate a few rules about Internet marketing:

Rule 1: Most visitors to your Web site are looking for free advice. Only a small percentage of visitors are actually looking for an attorney or have a “good case.”
Rule 2: Visitors expect a visually appealing Web site with substance.
Rule 3: Visitors must be able to navigate and locate the information they seek or they will leave.
Rule 4: Visitors will not wait for large graphic files to load.
Rule 5: You must secure the interest of the visitor within the first minute to keep them at your site.

Before you put up a Web site, you should have realistic goals concerning marketing expectations and the time commitment of maintaining the site. My advice is to start small with a glorified online brochure and gradually expand the Web site as time permits.

A good law firm Web site will, at a minimum, include “Main,” “About Us,” “Practice Areas,” “Our Attorneys,” “Map/Directories,” “Contact Us” and “Disclaimer/Terms of Use” pages, which most visitors expect.

Main Page
Most visitors will see your “Main” page first (Rule 5). This page should load quickly (Rule 4) and can contain your mission statement and a brief description of your practice (Rule 2). Avoid the temptation of trying to say too much on your Main page. Make your Main page compelling.

About Us
Here is your opportunity to talk about the firm in depth. Discuss the history of the firm, philosophy, special skills and so forth. If you are a solo practitioner, your biography also should appear on this page.

Practice Areas
This page should include links devoted to various aspects of your practice. If, for example, you are a family law firm, you might have the following subpages or sections: Divorce/Dissolution of Marriage; Child Support and Premarital Agreements. Under each page or section you could describe the types of tasks your firm performs for its clients.

Our Attorneys
If there is more than one attorney in the firm, I recommend devoting a section to discussing the background and capabilities of each attorney. Depending on the number of attorneys and how much detail you want to convey, it might be appropriate to create an individual page for each attorney with a picture of that attorney. If there is only one attorney, put that information in the “About Us” section.

Build a Web site in
7 Days (or Less)

Day 1: Purchase and install your Web site design software. Read the manual and create a demo site from the built-in site styles to become familiar with the capabilities of the software.

Day 2: Acquire your domain name and Web space from a reputable Web site hosting outfit. Most Web site hosting companies will register your domain name for you during the sign-up process. Domain name hosting, Web site space and a number of e-mail addresses can be acquired for less than $25 per month — so look around.

Day 3: Surf the Web and visit a number of law firm Web sites. Make note of the aspects you like and dislike about various Web sites. Enter some keyword searches that are applicable to your practice. Visit Web sites that are ranked high by the search engines and try to understand why the search engine ranked the Web sites. You should look at the text and meta tag information in the header portion of the source code.

Day 4: Diagram the hierarchical structure and flow of your Web site. Identify the pages you would like to include and the type of information you want on the various pages. A good structure will be logical and have room for expansion, so don’t be too aggressive — you can always add more pages. Also note that most Web site design tools automatically will create a diagram of the structure once you begin designing.

Day 5: Fire up your Web site design program, use the built-in wizards to choose a structure and style that fits your vision, and create content.

Day 6: View the local version of your Web site with your browser and fix any design flaws, spelling errors, structural problems, etc.

Day 7: Upload your Web site to your Web space. Visit the major search engines or a search engine submission site and submit your domain name and description for inclusion in the Internet’s various search engines.

Attorney Directory Advice: There are a multitude of Web sites advertising themselves as “attorney directory” services that are eager to take the money of unsuspecting law firms. Be wary of the claims of the vast majority of these sites.

Map/Directions
Unless your office is easy to find, I suggest you include a map and directions. Many of my new clients will show up at my office with a print-out of the directions from the Web site. You also should consider linking your map to a site, such as mapblast.com, mapquest.com or expedia.com, which can create custom driving directions.

Contact Us
There are two schools of thought when creating a “Contact Us” page. You can provide address, phone numbers and links, or you can provide a structured fill-in form. The advantage of only providing information links is you aren’t encouraging visitors to send you questions or requests for free advice (Rule 1). The advantage of providing an e-mail form is you can more easily control the type of information that arrives via e-mail. In each case, however, lawyers should be careful not to solicit too much information from prospective clients for fear of disqualifying themselves if a conflict arises. Try to discourage prospective clients from revealing the merits of their matter until a proper conflict check can be performed.

