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It’s for a new lawyer TV show (yes, another one) called Franklin & Bash. Unfortunately, it is close to the reality of how some attorneys market their law firms. (Law books? Check. Snarky lawyers? Check. Ugly green marble? Double check.)

We see clichés like this all the time. Law firms spend thousands — sometimes tens of thousands — of dollars on a new website, only to spoil it by slapping on a giant photo of a gavel. Sigh.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. If you are a lawyer struggling to convey your firm’s mission and reputation through photography, here are a few simple alternatives to try. (A good web design company should have access to hundreds of thousands of stock photos and, if they are anything like PaperStreet, they help you select from them for free. Better yet, go custom.)

Show Your Personality

If someone has found your website, chances are they were searching for it on Google, either by typing in their legal need (say, Florida probate attorney) or you firm name. Either way, this means they already know you are a lawyer. There is no need to hit them over the head with obvious lawyer images, like scales of justice. If you are struggling because your law firm serves a wide variety of clients across multiple practice areas, instead focus on something else specific — like your firm personality:

http://www.llw-law.com/

Focus on Your Client

Instead of images that focus on your firm (“Courthouse steps! Get it? We go to court!”) why not feature images that focus on your clients? This is a no-brainer for firms that serve particular business industries — manufacturing, agriculture, etc.  Here’s one of our clients who specializes in cruise line defense:

www.horrnovakandskipp.com

Focus on Your (or Your Client’s) Product

Obvious examples of this would be real estate photos for a real estate lawyer or technical photos for intellectual property attorneys.  Even better, incorporate technical drawings and architectural blueprints that have a compelling, graphic quality.

If you have multiple products or practice areas, you don’t have to pick just one. Simply make sure that the photos are similar enough in style and tone to be grouped together. Putting them all in black and white, or sepia, is one way to do this easily.

www.bloomlegal.com

Focus on Your Heritage

If your firm is lucky enough to have a long history, flaunt it. If you don’t have any old internal photos, visit your local library, historical society or even the Library of Congress online at www.loc.gov/pictures/ for some ideas. Classic black and white photos of your community from around the time your firm was founded can stand alone, or be juxtaposed against modern photos, to communicate that you are traditional and established, yet have kept up with the times.

Tell a Story

Too many lawyer websites are boring – which is ironic because every lawsuit is the result of conflict, and conflict is the key element of storytelling. What is the main conflict your clients face? Feature photos that illustrate this.

www.smglegal.com

Still Stumped?

Some of the hardest law firms to illustrate without resorting to clichés are those that represent businesses in general (or worse, the public in general) across dozens of divergent practice areas. If your website currently features people in suits carrying briefcases and shaking hands, you know what I mean.

In such cases, the answer isn’t easy enough to break down in a quick blog post. It requires you  — and your web designer/marketing team — to sit down and identify what specific strength you want to convey and who exactly you want to convey it to.  This could require hard choices. But it is important to make them.

www.bergersingerman.com

Otherwise, you’ll resort to those tired old clichés and end up lumped with all the  lawyers at Franklin & Bash.

(To check out the show’s hilarious promos, go to www.weretotallylawyers.com. The “Hot Tub” one is my personal favorite.)

We now have an attorney and a paralegal who speak Spanish.  We would like for our website to be seen by Spanish speakers either here or in South America.  What needs to be done?  Does the whole site need to be translated or is it just search terms that need to be added in Spanish?

Great!  Yes, we would need to create an “En Español” version of the website.  There are a few ways to do this:

Auto Translate

Google has an auto translate tool available for free use and it can be integrated in an hour or so of work.  It is not a perfect translation, but those on a budget can take advantage of having almost all languages ready to use.

Here is an example of one of our websites that uses Google’s translate tool (look in the top right hand corner to select a language) – http://www.eb5fullservice.com/ .

I typically recommend this for clients who just want their site automatically translated for actual use.  These pages are not SEO friendly, as you are making a virtual copy of the webpage and not really making a new site that is indexed.  But it does get the job done in a pinch.

Translate in Full

Ideally, you would translate the website manually through a translation service company.  Some of our clients start with just a few pages; others jump in for a full translation of the entire website.

