Tell us why your homepage is “not-so-nice”, and enter for a chance to win a free homepage redesign!

How to Submit:
1) Become a fan of the PaperStreet Facebook Page; AND
2) Become a follower of the PaperStreet Twitter Page; AND
3) Tell us About Your Site:

• Retweet this PaperStreet Hohohompage blog post, with the #Hohohomepage hash tag, and a link to your website submission; OR
• Post to our FaceBook Wall with your website address for entry.

Rules & Disclaimers:
1. PaperStreet in its sole discretion will choose the web page design that needs improvement.
2. PaperStreet will consult with the client and design a single home page concept for the client to use. Total time is valued at 8 hours ($1,200 of work).
3. PaperStreet will not build out or slice the concept (sorry that can be too tricky depending on the clients web platform). As part of the contest, PaperStreet will also not design out subpages, only the home page.
4. You must enter by December 23rd, 2011 for entry. PaperStreet will select the client in the following week and notify the winner. PaperStreet will begin work on the design in January 2012.

At PaperStreet, we learn as much as we can about our clients in order to create custom websites uniquely suited to their needs. We have an in-depth Creative Brief every client fills out. We learn our client’s goals — both for their website and their business. We learn their strengths. We learn their weaknesses.

How do we learn these things? The clients tell us. We have a multiple step design process, and we get client approval every step of the way. This involvement keeps us moving. We understand that lawyers are very busy people, and that web design isn’t their top priority (that’s our job). But by investing in the web process, law firms ensure they will get a better result, in less time for less money.

How to Get a Great Law Firm Website, In Less Time for Less Money

If you are a lawyer considering designing a new website, we advise you to first sit down and think deeply about what you want the website to accomplish beyond the obvious need to “look good.” This includes:

• Analyzing your current site if you have one. Make note of what works and what doesn’t. Use Google Analytics to get data on site performance (See our past blog post on Using Google Analytics to Decide if You Need a Website Redesign.)
• Gathering examples of law firm websites you love (and hate) and thinking about why you like (or dislike) them so you can communicate this to your design team. This includes looking at layout, colors, photos, videos, typography, animation, etc;
• Deciding who your audience is and what sort of client you are hoping to attract (not just “anyone with the money to hire me”). This is a key business decision that should shape the look, tone and content of the site.
• Researching if you want to generate more clients through law firm SEO (Search Engine Optimization.)

Can’t You Just Decide For Me?

Sometimes we have clients who say they simply don’t have the time to make these kinds of decisions. They ask us to take care of it all for them.

And we can — with some reservations. A web design firm operating without client input is like a restaurant serving meals without any orders. Yes, we cook amazing “food” here at PaperStreet, and we can create almost anything. If you do not know what you want, we can use our expertise and experience to make our best guess. But you might end up with Oreo cheesecake when you really wanted cedar plank salmon.

This is a key difference between a custom web design firm like PaperStreet and the two other types of companies that produce law firm websites: 1) businesses that only churn out cookie-cutter, template websites; and 2) big, expensive advertising agencies.

A template firm won’t want your input because it doesn’t matter. They serve burgers and French fries — and if you don’t want fast food, go elsewhere. On the opposite extreme, expensive advertising agencies often don’t need as much of your input because they conduct extensive marketing research and surveys to base decisions on. Of course, this research can take several months – and they will ask your law firm to pay for it.

PaperStreet was founded by an attorney, and our process is more of a partnership. This saves time and money, and ultimately, it works better because decisions that are made with client input (especially those that directly affect law firm profits) are more likely to succeed when they have buy-in from a firm’s leaders.

Generally speaking, Google Analytics rocks the party because of its:

• Performance;
• Technology;
• Interface/Usability; and
• Reporting

Performance

Google Analytics (GA) allows you to track the number of visitors to your site, the top pages on your site that are being viewed, the average time a user is on your site, and the number of visitors from referral sites and more.

A law firm or business can use it to see what pages are viewed the most by their clients, and thus hone in on that page, perhaps by making banners directly to it from a homepage or blasting that specific link out in an email campaign. Or you can track landing pages of a Pay-Per-Click campaign and the conversions that campaign generated.   This is pretty powerful stuff.

You can track where users are coming into your site and, almost just as importantly, where they are exiting your site. One might wonder, does that page need revising? Why is everyone leaving from that page?