Disclaimer/Terms of Use
A proper disclaimer that complies with the law of the state in which you are licensed to practice is mandatory. A link to your disclaimer should appear on every page of your Web site. It should contain the following sections:

Informational Purposes: Your Web site and the pages contained therein are not intended as legal advice.
No Attorney/Client Relationship: Simply viewing the Web site or corresponding with any of the attorneys doesn’t create an attorney/client relationship.
No Confidentiality: Sending e-mail to members of the firm will not be regarded as confidential.
Advertisement/Marketing: The Web site is merely an advertisement and nothing more. Moreover, it’s only intended to be viewed by persons requiring legal representation in the state you are licensed to practice.
No Guarantees: To the extent a testimonial or endorsement is contained on the Web site — no results are guaranteed.
Links: Any links from the Web site to third-party Web sites or vice versa are for the convenience of the visitor and don’t imply any sort of relationship between your site and other third-party sites.
Seek Legal Advice: Don’t act upon any information contained on the site. Seek the assistance of legal counsel who will apply the applicable law to the visitor’s special circumstances.

You should review the ethical rules concerning print and Internet advertising to make sure your disclaimer and the Web site complies with your state’s rules. An excellent Web site devoted to legal ethics is Legalethics.com, which contains information and links to various state resources. Permission is also granted for you to modify and use the disclaimer I created for my Web site, which can be accessed at www.mayfield-law.com/disclaim.htm.

Optional Pages

Links: In the good ’ol days of the Internet, a links page was mandatory. However, because most users go to portal sites or search engines, the value of a links page is diminishing. I don’t recommend you view your links page as a reciprocal marketing device, rather use it as an information point for visitors requiring specialized or additional information on a subject.
News/Events: Depending on the size and practice area of your firm, a news and events page can be a valuable mechanism to share “what’s going on” with your clients and prospective clients. The downside is this page can become stale quickly, so be prepared to constantly update it.
Newsletter: An excellent way to build the value of your Web site is to include and archive newsletters and other information. The more “stuff” that is in your Web site, the more visitors you will ultimately attract.
Frequently Asked Questions: This is a good page to include information responsive to questions clients always ask.
Discussion Group: I strongly discourage attorneys from putting a discussion page on their sites. While you ultimately control the content of what appears on the discussion group page, it’s possible for disgruntled clients or attorney “haters” to post all sorts of scurrilous information, which will be associated with your site until removed.

Look & Feel
Because first impressions count, it’s important the look of your Web site conveys the proper image. Unless you are a graphic designer by night, consider using color-coordinated graphics and templates that come with most Web site design software programs. A business law firm should probably use a conservative design, whereas a law firm devoted to representing artists and musicians can afford to be a bit funkier with its design.

Don’t load your pages with a lot of unnecessary and un-optimized graphics. The majority of Internet surfers still use slow dial-up accounts to access the Net. This is especially true for your “Main” page. Avoid putting animations, music and other bandwidth intensive elements on your site.

Your site’s navigation structure must be logical and easily discernable. It’s irritating to visit a site and spend more time figuring out how to get to the information than reading the information. One of the more popular navigation systems adopted by many sites is to place links to your site’s major sections on the left and put links to the minor sections on the bottom of each page. Many variations exist, and no one navigation scheme is necessarily better than another. All that matters is the navigation structure is logical and your visitors can get to the information they need.

Choosing a Web Site Design Program
Back when I began designing Web sites, knowledge of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) was vital. Nowadays, anybody can create a professional, well-designed Web site without HTML knowledge — provided you have the right tools.

Web site design programs come in two different categories: entry-level and advanced. The advanced tools, such as Adobe GoLive 5.0 and Macromedia Dreamweaver 4.0 (see “Software Shootout” on Page 52 of this issue), are powerful and require skills many attorneys and staff don’t possess. Moreover, these advanced programs are not appropriate for this article because their price tag generally exceeds $275.