The more you translate, the better for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes, as you will have more pages of content in that language.  You would need to do the title tags and meta description, as well as get Spanish anchor text links back to your site to rise high in the rankings for Spanish terms, if SEO is a factor.

An example of a well done translation is here – http://www.theorlandolawyers.com/ and http://www.theorlandolawyers.com/language/ . As you will see, everything is translated:  the menus, headlines, text, title tags and more.  We literally build a new site, and often we create that site on a new domain that contains Spanish keyword phrases.

A simple translation is also here – http://www.ybzlaw.com/ and http://www.ybzlaw.com/language/ . You will see that not every page is translated.

We always recommend a manual translation. It gives the owner full control of the translation, usually in a more refined reading style.  Moreover, the site benefits from being able to be indexed and SEO’d.

So, let’s compare side-by-side some redesigns we have done recently, so you can see firsthand the improvements and the upgrades we make — of not only style and appearance, but organization and usability.

1. www.florida-probate-lawyer.com

2. www.bergersingerman.com

3. www.lakelaw.com

4. www.mrthlaw.com

5. www.bloomlegal.com

6. www.simmonslawfirm.com

How Do I Get Started?

To learn more about our redesign process, check out some of these other recent posts:

Using Google Analytics To Decide If You Need a Website Redesign

8 Steps to a Law Firm Website Redesign

How to Handle SEO When Redesigning Your Website

The Role of Content in a Redesign

Google Analytics will provide analytical data on your site, including:

• How many people are going to the site;
• Where they are coming to the site from;
• How they are getting to the site;
• What pages are their favorites; and even
• Which pages make them leave the site.

To decide if it is time for a Website Redesign, I would recommend looking in Google Analytics under ‘Content.’  This page gives you an overview of your top 5 pages on the site (according to the amount of page views).  From here you can select ‘view full report’.

Using Analytics to Check Bounce Rate and More

The full report page will show all of your pages, ordered in descending order from most page views to least.  The important statistics to pay attention to are the ‘Avg. Time on Page’ and ‘Bounce Rate.’  The page views in descending order can help determine if you need a website redesign.  Typically, on a website, you are trying to guide the user to do something.  So maybe you are trying to guide them from the homepage, to the products page, then to the contact page.  So this should be the order of number of page views.  If the site is laid out well, and easily navigable, you will find that you are able to direct the user to various parts of the site.  The average time on page statistic will show you how long, on average, people are on each page.  The bounce rate shows you what percentage of people are landing on this page, then leaving your site.

So how can this help us decide if we need a Web Site Redesign?

Using Bounce Rate to Decide If You Need A Web Redesign

The bounce rate is a clear indication of whether you need a redesign.  If people land on your homepage and then are immediately leaving, you can assume something needs to change.  There are, however, examples of good bounce rates – such as an instructional page, where after the user has read the page he doesn’t need anything else so he leaves.  But the homepage is a safe bet that a high bounce rate is a bad thing.

Using Average Time On Page To Decide If You Need A Web Redesign

Another thing to consider is the Average Time on a page.  If users are hitting a page and leaving immediately, it is safe to assume you may need to redesign the page.  Also, if a page has an unusually high ‘Average time on page,’ then you could maybe conclude that the page is not designed in a way that is easily navigable for the user and that they are probably spending too much time trying to figure out where they want to go (or where you want them to go).

Don’t let this happen to you! Let the Design Team at PaperStreet help you to take control of your website and of your visitors.  If you are thinking it may be time for a website redesign please contact PaperStreet for a free consultation.

Save your business time, money and headaches by considering the following questions before embarking on a website redesign:

1) Your website’s purpose — What the heck is it?

The first and probably most important thing to consider about your website redesign is its purpose. What does your website do, or better yet, what didn’t your website do before that you would like it to do now? Would you like to increase sales? Do you want your website to act as an informational brochure? These are all things to consider and knowing what you want to accomplish through the redesign helps to determine how things should be set up.

Another important thing to consider is if you plan on having a blog or frequently updating information throughout the website. If that’s the case, then a content management solution would be ideal for easier upkeep. If not, then a more simple, cost-effective solution would probably be a better idea.

