38 MAKE WITH THEIR

WEBSITE

common3LAW FIRMSMISTAKES

(and how to avoid them)

another marketing guide from Conscious Solutions

websitesmarketing& intranetsfor law firms

SECOND EDITION

FULLY REVISED!

con

sciou

s

Introduction

It was back in 2007 when we fi rst published this booklet. Quite a lot has happened in the world of the Internet since then. Facebook had less than 20m users (it now has over 750m!), LinkedIn and Twitter were not on most law fi rm’s radars. The iPhone had not been launched let alone the App Store, the Android OS and iPads dominating the mobile market today.

So what’s changed in the way that law fi rms are designing and building websites? In some cases quite a lot, in others, nothing.

We see very few “all Flash” sites built anymore, there are better technologies touched on below to allow “animation” on your website. Yet at the same time we see some law fi rms still not adopting the basic tenets of a law fi rm’s website, eg. not listing all of their fee earning staff , let alone looking at video staff profi les.

Back in 2007 Matthew Moore, the Law Society expert on practice management and quality management for law fi rms stated in one of his books, that the Internet stands to revolutionise some of the ideas on legal marketing. That has certainly proved to be true when we think about social media!

Moore went on to say that “The creation of a web page is an attractive option and involves just as great a commitment to manage the website as in compiling any newsletter.” That is also true, keeping your website up-to-date has never been more important. Your website is now the fi rst point of contact with your fi rm for the vast majority of new clients, who will use it to “verify” whatever else they have been told about your fi rm.

As a specialist provider of websites, marketing, intranet and CRM solutions for the legal profession we know that used correctly, a fi rm’s website can become the most powerful tool in the marketing mix. We’re passionate about the power of online marketing and know that when done correctly, your website can become the most important component in your marketing strategy.

Where relevant in the tips below we have included a link to a good example of the point we are making.

I hope you enjoy this revised booklet.

David GilroySales & Marketing Director,

Conscious Solutions Limited

Content

1 List all your fee earning staff (not just partners)Our most recent benchmark of over 150 law fi rm websites showed that between 25%-40% of all page views of your website are of your people pages. Any person considering making contact with your fi rm is almost certain to use the “Our People” area of your website. We rarely see a law fi rm’s website now without this section. Word of mouth referrals will often be to a specifi c person who may not always be a Partner – so it’s still important to list all staff (or all fee earning staff at least). Even large fi rms can list all staff if they have a good search option. EXAMPLE http://www.thrings.com/site/people

2 Make sure staff photos look professionalIt’s a false economy trying to use amateur photos of your Partners and Fee Earners. Get them done professionally – the diff erence in quality is always noticeable. We rarely see any new websites built with staff sitting in front of a rack of boring looking law books…thank goodness! Web designs tend now to be quite sophisticated and anything other than professionally taken, well posed photos are likely to spoil the overall eff ect of the site.

3 Consider video profi lesSome think that the web was made for video delivery. Look at YouTube, the average visit lasts for 15 mins, the average visit to your law fi rm’s website is around 2 mins. Just adding video profi les won’t make up that diff erence, but how much more engaging will a video of your staff talking be, than just a photo and bio? Yes, these cost more money and yes, your staff might need some coaching, but these video profi les are becoming more common.

EXAMPLE: http://www.kitsons-solicitors.co.uk/content/people/andrew-perkins.ashx

4 You must keep your staff list up-to-dateIt should be as easy as 1, 2, 3. 1, give them a P45. 2, change their network password. 3, remove them from the website. There’s only one thing worse than seeing someone on a website who you know is no longer with the business (see the next point). Having a decent Staff Directory module as part of your Content Management System (CMS) will aid this process as it allows you to log in and add/delete staff yourself.

5 Add new staff to your website quickly It should be easy. Make them a job off er, send the contract, wait for them to join and on the fi rst day give them their business cards and add them to the website. You tell your new staff how pleased you are that they have joined the fi rm and what a signifi cant contribution they can make. Yet six months after they joined you have still not added them to the website. We know of fi rms who have defi nitely lost work as a result of this sort of neglect. In one case the prospective client actually told them that the reason they did not call was because they could not fi nd the fee earner on the website and assumed they had left the business already.

