1. Study competitor sites to see what best practices (content and functionality) you should include in your site design and content.
2. Figure out all the pages you need to include in the architecture of your website.
3. Utilize a visual branding strategy that includes a color scheme, strong graphics, and the subtleties that transform the mediocre into magical.
4. Write a few positioning statements that clearly introduce your core value propositions in words that speak to visitors from their point of view. (use terms like you not we)
5. Lay out the content and site navigation to give an intuitive browsing experience that moves people from page to page like butter on toast.
6. Ensure your sales funnel is active with clear call-to-action opportunities for people to call or email you for more information.
7. Integrate Google analytics and webmaster accounts so you can measure results. Nothing kills all these efforts more than a lack of attention to actual performance.
8. Initiate an ongoing content creation campaign so that you are publishing at least monthly to your site. This is great for search engines and for reputational purposes.
9. Add tools for search engine rankings optimization and social sharing to keep your site in front of people more often.

Well let’s review your goals again since this will put everything we’ve been writing about into the perspective it deserves. Remember, these are the 3 core objectives of your law firm website:

1. To inform visitors of your legal capabilities, experience and excellence.
2. To transform visitors into actionable leads and referrals.
3. To provide a captivating user experience that guides visitors through your site and gets them to convert (call you, buy something online or fill out a form to leave you their email address).

Sounds pretty easy right?

All you need are a few web pages a nice free template that you can install in WordPress with cheap hosting from one of those ubiquitous $100 a year hosting companies, right?

Sure. and this solution comes with free cookies too.

Seriously, who are you kidding.

You want to bill $350 an hour (or more) and you think that a free or $50 template is going to compare to a professionally designed website?

We are not saying that you have to put in a monumental effort like climbing the Andes mountains – but there are steps to consider, decisions to make and paths to follow that will lead to a far greater destiny for your law practice than the cheap route of a me-too website.

The first step is to find our binoculars and our metal detector and start looking for gold on other law firm websites.

We call this phase of our approach the “discovery process” because it starts with a learning phase.

Immediately our goal is to gain insights about the competitive landscape and your targeted audience of ideal clients and referral sources.

We need to develop a strategy that will guide us on how to architect your website.

We have to figure out messaging than can be expressed textually (what is written) and visually (images and videos) through the site interface and decide with you on a sitemap pages that will need to be included in your site.

Now of course Ivan Dixon’s job was getting them hammered so it didn’t matter. But we can’t get all our visitors instantly inebriated so the next best alternative is to find a way to help visitors feel they are in the right place for their needs.

To do this, you want to help them quickly see what it is that you are offering to do for them.

Hey, there’s no magic here.

Just get some captivating images and headlines.

Or put a list of legal services together.

Or include a dynamic navigation bar that includes a drop down option with links to pages that appear to address this question of “what is the site all about.”

We think of this step as connecting your legal services to the needs of the 4 personas you are targeting (all at the same time sometimes).

It’s important to recognize that if visitors feel that you aren’t the best match, or if it takes too long for them to find exactly what they want, they will abandon your site and look elsewhere for another lawyer.

Using intuitive menu navigation, noticeable headlines, and detailed pages for each individual legal service you offer, will ensure that users feel comfortable that this site might be a good solution for their legal issues.

As the site continues to engage visitors, we want to keep their attention of your ideal clients (or referral sources) and talk to them as if you know what it’s like to be in their shoes.

Don’t assume that because you can help write a contract or living trust, they will automatically believe you are the right lawyer for them with their particular issues. You need to establish yourself as a top provider with experience handling clients just like them.

Using testimonials, success stories, and frequently asked questions shows visitors that other people were in similar situations, and your firm helped them.

An “about us” page or engaging photos will transform you from a faceless entity to a group of expert lawyers that people can relate to.

Now that visitors have started feeling comfortable with your site because it’s clear that your legal services match their requirements, you still have to convince them to choose you over other similar lawyers.

By fostering trust and credibility, you give visitors confidence that you’re the best option available for their unique situation.

Prospects are impressed by

• Testimonials from clients
• Awards and credentials
• News stories that support your reputation
• Blog postings
• Social media links to a Facebook page, Twitter account, LinkedIn profile or Google Plus page can tell visitors that you have a presence online. A challenge here is how to promote successes publicly while keeping certain endorsements private.

Remember, all these steps you are taking is to get people to reach out and say “I need help” so that you can get them into your sales funnel.

To make all these efforts worthwhile, you’ve got to give them an easy way to close the loop on connecting with you.

That leads to the last question.

The last key component in our communication and connection strategy is the “call to action.”This is the mechanism to get the lead, sale or referral. This puts all the previous steps into action.

Your site needs multiple methods for connection including:

• A “Contact Us” page
• A map to your location
• A phone number for a free consultation)
• A contact lead generation form should be present or available on the homepage for a visitor to immediately sign up (for something of value) and register as an active lead in your system.

Calls to action should be featured on every page, at the top or in the margins, urging visitors to reach out and connect.

We’ve even seen sites use the verbiage “let’s connect” instead of “call us”.

Even in today’s Facebook economy where people tend to communicate digitally, the idea of being geographically desirable is not something to take lightly. Having clear links to your Google Maps pages with directions to your offices can also enhance your search engine optimization rankings.

On top of the content strategy outlined above, we also employ a-user-functionality-integration in every Law Site to make the user’s experience more enjoyable (and, therefore, longer – which also positively affects search engine rankings). Your site implantation will include:

• A banner display system to showcase multiple images with unique headlines
• Contact forms that include customizable email confirmations
• Menu navigation with customizable drop downs
• Social media integration that enables users to share your content and visit your social profiles.
• Landing pages customized for each industry and each practice area.
• Attorneys section with alphabetical search of all employees in your firm
• Typical content pages like a firm history
• Google maps section with a physical map of your community