2) What do you like — and what do you hate — about your current site?

I recommend making a list of everything you like and dislike about your current website. Some things to consider would be content presentation, navigational structure and calls-to-action. Also, identify what you think is working on the website so you know what to keep for the next iteration.

This is also a good time to compile customer feedback to get a real idea of what your customers are experiencing. Keep in mind, though, just because there’s an element of the website you really like, say your nifty flash navigation, it may actually be a major annoyance to your customers. You will find out even more information once you can get more accurate customer data.

3) Does your entire brand need a facelift?

This is a good time to consider if you need a full branding change. Your website may not be the only thing aging. Take a look at your branding; does it still represent what your company is all about? Does it convey the message you would like it to convey to the masses? You may just want to spruce up your image a bit to make it more modern. Whatever the case, one thing to keep in mind is to be careful to not do something too drastic with your rebranding effort, which could totally confuse your current customers. I always tell clients to try and keep it as simple as possible and to not go overboard.

4) Can you be found through search engine results?

Chances are you do rank in search engines, but what rank are you? If you are not on the first page of results, it’s time to rethink your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy. During your redesign, make sure your website is made to be as accessible and friendly as possible, so that the search engines can present users with the information that they are searching for. You may need to redo your key word research to make sure you are still targeting relevant terms. Also, look for ways to tighten up your page titles as well. Another thing to consider is your internal links and whether they are as optimized as they can possibly be. This is also a good time to figure out what pages and terms are bringing in the most traffic, so that way you don’t mess up anything that has already been working for you in the past.

5) Need more advice?

These are just a few major things to consider before taking on a website redesign. Remember to keep it simple and take small but thorough steps in order to ensure a successful redesign. Most of the time a simple redesign may be all your website needs to get back in the lime light and attract new customers while also expanding your business to new markets. You can always contact PaperStreet if you need more assistance.

As such, it takes an investment of time and effort to do right. Your law firm needs to establish goals, a budget, sort out technical details, review your existing site structure and content, and analyze the performance issues with Google Analytics (Read this great article about what people are doing and looking at on your site: http://www.paperstreet.com/blog/2335 .)

Over the years, PaperStreet has developed a successful process for ensuring your next website impresses and generates new clients. It involves 8 basic steps:

1. Creative Brief – In this survey, we learn how your business goals have changed or evolved, and how you’d like your new site to support those goals.
2. Kick-Off Call – We discuss your Creative Brief in depth, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and talk about fun, creative aspects of the redesign.
3. Foundation Planning – We re-evaluating the Site Structure (pages of your website) and use that as a guide for any new content generation.
4. Creative Planning & Brainstorming - We develop a plan for new taglines, calls to actions and any other important messages that must be communicated. We also explore the taglines with conceptual image ideas on a moodboard indicating color schemes, type styles, and photos we envision using. In conjunction with the moodboard, we present a wireframe, which is essentially the “blueprints” or basic layout of your homepage, in black and white.
5. Homepage Concept Design - Once the creative planning is approved, we take our great ideas and turn them into a unique concept. We present the homepage first, to make sure we are on target for implementing our creative planning ideas.
6. Subpage Concept Designs – Once the homepage is approved, we move on to translating the look and style onto the interior pages. We offer suggestions for custom interior page design and educate our clients about the focus of content and how to avoid layouts that can be distracting from the goal of the page.
7. Development - It’s time for our professionals to code and implement all our hard work thus far into a fully functioning website. You will be sent a testing link to review and make a final punch list of items to be fixed.
8. Launch - Let’s get that great website online, write a blog post about it, as well as share it on social media!

Infographic designed by Alejandro Acentares

Run down the list below (or click here to download the PDF) to learn whether your website needs a redesign.