6 Not keeping your website up-to-date This is probably the cardinal sin still committed most often by law fi rms, and occurs when a prospective client arrives on your website and fi nds inaccurate or outdated information e.g. “latest news” that is two years old. This gives a negative impression of the fi rm from the outset and one that is hard to recover from. Either commit to your own content updates or subscribe to one of the out-sourced services now available.

Either way, your website must accurately refl ect the current state of the fi rm i.e. correct staff list, services on off er, news items.

EXAMPLE: www.no_i_cannot_tell_you.co.uk

7 Provide “added value” content in a client extranet This is more detailed than the current awareness news content discussed above. This content might be detailed briefi ngs on particular areas of law. For example: “How to….” guides on conveyancing, employment law tips booklets or business support

information for commercial clients such as documentson corporate fi nance or HR issues. Firms that do this report that their clients appreciate the extra depth of information. Why not copy our approach and use tips booklets like this one?EXAMPLE: http://www.bishopslaw.co.uk

8 Make it easy to fi nd your phone number and contact detailsWe’ve made a number of points above that talk about “drawing users into the website”. It’s important to do this, but not at the expense of frustrating users who want something as simple as getting your phone number. We recommend putting it at the top of the website and in the footer of the site, plus having a clear link in the navigation to the “Contact Us” page.

Consider using a trackable phone number on the website for prospective clients so you can track enquiries better (see Tip 17 below).

9 Make sure you link to a location mapJust like with brochures, one of the most common reasons we all look at websites is to get contact details and directions. Accessing contact/location details will be as much as 25% of all page views on your website. If you do not provide your own map make sure you link to Google Maps (and check that you have claimed your offi ce listing on Google Places) or one of the many other online map providers (and make sure this link opens in a new window, as opposed to taking visitors off your site).

TIP: Something more sophisticated (aka expensive) - http://www.giveway.co.uk

Design and Usability

10 Make sure your brand identity is professional and the design of your website has impactYour brand is important, whether it’s a black text based logo or a true brand identifi er like a Nike ‘swoosh’. You never get a second chance to make a fi rst impression – so make sure your website refl ects the

professional qualities of your fi rm.

11 Make the most of your homepage - it’s the most valuable page on your entire site (don’t waste it) Yes, your home page needs to tell clients what you do, but don’t let this take up too much space. Long detailed descriptions of the fi rm, your 100 year history etc, should be saved for the “About Us” page. The key thing for your home page is to provide signposting to the key areas of your website and provide key “calls to action” (see more below). Feature your people strongly, have a block of up-to-date legal news, and a prominent enquiry form if lead generation is your key focus.

12 Have good ‘signposting’ from your home pageDo you have a recent newsletter that’s just gone out, a new partner just recruited and an event coming up next week? All these need to be “signposted” from the home page, not just buried under a “news” or “events” page. Good signposting from the homepage will draw people into the rest of the site. This can be achieved with text and images, more complex graphics and/or animations. Animation eff ects can be useful here to draw attention to specifi c items on your homepage and make better use of key areas of your homepage.

13 Insuffi cient ‘calls to action’ throughout the site“Calls to action” mean phrases like “Register for our newsletter”, “Come to this event” etc. The need for strong signposting is an issue that is not limited to the home page. It’s important to have strong signposting on all pages. For example, if you are running a seminar on Inheritance Tax, then this event should be promoted from every page on the website that is relevant (such as a news story, the team page for that work area, the service page for that work area etc.). Give your website visitors multiple chances to be drawn deeper and deeper into the site.

14 Have well positioned site navigation and keep it in as few places as possibleThere are really only two positions for navigation that are the accepted norm on websites: top-of-page or left-hand column. It’s

also very important to make sure that navigation appears in the same place on every page. It sounds obvious but you would be surprised how often people overlook this basic rule of usability design. There is a trend now for what we call “mega menus” whereby you can have multiple columns in one drop-down list, or even images and news stories.

EXAMPLE: http://www.slaughterandmay.com

15 Avoid broken linksYep, sounds really basic, but it still happens. Law fi rms are still not doing regular link checking of their website to ensure that there are no broken links. Users don’t link them and Google does not like them, so make sure you do it regularly. TIP: Download Link Checker Lite - http://www.relsoftware.com/rlc/downloads/

16 Avoid “splash pages”Spinning logos with marketing messages fl ying across the screen with text fading in and out – these are “splash pages” and, like pop-up adverts, users have grown to hate them. It’s very unusual to see these kinds of homepages now, so we will say no more about them.

