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| Designing a Simple Web Site for an Individual
Attorney As a rule,
the more lawyers you have in your firm, the less able you are to focus
your Web site’s attention on any one lawyer’s knowledge and experience.
An easy solution is for each lawyer to have his or her own
education-based Web site. A separate Web site gives each lawyer the
opportunity to post educational articles that display his knowledge
and experience, provide information about his services, and give prospects
easy ways to interact with him. An education-based Web site has three key
goals: (1) to seize your prospect’s
attention by off The following suggestions for Web site design
and content help you achieve these three important goals. FRAMEWORK Here is a simple structure you can follow
to build an education-based Web site.
I offer a discussion of the framework below. g EMERGENCY REQUEST
g Fast-response link for help in an emergency g
EDUCATIONAL ARTICLES
g ## Secrets of (subject within your area of law) (e.g.,
10 Secrets of Workers’ Compensation)
g ## Steps to (subject within your area of law)
g ## Costly Misconceptions About (subject within your area of
law)
g Frequently Asked Questions About
(subject within your area of law) g
FREE RESOURCES
g Free educational article
g Free educational newsletter
g Free answer to your question
g Free e-mail list g
BIOGRAPHY & PHOTOGRAPH
g Legal Services
g Services Letter
g Read these comments from clients and colleagues
g Read how (your name) has helped clients
g ## Reasons Clients Hire (your name) g
HOW TO HIRE HELP
g ## Mistakes to avoid when hiring (your type of lawyer)
g ## Questions to ask before hiring (your type of lawyer) g
CONTACT (lawyer’s name) COMMENTS
AND SUGGESTIONS First, everything in the above framework
should appear clearly on your home page.
You don’t need to copy these exact headings and titles. I offer them to show you the type of information
to present. Name the headings
using words that describe the information. Second, make sure you put these links on
your site’s top level. If you
don’t, your prospects might never see them because they may not navigate
deeper into your site. Third, don’t worry about duplication.
You may have two or three different links that take your prospect
to the same page. Selective redundancy is good. EMERGENCY
REQUEST: If your prospects ever have a pressing need,
you can give them the link where they can write their message and
transmit it to you immediately by email. EDUCATIONAL
ARTICLES: If you hope to gain a marketing benefit
from the titles of your articles, show them near the top of your home
page. When a serious prospect
visits your site, you hope your titles will seize his attention so
he buries himself in the information found in your articles.
The more articles you post on your Web site, the greater opportunity
you have to offer something that interests your prospects. And, if they relate to the same area of law,
the higher relevance rating you should achieve with search engines. In this example, I’ve listed three articles.
The fourth entry is for frequently asked questions about your
area of law. Prospects like to know and understand the legal
process associated with their problem.
You should explain it in detail and answer every question they
are likely to ask. Also, you might add a heading for issues
of your newsletter, or post recent articles from your newsletter under
this heading. FREE
RESOURCES: “Free” is still the most powerful word in advertising.
By putting your free offers in one place, you enable your prospect
to quickly find the ones that interest her.
At the same time, I suggest you place your free offers around
your Web site. You can never
be sure how long your prospect will stay on your site.
The more places you offer your free articles, newsletter, and
so forth, the more likely your prospect is to see your offers and
respond. The first free offer is an article. I suggest you hold back at least one popular
article and not post it on your Web site.
Through this link, you offer the article by its title, explaining
that it’s available by request. This
causes prospects to ask for it, which results in
their giving you their names and mailing (or email) addresses. This is one effective way to capture prospects’
names for your in-house mailing list. The second free offer is your newsletter.
Invite readers to subscribe to your newsletter by ent The third free offer is to answer your prospect’s
question. You can provide an
email template through which you and your prospect can begin a dialog
about your prospect’s problem. The fourth free offer is to add the person’s
name to your email list for anything you might offer, such as seminars,
conferences, audio tapes or CDs, Law Day activities, and so forth. BIOGRAPHY
& PHOTOGRAPH: This link is the first of several links that
provides information about you and your law practice. The more facts you provide in your bio, the
more credibility you establish. SERVICES: Legal
Services: Here you should
provide a detailed list of the services you offer.
If your prospect doesn’t see the service he wants, he may conclude
that you don’t offer that service and call another lawyer. So provide as much detail as you can. Services
Letter: This letter should
describe the various ways you can help your client — and answer frequently
asked questions. Testimonials: This is where you post comments from former
clients, referral sources, colleagues — anyone who knows you and will
offer a recommendation. (Check
your bar’s ethics rules to see whether you’re permitted to use testimonials.) Case
Histories: This is where you post descriptions of cases
you have handled and the successes you have achieved for clients. (Check your bar’s ethics rules to see whether
and to what extent you can discuss results you have achieved for clients.) ##
Reasons Clients Hire (your name):
This section is where you list your many competitive advantages. Clients don’t hire you because you’re the same
as other lawyers. They hire
you because you’re different. Make
sure you list all the ways you differ from other lawyers, in terms
of what your prospects find most important. HOW
TO HIRE HELP: This is where you explain mistakes to avoid
and questions to ask when hiring a lawyer. When you help prospects learn how to go into
the marketplace to find a lawyer, you increase your credibility. Prospects respect that you’re not trying to
influence their decision and in fact are helping them with their search. Often, this bonds them more closely to you. CONTACT: Put
all your contact information here.
In addition, it’s a good idea to put your contact information
at the bottom of every page. Then,
if your prospect prints something from your site, your contact information
will appear on the document she printed. ADD
YOUR NAME: Here you offer your prospect a few options,
such as the option to add her name to your email list or your newsletter
distribution list. These choices
will duplicate some of the choices under your Free Resources. SITE
MAP: Search engine optimization specialists recommend that every
Web site have a site map. This
helps search engines see what’s on your site, which helps them assign
relevance to the information you’ve presented. WEB
SITE BUTTONS (LINKS) Following are the buttons (links) I suggest
you include on every page. You’ll
notice that the bulk of them relate to you and your services.
You can set up the buttons so they take prospects to a secondary
page, where they make choices. Or you can use a “mouse-over” screen that displays
the choices under each category when you point your mouse at that
link. Emergency Request This simple education-based Web site can
help you seize your prospect’s attention and establish tremendous
credibility. What’s more, as
you post new articles on your site, your credibility will soar and
you’ll attract more and more inquiries from qualified prospective
clients. © Copyright 2004 by Trey Ryder LLC. All
rights reserved. |
