Like it or not, the internet has changed the way information flows around the planet. Increasingly, the internet is our first port of call when looking for information. In a world that is increasingly online, using a Web site as a way to obtain new and qualified clients has become a necessity.
Some solo and small practice lawyers may still hold firm to their belief that an internet presence merely leads to more nuisance calls rather than more business; preferring to rely on traditional methods such as personal and word-of-mouth referrals. A few are happy to announce that they have enough work, thank you very much, and don’t need the internet to extend their reach.
We believe that no matter how established a law practice is, an omission (your prospective client not finding your practice on the internet) is likely to leave an adverse impression – that you are a not a serious business undertaking with a sterling professional reputation and a credible client list. As a supplier of legal services, your corporate website in this internet age shows pride and professionalism in your craft. A corporate website has become an essential business tool, just like your business card.
HOW TO BEGIN?
Your law firm website must serve its primary purpose which is to inform prospective clients of your experience, skills and reputation. To be effective in delivering this message, the site must be informative, aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly and easily found by the internet search engines.
We will discuss each element in turn –
1 Domain Name Selection
Your domain name should be
a) Short
Long domain names are user Make it easy for people to type and remember it.
b) Memorable
Short does not mean memorable. However, using initials for your domain name may be unmemorable, unless the initials are already a famous brand, eg IBM. For this reason, if you are a partnership, the law firm naming flexibility offered by LLPs and LLCs (eg Justlaw; Onelegal; Legal Solutions; is a factor to be considered when structuring your law practice.
c) Related to the Business Name or Core Business
Consider adding “law” or “legal” as the name will then help to establish the nature of the business eg: www.atmdlaw.com.sg; www.dhklaw.com.sg. You should also consider choosing a domain name that reflects your area of practice, rather than the name of your firm. Eg www.divorcelawyer.com.sg. This may be a good strategy if you are a new firm, and have not yet established a brandname in the market.
d) Difficult to misspell
Try to avoid names that are easy to misspell. Eg Globallaw. Should there be one “l” or 2 “l”s?
2 Hosting
With every domain names, there will be 3 hosting factors to be considered: the domain name hosting, the web hosting and the email hosting. The 3 types of hosting can be by 3 different hosting companies. Eg: domain name hosting can be by the domain name service provider whom you registered your domain name through. The web hosting can be by the service provider who is maintaining your website; and the email hosting can be by the broadband provider or a specialist email hosting provider.
From our experience, it does not matter that the hosting is done by 3 different companies, as the different types of hosting require are a different area of expertise, and it is usually difficult to find the expertise in one company. Eg, Singtel may be a big company that can provide broadband + web hosting + email hosting, however their main focus is on providing broadband and connectivity, so their domain, web and email hosting facilities lack beyond some of the players who only specialize in web and email hosting.
The main factors to look out form in respect of the different types of hosting are:
- Is the company specialized in that form of hosting
- Do they provide 24/7 helpdesk service
- Is the helpdesk easy to get through?
- Does the hosting service provide a system administration that enables you to control the hosting eg: for domain names, do you have a login access to a system admin interface that allows you to point the domain to a specified name server? Transfer the domain name or update the details of the owner without the assistance of the service provider?
3 Selecting A Web Design/Development Company
Web design and development is challenging as it requires both technical and creative skills.
Aside from the usual factors of cost and experience, level of professionalism and understanding shown, client references, we would recommend that you select a company that has on their team, graphic designers trained in web design, web programmers, and people who understand search engine optimization and marketing. Even if you do not intend your website to have any interactive or e-commerce facility, and that your website is intended to be an online brochure.
Why? A company that is focused on aesthetic design, technical and marketing aspects will have a finer appreciation that successful websites are not just pretty to look at. They must also be coded in a way that is easy to update (with content management engine plugged in) and search engine friendly.
Furthermore, if you needed to enhance the website in future, eg to plug in a shopping cart or to include a client login facility, the same company would have the capacity and skillsets to provide the same. For those reasons, and for reasons of reliability and continuity we would also suggest that you avoid free lance web designers, unless you know them personally.
