IS YOUR LAW FIRM'S WEBSITE WORKING?

Everyone told you that you had to have a website, so you went out and hired a fancy design firm to put a nice, expensive site together for you. Or your wife’s cousin’s kid, the computer nerd, did it. Or worse, you tried one of those do it yourself sites used by pet stores, plumbing contractors and people selling stuff out of their homes on eBay. Or worst of all, you did nothing; you just sat in your office waiting for the phone to ring while the rest of the world was busy Googling itself into a frenzy.

If you’re in the last category, you really ought to give serious thought to joining the digital, on line world. The rest of you need to ask an important question, “Is your website working for you?” Is it attracting new business, promoting your firm and providing current, relevant information about who you are and what you do? 

When was the last time your site was updated? Do you receive regular reports showing you who is looking at your site, and from where those viewers are coming? Is your site linked to the other marketing resources you have or should have?

In today’s highly competitive digital world, a website cannot be a static entity. Google, Bing and other search engines are hungry beasts that must constantly be fed. Even if that weren’t so, common sense should tell you that you’re not going to impress anyone if the content on your site is more than a few months old.

Here are some of the things you should be doing to ensure that your website is fulfilling its potential:

Keep Your Web Content Current

One important component of the algorithms used by search engines is the amount and freshness of a website’s content. If you haven’t updated your content recently, you need to, and you should make it a practice to do so on a regular basis. Is the description of your practice and the work you do current and accurate? Have you completed any major transactions in the last few months? Have you won a big case or negotiated a big settlement? You should carefully read through all the copy on your site and edit it to ensure that it presents a complete and accurate portrayal of your firm, the type of work you do and what you have to offer to prospective clients.

Do you send out newsletters or bulletins (electronic or print), press releases or other types of communications or updates? If so, are they included on your website? Are there appropriate links on the site?

Does your firm have brochures, forms or other printed materials it gives to clients and prospective clients? If so, those should all be attached or linked to your website.

Update Your Attorney Profile(s)

When was the last time you looked at your attorney profile? Does it start off by explaining the type of law you practice? Are your undergraduate and law school degrees listed at the end and not the beginning? Does it describe your professional accomplishments and offer a persuasive argument for why a prospective client should hire you? Does it include summaries of your major professional achievements, like large judgments or major business transactions?  

Does your profile include a link to your LinkedIn profile? LinkedIn has become an extremely powerful networking tool. If you’re not using it to its full potential, you’re missing out.

Does your profile include a v card or your e mail address so prospective clients can reach you? Is your picture in the profile? If so, is it reasonably recent and flattering? Does your profile include awards and commendations you’ve received? Articles you’ve published? Speaking or teaching engagements?

All this information needs to be included, up to date and accurate

Check Your Inbound and Outbound Links

Do you have a link on your site to your firm’s blog? Many of the big law firm web companies include it in their packages. Do you even have a blog site? Is there any content on it? If it does, when was the last time anyone posted to it?

Similarly, does your site have links to your firm’s Facebook page, Twitter feed or firm LinkedIn page (not individual attorneys’ pages)? Do you even have any of these? Do they have anything on them?

Have you set up incoming links to your site from other sites, such as business and law firm listing sites and various referral sites? If not, are there any that make sense for your practice? Search engines love inbound links. If you have incoming links, have you checked them lately to make sure they’re working effectively, or working at all?

Review Your Site’s Search Engine Results

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art and science of configuring a website to improve its search engine results. Many people believe that you do it when you put your website together and that’s it. Not true. SEO is a dynamic, ongoing process. When was the last time you ran a keyword search using the words or phrases that best describe your firm? If those results are not good, you need to look at the way key words and phrases are being used in your site. 

Websites also contain something called meta tags. These are elements contained within a website’s coding that are viewed by search engines, which rely on these tags to identify and classify the site’s content. If your search results are not very good, you probably need to have a search engine optimization specialist review and rewrite those meta tags. You should be conducting SEO reviews on a regular basis (monthly, quarterly or semi-annually, depending on the site).

Analyze Your Site’s Performance

Many web designers will install a program that provides analytic data about the web traffic the site is generating. This data usually includes the number of hits the site is generating, where those hits are coming from, how many individual pages each visitor to the site is viewing, and which linked sites are forwarding traffic. The data contained in those reports can contain a wealth of valuable information to help you identify potential sources of new business. If you don’t already have an analytic package as part of your site, you can install Google Analytics for free, or you can have a web designer or SEO firm install one for you. And you need to be looking at the reports regularly to see who is viewing your site and who isn’t, so you can make any appropriate changes.

Consider Mobile Web Options

As the digital world continues to evolve, more and more people are accessing the web on smart phones and tablets. As part of a review of your website’s performance, you should try to determine whether a significant number of viewers or potential viewers are accessing your site via those types of devices. If so, you should consider adding a mobile web application. These applications are much friendlier to smart phone and tablet users than accessing your regular site, which is not designed to be viewed on a small screen and could take a long time to load.

If this makes sense for you, you should also consider utilizing QR codes in your firm brochures and other marketing materials, and on your business cards. QR codes are those square, black and white digital bar codes you may have seen in consumer advertising. A smart phone or tablet user simply scans the code, which then automatically transfers the user to your mobile web site. Many businesses and professional firms have started using them, in the belief that they reflect a firm that is technologically savvy, invested in its future and generally more impressive. 

The Omega Legal Marketing Blog is a service of Omega Legal Marketing, a dedicated law firm marketing company specializing in creating custom designed, comprehensive marketing programs for small law firms and solo practitioners. You can learn more about us at http://omegallegalmarketing.com; you can contact us at admin@omegalegalmarketing.com.

© 2013 Omega Legal Marketing
www.omegalegalmarketing.com