MARKETING, PPC, SEO

17 Make sure you track enquiries from the website accurately Make sure that when people call your offi ce you ask them where they got your phone number. If they say “the website” you then need to ask them where they heard about the website: from a friend, a Google search or somewhere else. It is this second question that is the most informative. Someone who got your phone number from the website, but was referred to the website by a friend is a tick in the “referral” box, not the “website” box. Most fi rms are not good enough at doing this and thus struggle to track the real return on investment (ROI) of their website spend.

TIP: Check out a service like http://www.mediahawk.co.uk for tracking/recording phone calls.

18 Making use of social media to drive website visitorsHaving a social media strategy is key to driving more visitors to your website. It could be linking LinkedIn profi les from your staff profi les

or using Twitter to promote the fi rm. Social media is hard to ignore when so many fi rms are using all manner of social media outlets to good eff ect. A number of our clients who are using LinkedIn (in particular) correctly are now fi nding that they can drive more traffi c to their website than through Google. Linking your blog into your website should also be considered as well as creating a Facebook page for your fi rm.

19 Start a blogA blog can help not only with news fl ow “out” from your law fi rm, but will help with SEO as it will give Google more content to index on your website. Get all the fee earners involved in writing the content. Link to the content from their staff profi les. Make sure the content is pithy & opinionated, not just the sterile content most press releases contain.

EXAMPLE: http://www.mablaw.com/all-discussions/

20 Improve communication with existing clients: start sending newsletters by email on a regular basis Because of the costs involved, many fi rms choose to send printed newsletters only to their “best” clients in an attempt to “add value” and strengthen the relationship even further. But the obvious truth is that fi rms should really be sending newsletters to all clients and particularly to the “not best” clients to try and retain or “reactivate” them. The economics of email newsletters is very diff erent; it is possible to send your newsletter to far more people at lower cost than you can possibly achieve with printed newsletters. And with the correct email marketing tool you can track who receives the newsletter, who opens it and which links those people click on.

21 Try driving traffi c to your website with Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns Increasingly, people are using Google and other search engines to research legal topics, search for solicitors etc. Whilst some key phrases are commanding high PPC fees (e.g. £30 and up for “personal injury claim”) there are still some very cost eff ective key phrases based around certain services when combined with regional targeting. Forward thinking fi rms are starting to switch a portion of their Yellow Pages advertising budgets to PPC.

With the changes to the way Google is integrating Places (local) searches with the main search results it’s even more important that you pay attention to geographic search phrases e.g. “solicitor in Bristol” and run PPC campaigns for those phrases for which you do not rank in the top three in the natural search results.

22 Optimise your website for the search engines We’re not talking here about anything very complex or expensive; Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is mostly about getting the basics right such as unique “page titles” for each page on your site (the page title shows up in the blue bar at the top of your browser window). Other simple things include using “Heading” tags for headings on your page. Google now pays little or no attention to “meta description” and “meta keywords”, so there are three key things to focus on. 1) the meta <title> 2) having your keywords in H1, H2 and H3 tags on the page and 3) getting the keyword density correct on the page (3%).

TIP: Search on “solicitor in <<location>>” on Google. Where do you rank?

23 Encourage inbound links to the siteThe number of inbound links, or other sites that link to yours, is one of the key metrics that Google uses in determining your “PageRank” i.e. the measure of how “important” your site is for any particular search. Having 10 links from other high ranking sites, or sites that are likely to be, or become, “authority sites” is worth more in terms of ranking than having 1,000 links from sites with a low PageRank. So, if you get emails asking for “reciprocal links” evaluate each one carefully. For example, if you are a member of APIL or Resolution then you should ensure that you have a link from their website. However, being linked to from the local cricket club that you sponsor, although valuable in other ways, will probably not infl uence your PageRank.

The best way of encouraging links is to have valuable (and current) legal content that you can promote and encourage other websites to link to.

TIP: Enter “link:www.yoursite.co.uk” into Yahoo & Google to gauge the number of links to your website.

24 External sites / issuesHave you tried doing a search on your fi rm’s name? Is one of your competitors doing a Google Adwords PPC campaign on your name?