Law firms ready to “do-it-themselves” need good solid entry-level programs, such as Microsoft FrontPage 2002 (which costs $169 as a standalone copy; $89.95 for an upgrade; and $549 when it is sold with the Developer Suite of Office XP); NetObjects Fusion MX (which costs $99); or Macromedia’s HomeSite 4.5.2 ($89). Despite the relatively inexpensive price, all three programs are sufficient for a novice and an expert. Having used each program extensively, I can unequivocally state that each will do an excellent job for the beginner and continue to support your efforts with sophisticated, advanced capabilities.

NetObjects Fusion MX
Probably the easiest program to use is NetObjects Fusion MX, which is specifically targeted to small businesses looking to establish and maintain an Internet presence. Within a matter of five minutes you can have a professional basic Web site (excluding customized content).

Fusion MX approaches Web site design from a “site” perspective, rather than a “page” emphasis. This means changing the firm’s logo on one page will generally cause the logo on all other pages to be changed. For the beginner, this means professional, consistent results without the headache of changing all other pages.

After entering your basic contact information, the program automatically builds a basic Web site ready for customization and expansion. Unfortunately, on Sept. 3, NetObjects ceased operations. At press time, no determination as to the future of its Fusion MX product was made public. While the company may no longer exist, Fusion MX may remain available for purchase from software liquidators or a successor entity.

Microsoft FrontPage 2002
FrontPage 2002 comes bundled with some versions of Microsoft Office XP or can be purchased as a standalone application. FrontPage includes templates or Wizards that allow you to create the structure of a basic Web site within a matter of minutes.

A particularly helpful capability of FrontPage 2002 is its “Reports” section that automatically identifies problem pages within your Web site, such as broken links, slow to download and out-of-date pages. All are automatically analyzed and identified.

One of the cool new features of FrontPage 2002 is the ability to create a SharePoint Team Services Web site. In a nutshell, a SharePoint Team Services Web site serves as a central repository for project information, which can include documents, contacts, tasks, discussion and more.

A firm could create a SharePoint Team Services Web site for lawyers, which would allow distant offices or outside firms to collaborate on a particular matter via a centralized Web site.

One often overlooked feature that many new users rely on is the quality of the “Help” system. As a general rule, FrontPage 2002 has an excellent help database that will answer virtually all questions asked by new users. The system covers subjects, such as basic Web site design techniques, cascading style sheets (CSS), working with themes, optimizing sites and advanced subjects such as accessing SQL and Access databases. Technology pundits often decry Microsoft for distributing products that allow neophytes to do things once reserved only for the elite. FrontPage 2002 qualifies as such a product in that its user-friendly wizards and automated capabilities make the deployment of certain advanced and complex Web technologies child’s play.

I have used FrontPage for the past three years as my primary Web site design program. FrontPage 2002 includes a small number of enhancements over previous versions, such as better database integration and additional Web components. The real strength of FrontPage 2002 is its ability to allow less sophisticated designers to include advanced technologies and functionality on their sites.

For the beginner, FrontPage can appear intimidating because it doesn’t try to hide its capabilities. Because it takes more of a page approach as compared to Fusion MX, it’s also easier to have inconsistencies within your site. That said — beginning and intermediate users alike tend to appreciate the added flexibility and power of FrontPage.

Macromedia (formerly Allaire) Homesite
HomeSite doesn’t come with the fancy pre-built templates and themes that are included with FrontPage and Fusion MX, but this Web site design package is well-liked by many intermediate and expert designers who prefer to code HTML, rather than design under a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment. While HomeSite does allow pages to be designed through a WYSIWYG interface, this isn’t its strength. The real strength of HomeSite is also its weakness — all the fluff is stripped away and the developer is provided with a straight-forward Web site design tool. As such, lawyers or staff with no Web site design experience will find HomeSite intimidating at first. For the beginner who doesn’t want to invest a great deal of time in learning the fundamentals of good Web site design, HomeSite is not a good choice.

Stake Your Virtual Claim
In today’s electronic age, law firms without an Internet presence are at a disadvantage. Provided you use the right tool, a well-designed and professional Web site can be created in-house. Both NetObjects Fusion MX (if you can find a copy) and FrontPage 2002 will enable law firms to create professional and well-designed Web sites without investing a significant amount of time or money into the endeavor.

A B O U T T H E A U T H O R

Michael W. Newcomb is a business and technology attorney with Mayfield & Associates, located in San Diego (newcomb@mayfield-law.com).