Designing an Effective
Law Firm Web Site

by Jerry Lawson, Esq.

Planning

The largest expense of a high quality law firm web site is not having a firm do the HTML coding or renting space on a web server, but indirect costs: the time spent planning what to say substantively and keeping the site updated. Before you can begin the design process you need to think carefully about how you expect the web site will benefit your firm. You need to ask yourself the following questions about the purposes of the web page and your expectations. Do you want the web site to:

Provide a service to the firm's existing clients?

The unique nature of web sites gives rise to both benefits and challenges. Law firm web sites have one feature that distinguishes them from just about any other method of law firm promotion: they are non-intrusive. No one will ever see your web site unless he makes a conscious decision to see it, unlike a television ad or magazine advertising, for example.

This is a major plus in the calculations of many firms that consider conventional advertising inappropriate for their image or unprofessional. A variety of techniques have been used to get clients and potential clients to visit law firm web sites, and to make a good impression on them when they do visit.

Effective Techniques

Good web sites emphasize strong content. Ideally, you will want your target audience to like your site so much that they create a "bookmark" in their web browsers and visit your site repeatedly. Providing substantively interesting and/or useful information at your web site is the way to attract repeat visitors.

A Frequently Asked Questions list can be a great way to format substantive information. This form is frequently used on the Internet to provide objective guidance to people who are new to a particular subject. This fact may make readers of your FAQ list subliminally let down their anti-sales pitch skepticism. 

Make sure you include a carefully drafted disclaimer along with your substantive material. A couple of examples are included here. You can also look at other law firm sites to get more ideas for how to do this effectively.

Some firms have used specialization to make them stand out on the World Wide Web. For example, one of the most successful law firm web pages (Siskind, Susser, Haas & Chang) deals only with immigration law. Myles L. Berman's DWI Page is another good example.

Almost certainly, one or more of your practice areas are suitable for promotion in a specialized WWW site. The Washington, D.C. firm of Arent, Fox is a good example of using specialization to good advantage for marketing purposes. In addition to a general law firm page, it has an Advertising Law page maintained by Lew Rose. The subsection on contests and sweepstakes alone contains more high-quality substantive material than many firm's whole web sites.

Niche marketing is good because it can cause others to help you in your marketing efforts. For example, defense or health industry newsletters for executives will run "How the Internet Can Help You" articles. The editors will love to include a mention of the Qui Tam web sites. By alerting their readers to these resources, they are doing them a service. The referral from the print publication gives your firm legitimacy and credibility with their readers.

Make your pages easy to read by using:

Make it easy for users of your page to get in touch with you. You should include your hotlinked e-mail address at a minimum. I know this sounds like simple minded advice, but I have seen law firm web pages that neglected to include something so elementary.

Every page of your site should contain a link back to your main entry point. Unless you set up a complicated system of pages generated by CGI scripts, you have no control over where other WWW sites will create entry links into your site. If you have done a good job of putting substantive content at your site, designers of other WWW pages may link directly to it, bypassing your intended entry point. Make sure that people using these alternative entry points have access to information about your law firm.

It's a good idea to include the date that each page was last updated. Including the page's URL will make it easier for someone who prints out a copy of the page to find his way back to it on the web.

Examples of Good Law Firm Web Site Techniques