Technology

To apply Google Analytics to your site, there is a simple little JavaScript “page tag” that includes Google’s tracking code that gets placed in your site. Once placed, it starts tracking your site; it is that easy.

Interface/Usability

Upon first opening Google Analytics, you might seem slightly overwhelmed. It looks like there is a lot going on. Fortunately, Google has made it extremely user friendly (dare I say Apple-like intuitive.) The classifications and titles are and say, well, exactly what you want them to say. With that being said, Google just “redesigned” the layout (http://analytics.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20Google%20Analytics) yet again to have a “less is more approach.”

Here’s another cool thing. Google made it customizable. That’s right, you can alter the information that is being displayed. Don’t have a PPC campaign? No problem. No need to display information you don’t want.

The best part of the application is that you can’t screw anything up. Go ahead. Click around. Make it your own. And learn from it.

Reporting

What good is all this information if you can’t present it to the powers that be? For PaperStreet, the powers that be are our clients. For every website we build, we install Google Analytics. When we launch every site, we pass that information onto our clients. Reporting and gathering the information could change the targeted objective of what a client goes after. What they thought might be the best page on their site might not be at all.

Google allows a user to export their reports. You can email it, get a PDF or .xml file. You can filter the dates that you are reporting the information for. Has your site been up for well over a year and you want to compare visitors from this year to last? No problem. Google even allows users to create custom reports by dragging and dropping the information that they want to include in their specific report.

A Few Cons

In fairness, Google Analytics does have some limitations, dare I say flaws.  One of the biggest comes from users deleting or blocking Google Analytics’ cookies. Without these, Google Analytics is dead in the water.

Most times, however, this is not an issue because, to be honest, most users don’t know how to delete or block them. But it still is a possibility nonetheless. Competitors will point out Google Analytics does not have a dedicated iPhone version, social media analytics (there are other sites that do this better) or an official WordPress plugin.

However, with that being said, the pros far out weight the cons.

Oh, and did I mention it’s free?

PaperStreet installs Google Analytics for all our new website design clients but if you are interested in learning how to install it on your own site, please check out this handy link from Google: http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=19779&topic=19783

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<a href="http://www.paperstreet.com/blog/3609"><img src="http://www.paperstreet.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/alex-video-1.jpg" alt="Video Marketing" width="500" border="0" /></a><br />Via: <a href="http://www.paperstreet.com/">PaperStreet Web Design</a>

Please Contact PaperStreet Today with any inquiries regarding Web Design, SEO, Logos, Branding or Print Design.

With these kind of numbers, mobile marketing isn’t just for big corporations anymore. To be a successful law firm or small business, owners need to consider how mobile marketing strategies can help them. Before coming up with a specific plan, however, here are some points to consider while developing your mobile strategy:

• Define your target audience and market;
• Target you demographic carefully while tailoring ads accordingly;
• Write ads that engage your target market;
• Create a clear and precise call-to-action;
• Be relevant, timely and clever;
• Use humor when appropriate;
• Let people have the ability to express themselves by making suggestions;
• Add the ability to share with others utilizing SMS technologies;
• Test and validate your mobile campaigns to ensure everything displays correctly;
• Integrate your mobile marketing and messaging into your entire marketing campaigns;
• Utilize social media to get the word out; and
• Do it right the first time, otherwise it will cost you more in the long run.

It might seem like a lot to consider at first, but keep in mind you can easily work with an agency such as PaperStreet that can guide you through the process.

This is not an opinion. This is fact. According to a study done by Jakob Nielsen’s website useit.com, the average success rate of using a mobile website (versus testing on a regular desktop computer) is 59%!

Yikes. That’s not good. Having a user load up your “full” site on their mobile phone is simply not going to cut it at this point. You need to have a thought-out mobile web design.

Rookie Mistakes of Mobile Websites

Ineffective mobile sites are:

• Too busy in their designs;
• Too convoluted in their functionality; and
• Not built correctly.

The Cure for Lame Mobile Websites

The solutions to these issues are easy to resolve with a team that knows how.

The answers are:

• Form follows function;
• Less is more; and
• Know your build platform.

Form follows function

This is Design 101. On a mobile platform, you want to keep the branding that is developed from your main “full” site and concentrate it down to a healthy, condensed light version.

Mobile site usability depends on adherence to constraints. Some examples of this may be pixel height of buttons and viewing area of the screen. The formation of a good mobile web design will follow the function of its need on a cellular device.