PaperStreet’s Website Review Checklist:

1. Branding (who you are as a firm or practice)
   • Message: Is your brand message clear?
   • Consistency: Is your brand being represented consistently throughout the site?
   • Logo: Is your logo high quality and is it prominently placed on each page?
   • Imagery: Does your imagery represent you and your brand accurately?
   • Color Scheme: Do you have a solid color scheme, and does it connect with your brand?
   • Tag Lines: Are you using powerful tag lines that engage your user and relate to what they need?
   • Calls to Action: Are these prominently placed on your home page and on your sub pages?
2. Typography
   • Headlines: Are you currently utilizing H1, H2, H3 headlines that are vital to your SEO and information hierarchy?
   • Font: Are your fonts readable and appropriate for your company attitude?
   • Size: Is the size of all of your headline and paragraph text legible and visually pleasing?
3. Layout
   • Layout Width: Does your layout meet the current standard width of 960 px? (we are referring to the active page area, not the background)
   • Modern: Is your layout clean, easy to read and navigate? Does it look fresh?
   • Organization: Is your content (and the sections they are in) well organized within the layout?
   • Home Page: Do you feature your most important content and can your users get a real sense of who you are just by looking at the home page?
   • Sub Pages: Do your sub pages have consistent layouts and is it easy to find pages that are deeper in your site?
   • Footer: Do you have your contact information, repetition of your main navigation menu, and if you are an SEO client, more detailed information on your footer?
   • Navigation: Is it easy to find your main landing pages and sub pages when you are on any given page of your site?
4. Interactive Elements:
   • Main & Side Menus: Do you have an obvious rollover effect or different link color when your mouse hovers over any of your menu items to indicate that it is indeed a link?
   • Show/Hide Features: Do you utilize show/hide or expandable menus to minimize the look of very long content?
   • Buttons: Do you utilize buttons to help guide users through your site?
   • Calls to Action: Do you have effective Calls to Action on your site directing the user to take the action you want them to?
   • Anything Clickable: Are all items that are clickable, including images, links, buttons, etc. made obvious to the user that they can click them?
   • Social Icons: Are you utilizing social media icons on either your header or footer?

How did you fare? If you’re missing three or more of the above elements, it is definitely time for a redesign. It may seem like a lot to measure up to, but in actuality, ALL of the elements listed above are necessary for a successful website.

If you have any questions regarding a website redesign or would like to receive a free site analysis, contact us now.

Occasionally, this isn’t a problem; the existing copy is of high quality, and it can just be copied into the new framework. But sometimes, this is like pouring soured milk into a nice, new container. Everything looks great – until the user tries to take a drink.

When To Revamp Your Law Firm Website Content

Cases where you should revamp your content include:

• When the website redesign is part of a rebranding effort;
• When your firm targets a new clientele or audience;
• When your firm focuses or expands its practice areas significantly;
• When your existing copy is dense, unoriginal, long-winded or disconnected from any of the site’s new design/usability elements;
• When the content is so outdated it includes numerous factual errors or makes the firm seem “behind the times;” and
• When your existing copy is not optimized for search engines.

Simple Ways To Improve Your Law Firm’s Website Content

Revamping need not entail starting from scratch. If you don’t have the budget to hire a professional, there are several fast and simple things you can do to improve your existing website content:

• Focus on improving the elements visitors notice most (taglines, headlines, subheads, photos, video);
• Break up long run-on sentences and lists into short sentences, bullet points or numbered steps;
• Include – within the limits of good taste — important search engine keyword phrases that people are likely to search for;
• Edit existing copy to bring it up – or down – to the appropriate level of the intended audience;
• Cut any outdated/factually incorrect info;
• Give specific examples of cases and legal issues your firm has handled, outcomes/verdicts (so far as your Bar rules allow), testimonials, client lists;
• Add a FAQ section; and
• Share the burden of writing new practice area content by assigning each attorney/partner one practice area, versus overloading one person with the work. (The exception to this rule is if there is one motivated individual who wants to handle all the content, has the time to devote to it, and possesses the authority to make decisions without being second-guessed.)

If You Do Nothing Else, Do This

The biggest piece of advice, however, is this: Start early. Firms should begin working on their new website content at the beginning of the redesign, not the end, when the rush to “get things done” inevitably lowers standards.

Incomplete content is one of the most common reasons a website launch is delayed. Poor quality content is one of the most common reasons a website redesign fails to reach its true potential.