4 Design with Purpose
You have many different design options when creating your website. This is usually governed by how much you are willing to pay the web designer. We believe that simplicity is key. A showy site replete with style-driven multi-media flash presentations is likely to alienate a cost-conscious client looking for a more conservative image. From a technical point of view, flash-driven web sites take a long time to download and are not search-engine friendly. We do not recommend it for these reasons.
In designing websites for lawyers, we notice that lawyers have a tendency to one extreme or the other; either boring and nondescript or overkill.
Simply put, your site should represent the image you wish to portray – which is professional, competent and assured.
5 Make Website Content Informative
For your website to serve its purpose of “informing” prospective clients of your expertise, it should contain up to date information about your credentials, awards, accolades and past achievements. Most search engine friendly sites also contain legal information useful to the public. “Giving away” free legal information will serve to draw new visitors to your site; and may improve your rankings on search engines.
6 Keep Your Site Up-to-date
A cardinal rule for effective websites is to keep your content up to date. Even if your website contains only information about the practice, it should reflect current achievements and appointments.
When was the last time you updated your website? Is the content up to date and relevant? If you can’t afford to pay a web programmer to maintain your website – you can do it yourself! Even without knowledge of HTML (the programming language used on the internet), a “build-yourself” website with content management enablement (LEAP WebBuilder is a subscription service) that allows you to edit text and images; and create fresh web pages as easily as a Word document.
7 Ensure your website is easily found by Search Engines
In the course of our research on Singapore law firm websites, we have encountered a few well designed websites but could not locate them, even by typing the name of the law firm on Google. Without being found by search engines, your website is about as effective as a ream of glossy brochures tucked out of sight in your desk drawer.
To make your site “findable”, you must submit your website to top search engines (Google and Yahoo at the very least). In fact, for your website to be truly effective in extending your reach, ensure that Google ranks your site on the first page for search words used describe your service (example, “divorce lawyer in Singapore”).
To do this, design your website with search engines in mind. Make it clean and search-engine friendly. The website text, titles and meta-tags must contain words that describe your expertise and specialization. Evaluate the search engines and submission criteria; study their methodology for ranking sites. Google takes into account links from other sites (to your site); so submit your website to as many online directories and public information sites as you can.
Search Engine Optimisation has developed into a science. If you lack the time or interest to monitor your page rankings and study your site for search engine optimization, you can hire a professional to do this for you. Web Marketing specialists, in addition to selling you Ad Words on Google or Yahoo, can also undertake SEO for a fee.
8 Be Your Own Webmaster
To build, update and maintain websites, you need to know how to program in a web language like html, java or php.
Lawyers (unless you have an abiding interest in the internet) will find it too time consuming to learn how to program in web languages (html) and the free text protocol (ftp) to upload the information to your host provider.
To solve this problem, you need to ensure that your service provider plugs in a user-friendly content management system into your website. Such systems are usually provided for a small monthly subscription fee, and are well worth the fee, as it ensures that you have control over your website, and that you can update the site content at any time. Make sure that the content management system has a user friendly interface that you can manage.
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HOW WE CAN HELP
For many firms, the Website development process can appear daunting, with the result that websites remain an item on their Law Firm’s to do list, year after year.
We have helped many mid-sized and small law firms develop their law firm websites. Our law firm portfolio is available on request. Our team comprises talented and experienced graphic designers and web programmers. Our project managers possess a legal cum IT background. Our team strives to develop law firms websites that are cost effective, easily update-able, and search engine friendly.
To ease the financial burden, our LawFirmMarketingSuitefor law firms currently includes a very attractive government (IDA) grant of up to $2000.00, which will finance up to 80% of the web development costs. Law Firms who do not currently possess a website are entitled to apply for this Grant, however please note that the grant is for a limited period only.
Our web marketing services for law firms includes:
- Website Design and Development
- Content Management System
- Web Hosting
- Search Engine Marketing (”SEM”)
- Search Engine Optimization (”SEO”)
- IDA-SIP Grant Administration
Please download our Law Firm Marketing Suite. For more information, please call 62362846 or email slim@bizibody.biz.