We’ve seen it happen a number of times.Also, check all the sites that link to yours, or are listing your fi rm’s details are doing so with the right information. Are they pointing to the right website, are your address details correct? This is even more important bearing in mind the consolidation that is already going on in the legal sector and all the name changes that are happening at law fi rms.

25 Download the Google Toolbar and start paying more attention to PageRank PageRank is one of the methods Google uses to determine a page’s relevance or importance. You need to know what page rank your site currently has and start paying attention to those of your competitors. To do so all you need to do is install the Google Toolbar from http://toolbar.google.com – make sure you opt in to the “Advanced” features when asked during installation. You will then be able to see the page rank of all pages that you visit.

26 Ensure you look at your website statistics regularly Do you know how many page impressions you got last month and how that compares to the same month last year? Last time you sent out an email newsletter, do you know how many people opened it? Of the people who opened the email, which was the most popular link? Do you know which page on your website (aside from the homepage) is the most popular? If not then how can you know what to do better? Wherever you host your website, you should be insisting on getting website statistics and most agencies nowadays will confi gure Google Analytics on your website.

TIP: Compare your website to our benchmark by downloading data from over 150 law fi rm websites from http://www.conscious.co.uk/benchmark

Technology & Site Functionality

27 Flash is so “last year” darling!There is no need in mid-2011 to be using Flash to achieve animation & movement in websites (especially as it isn’t supported by Apple on the iPhone, iTouch or iPad). Newer coding techniques using

JavaScript tools such as jQuery allow sliding panels, clever navigation devices and all manner of design eff ects that used to be the sole preserve of Flash developers.

28 Mobile websites are “of their time” The stats from the 250 law fi rms’ websites we run now show that as much as 5% of the page views of your website are from mobile phones e.g. smart phones with small screens (iPads are not included in this number).

This 5% fi gure is the threshold at which we believe it makes sense for law fi rms to start investing in mobile-compliant version of their website e.g. http://www.yoursite.mobi

Most websites work perfectly well on mobile phones, it’s just that the text is very small and they need to be zoomed and/or panned in order to be viewed eff ectively. Mobile websites will have succinct, abbreviated text written for your key pages (About Us, Services) and then if built using the right technology will pull in your staff profi les dynamically.

TIP: Try accessing http://babcockpartners.mobi from your mobile phone.

29 Investigate online forms/DIY legal documentsWith the impending arrival of ABS’ in October 2011 much has been written about the commoditisation of legal services. Whilst we won’t get into the business case behind the provision of DIY/self-service legal documents, clearly if you are subscribing to one of the services available, ensuring tight integration with your main website is key to running that service in a profi table manner. The only exception to this would be if you run a commoditised service under a diff erent brand.

One tool we provide in our CMS is SecureForms which is a data-collection toolset, rather than a DIY legal document service.

TIP: Check out http://www.conscious.co.uk/secforms and http://www.directlaw.co.uk

30 Make sure you own your domain name We often fi nd that domain names of our clients have been registered incorrectly by previous web agencies or “bedsit web developers”. If

you are even the least bit unsure, you need to check with Nominet (the UK domain name authority) at http://www.nic.uk. In the top right hand corner of the home page is a “Whois” search fi eld. Enter your domain name (without the “www”) and click “Lookup”. What you should see in the “Registrant” fi eld should be your fi rm’s name. If it’s not, then you need to go through a Domain Name Transfer process (see the Nominet site). The reason this is so important was amply highlighted by a client of ours a few years ago. Due to an error in the original registration process their domain name was legally owned by their previous web agency. Worse still, the agency had gone bust which resulted in the domain name being cancelled and put up for sale on the open market. We helped them recover the situation but only by them obtaining a Vesting Order at the Chancery Division of the High Court.

31 Register the common misspellings of your domain name If you have a name like Clarks & Weeks, and your main domain is www.clarksweeks.co.uk you should also register domains such as www.clarkesweeks.co.uk, www.clarkesweekes.co.uk, www.clerksweakes.co.uk etc. Of course, the specifi c number of domains you should register will depend on your actual name. A “.co.uk” domain name can be registered for as little as £9.99 for two years which, in our opinion, is well worth the spend. Try http://www.concious.co.uk

32 Make sure you use the same domain name for the website and for email Your domain name is very much part of your brand identity. If your name is Smith & Co. and you use www.smithandco.co.uk for your website, why use name@smithandco.com for your email address? You should be consistent with use of domain names and, where possible, just use one. If you have to use two, make sure that the one used for email redirects people who type it into a web browser to your correct web address.