Less is more

This ties in directly to the design, but it also bridges the divide between design and functionality. Keep it simple. Don’t make your user deal with awkward hovers or menus. The more you can refine down the functionality, the better it will work. Some suggestions include removing unnecessary graphics or arbitrary imagery.

Know your platform

If built properly, it will be used. Web standard compliancy still applies on mobile designs. Make sure you have a proper auto-detection script to pull in the mobile version.

You have the potential of losing 4/5ths of your users if not. And always remember: Don’t make the user work hard to get what they want.

Most searches now pull Local listings on top of organic results, meaning this is what people see first. This makes having a listing on Google Places’ Seven Pack crucial. (Google Places’ Seven Pack is the “A through F” listing that is now displayed on the top of an organic search on Google.)

How to Move to the Front of the “Pack”

The two main points of doing this properly are:

1. Adhering to the Google Places Guidelines
2. Having a 100% Google Places Dashboard

Guidelines

Google has the power to change the rules of the game (especially since we are all using their products), so staying on top of any new updates to their guidelines is very important for your SEO team. There have been various updates from Google on what is allowed, versus what now is not. Following the most current guidelines versus the old guidelines is imperative, as some actions may actually get your listing removed.

Google Places Dashboard

One of the main items that a campaign can do to bolster its affects is to make sure that your Local Business Center Dashboard is 100% complete. (A Google Places Dashboard is the main landing page after you log into your account and choose to edit it or update it, i.e. http://screencast.com/t/H1dOozDxgR4T).

This means, when filling out your account, make sure you can provide as much information as possible but, at the same time, adhere to the guidelines mentioned above. For example, make sure that you are not using any other information in the Name Field on the form. In the past, you used to be able to place in items like your practice areas within your name or firm name. This is very strictly monitored now.

Lastly, there are some great resources online that will help in staying on top of what Google wants you to complete, and this great chart happens to be one of them.

Make sure you adhere to both of these two main points in your campaign and you should start seeing your Places listing show up in the results right away.

If you need help setting up your Local listing, or evaluating whether it is set up correctly, contact PaperStreet today at 954.523.2181.

The presentation was less than an hour long and was broken down into the following categories:

• The importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• How SEO can help your website
• The Relevancy and Authority of your website
• What you can change to improve your SEO
• When you should SEO?
• Why you should SEO?

Please check out our PowerPoint Presentation and please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, concerns, or interest in PaperStreet helping out with your Search Engine Optimization needs.

This is the time for the world to see your new creation! You have a new product that has been worked on for months, and it is something to be proud of. You want to show it off; you want to get it online; and most importantly, you want to get it out there as soon as possible to start generating a decent return on your investment.

Our process of launching a website consists of a minimum 30-point checklist of all sorts of checks and balances to make sure that your site is up and online perfectly. The flipping of a switch it is not. When launching any site, some of the critical items that we need to know are:

• Are you hosting with PaperStreet?
• Do you have your domain purchased yet? If so, do we have access to put it to your new account with us?
• Are you keeping your current host? If so, do we have your FTP login information? Is your current domain already pointed to this location?
• Are we hosting your emails? If so, do we have a list of everyone whose account is being set up? Have you downloaded all your current emails off your server so that, when we make the switch at the designated time, nothing is lost?
• Do you have a Google account set up for Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools? If so, do we have your login credentials?

Fortunately, our process is such that all this information is gathered at the beginning stage of any web design project. The creative brief calls for all this information and the above examples help clarify its importance. During the process of a website design and build, things can change. Clients explore their options for hosting companies; email accounts are deleted; Google accounts are set up; etc. We completely understand that. If that is the case, simply keep us informed.

The entire process of launching a site (based on its complexity) can take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours to complete. This most certainly affects you, the client. To get in the queue, we want to plan as far in advance as possible to make sure we have all your critical information and the time to do what’s right for you. That way, everything will run smoothly, and we will have a perfect launch.

This is big. This is a game changer.

Google effectively hones in on your location based on your IP address and gives you local listings based on your location and search terms. It is now even more important to be listed in Google Places and not be left behind.

If you are thinking about setting up or revising your SEO campaign, it is important to consider Google Places and local search. A properly set up Google Places campaign can bring in thousands of impressions and hundreds of actions per month.

If you want to see a great looking Google Places Performance, look no further. Check out the graphic below of one of our clients. The numbers speak for themselves: over 1,200 impressions and 74 actions each month. An impression means the listing could have been viewed and an action means the user clicks on the listing.