1.
Law Firm Web Design
Basics
What do I need to know about web
design for my law firm?
Gyi Tsakalakis
@gyitsakalakis
AttorneySync
6/8/2012 AttorneySync 773-828-8878 1

2.
Who Are You?
Who Are You? No really. What makes
you, you?
What makes you different from other
lawyers?
Why should someone choose you over
your competition?
Before you even begin to design your
website, you need to have a solid
understanding of what messaging you
want to communicate through your
website.
That has to start with understanding who
you are.
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3.
You’re (Probably) Not Atticus Finch
Don’t market yourself as the person
you’d like to be!
Market yourself as the person that you
are.
Focus on what you can realistically do
better than your competitors.
Can you provide better
communication?
Are you more knowledgeable about a
specific practice area?
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4.
Who Are They?
Who is your target audience? Who are
you trying to attract to your website?
What types of things are these people
looking for online?
What problems to do they have? What
types of information are they looking
for?
Again, before you start designing your
law firm website, you better know for
whom you are designing it.
Remember, you’re not designing for you!
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5.
What Are They Looking For?
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6.
Sweeeeeeet Emotion
What emotions
are you trying to
evoke from your
visitors?
What colors and
design elements
are most
effective in
evoking these
target emotional
responses?
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7.
Fear
Lawyers = Fear Solvers
How do you solve fear?
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8.
Trust
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9.
Do These Build Trust?
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10.
What About This?
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11.
Fear + Solution + Expertise + Trust
Good law firm websites identify prospective
clients’ fears, communicate how the lawyers are
uniquely equipped to help solve these fear issues
and demonstrate trust.
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12.
Text Content
Writing is a skill that takes time to develop.
Writing for the web is different than writing in
other media.
Most people have very short attention spans
online.
They tend to skim text.
Don’t forget about your audience and objectives
when writing.
The text on your web pages is important, don’t
take it for granted. It’s likely to be the single
most important factor as to whether someone
finds you, calls you and becomes a new client.
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13.
No Stock Legal Web Images!
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14.
It’s Time for Some Action
What sorts of actions do you want
your visitors to take?
Are you making it easy for them to
take those actions?
Think Verbs:
• Download
• Link to
• Subscribe
• Share
• Comment
• Call
• Email
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15.
Technically Speaking
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16.
Domain Registration
Choosing a domain for your law firm website should take into account the
marketing objectives of your firm. Some of these include your brand
messaging, as well as, performance in search.
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17.
Hosting
Like domain registration, choosing a host should take into account your
firms marketing goals and budget. While there are very affordable
hosting options available, economy hosting plans can limit your access
to certain functions and also your site’s performance with visitors.
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18.
Content Management Systems (CMS)
We could debate the merits of various content
management systems. But I’m going to do you a
favor: just use Wordpress. By that I mean a self-
hosted installation from wordpress.org (vs
wordpress.com).
Make sure your hosting account supports Wordpress
installations. Even better, that they support 1-click
Wordpress installation scripts (like fantastico).
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19.
Search Engines & The Design Process
“If you're thinking about hiring an SEO, the
earlier the better. A great time to hire is when
you're considering a site redesign, or planning
to launch a new site. That way, you and your
SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be
search engine-friendly from the bottom up.
However, a good SEO can also help improve an
existing site.”
- Google
I see too many law firm websites that were designed &
developed without keeping search engines in mind.
Avoid costly fixes in the future by including a search
engine optimization professional from the beginning of
the design process.
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20.
Bottom Line:
Consider Search Early In the Design
Process.
OR
Get Someone Who Knows Search
Involved Early!
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21.
Page Layout
Where will “stuff” go?
Plan the layout for all your
pages in advance.
Photo by: http://www.xstandard.com/en/support/edit-web-pages/
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22.
Unique, Accurate Page Titles
<title>This Is Your Page’s Title</title>
“Titles are critical to giving users a quick insight into the
content of a result and why it’s relevant to their query. It's
often the primary piece of information used to decide which
result to click on, so it's important to use high-quality titles on
your web pages.”
- Google
Perform keyword research & page title mapping
before designing your website (or at least during
the design process).
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23.
Privacy, Permalinks, SEO
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24.
Putting It All Together
Optimized title
Optimized video
w/ rich snippets
Calls to action
Optimized images
Optimized
informational
text
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25.
Optimized
title with
geographic Putting It All Together
modifiers
Optimized meta descriptions for
click-through and conversion
• Photo of actual attorney
• Publications
• Press recognition
• Third-Party site profile ratings
• Excerpts from online publishing on
other sites
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26.
Questions?
I hope you found this helpful. Should you have questions, please feel
free to ask in the comments on this presentation. If you’d rather talk to
me personally, don’t hesitate to connect.
Thanks!
Gyi Tsakalakis
@gyitsakalakis
AttorneySync
6/8/2012 AttorneySync 773-828-8878 26