33 All websites should run on a CMSA CMS allows you to edit the content on your site without needing special software or technical knowledge. If you can format a document in MS Word, then nowadays you can use a CMS. A CMS is

the foundation of any modern website and we rarely see sites that are built using static HTML pages any more. Overall this will save you time and money as the vast majority of the changes you will need to make to your website can be made yourselves, meaning they are made in a more timely way.

CMS come in all shapes and sizes from large bespoke CMS platforms like ours (built specifi cally for the needs of law fi rms), to Open Source platforms (WordPress, Drupal & Umbraco) plus paid-for software such as Sitecore.

34 Provide a full-text search option on your siteIf you have more than a handful of pages on your website then a search feature is still recommended. However, nowadays it is really only used a lot on very large fi rms’ sites. For most fi rms, having clear, consistent navigation will ensure that most users will quickly and eff ectively fi nd what they are looking for.

35 Provide online case management & other online toolsOnline case management is the process of presenting some, or all, of a client’s case information to them via your website. One of the key things to remember if you are considering online case management is that clients must be informed if their case information has changed. It is no good just uploading the information and hoping that the client will think to check your website that night; they must be sent a text message or an email asking them to check the website and view the updated information.

Other tools such as conveyancing calculators, debt recovery cost estimators etc can help clients understand that you are switched on to technology and want to use said technology to make their lives easier.

36 Make sure you build your website to W3C standardsThe latest way of building websites uses a technique that separates the presentation from the programming using a technology called Cascading Stylesheets (CSS). The simplest way to discover if your new website is being coded in this way is to ask your provider “Are you using tables to control the layout of my website or CSS”? You really need to make sure that your site is CSS based to stand much chance of complying with the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. TIP: Run your website through http://validator.w3.org/

37 Do you meet the latest Accessibility Guidelines? Believe it or not there are over 10 million adults in Britain covered by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 - you can’t aff ord to ignore this issue for ever and get away with it! Accessibility is not just about access for users with a disability, it’s about good user interface design for all users. A study by the Disability Rights Commission found that “high accessibility” sites benefi ted all users – not just the disabled. Some common tasks were completed 46% faster than on a group of less accessible sites. Anyone who is working on a new website for you should be familiar with the three levels of compliance outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/). The levels are A, AA & AAA and have varying degrees of complexity of assessment as to compliance. TIP: For some good background go to the RNIB website (http://www.rnib.org.uk) under -> Professionals -> Web Access Centre).

38 Meeting Legislation requirementsWhether it’s meeting the requirements for OC/Ltd Co. registration number, linking to the SRA or to your complaints procedure, you need to ensure that your website is meeting all current legislative requirements.

One of the latest issues to deal with in 2011 is the changes to the way “cookies” can be used on your website. However, at the time of writing, the Information Commissioner has given all businesses a 12 month reprieve before they will take any action against people who do not change their cookie usage. In those 12 months our industry expects that the legislation will change again, as in it’s current form it is practically unworkable.

What other people are saying about this tips booklet:

“A thoroughly revised edition of the original Conscious tips booklet. Still listing some classic mistakes but giving me fresh information as well.”

Nicola WebbNicola Webb, Business Development Director

www.manches.com

“Indispensable, another great guide from Conscious that will act as a reference bible for everything a law fi rm should do on/with their website.”

Peter Mills, Marketing Manager

www.harrowells.co.uk

“This latest edition is still a great reference guide for all the basics and not so basics that law fi rms should be doing with their websites”

Sarah GouldBusiness Development & Marketing Manager

www.barlowrobbins.com

websitesmarketing& intranetsfor law firms

con

sciou

s

Conscious Solutions LimitedRoyal London Buildings42-46 Baldwin StreetBristol BS1 1PNt: 0117 325 0200f: 0117 981 1297 e: guides@conscious.co.ukw: www.conscious.co.uk

38 MAKE WITH THEIR

WEBSITE

common3LAW FIRMSMISTAKES

(and how to avoid them)

SECOND EDITION

FULLY REVISED!

another marketing guide from Conscious Solutions

3104467809569

ISBN 978-0-9563104-4-6£15.99