In case you missed it, you can catch up with the first part of this series here. The first part of the series identified 3 positive marketing actions you can take to jumpstart your marketing in 2017.
Essentially: 1) Reviewing your website; 2) gathering your contacts; and 3) identifying potential topics.
This part of the series identifies critical items to consider as you evaluate whether you need a website update, and arms you with key attributes an effective website needs to possess as you evaluate how your website stands up to review.
You will also gather some nuggets we feel are critical to an effective law firm website, or any other professional services focused firm websites.
- Of utmost importance is the site must support “real” access from mobile phones. Recent studies on google searches in 2016, supported by an AdWords activity study done in 2015, show that approximately 58% of google searches are done from a mobile phone. Nearly 60% of your visitors do not want to finger slide/resize their way through your website, Got it!
And don’t be fooled by your website provider when they offer that the sites they build with a “mobile version”. What we see most of the time in law firm sites if they have a “mobile version”, is that version of the site is so stripped down from a design perspective that all the work that goes into the design and making the website an artistic masterpiece (the money pit) are never seen by nearly 60% of your visitors.
Caveat emptor, your site needs to be mobile responsive, not simply mobile friendly.
- You must review the important stuff to be sure it is current. By important stuff, we mean if you have an articles link, make sure there are articles there and hopefully dated from this millennium. If you list cases, or other recognition in the biographies, these are a must to keep current. Not that concerned about the photos, unless they are more than 2-3 years old.
From our perspective, unless a client commits to an ongoing content maintenance program with us to keep all of the above listed items current, we basically don’t trust them to keep the site current and we will recommend not to include content that is date reliant.
Pssstttt… A little trick, you can always just remove the dates. Someone reviewing your site does not really care how many times you received Martindale AV status, or were nominated a Super Lawyer, just that you were…
- Be concise in your writing. Back to the 60% of your visitors using mobile, website of today are functionally different in use. Shorten the practice descriptions and attorney biographies. If you feel the need to write lengthy discourse, save this for your article or blog sections (see series 3 of 3.)
Stick to the critical facts, leave out all the stuff about your culture, history, dated FAQ’s, job openings, etc., etc. etc. However, some firms really do have a unique culture and history that sets them apart from their competitors. If your firm has this advantage, again save it for your blog section.
Our strong recommendation to all our clients is to focus your site to: 1) a Home page with access to all content; 2) a practice area description(s); 3) an Our Team (consider more than just the attorneys); 4) a contact us section with address and key contact info; and 5) Of course a link to your blog and thought leadership section.
So there you have some brief highlights you need to consider as you evaluate your website. As you consider your sites performance, know this… roughly 50% of the firms we talk to do not pass this review.
If you did not fare so well… Fear not, supporting your firm in this endeavor is why we are in business, and as you consider updating your website, 3 things worth noting about our team and website update process:
- Most importantly, we make these website projects simple; minimizing your firm’s attorney and management time investment;
- As important, we make these projects affordable. We challenge you to find a company that beats the quality we do; and
- Our clients stand up for us, we have amazing references. Our goal is for every client to be a reference. So far, so good!
If you would like to have us evaluate your site for update, please contact us for a no-cost evaluation. If we feel you will benefit from a website update, we will at no charge provide a written overview of our thoughts and ideas for a new site, project timeline, and a solid estimate of costs.
We look forward to helping you in any way we can.
The ProfessionalWORX Team