Over the years we’ve worked with or talked to a number of law firms and lawyers who needed assistance with their websites, blogs or SEO efforts. Their struggles with internet marketing inspired us to create a stock WordPress theme specifically designed for their industry.

This month we released a new law WordPress theme designed for smaller law firms. In preparing for this theme design and launch, I researched some of the best practices associated with law website design and online marketing. I wanted to make sure our new law theme would adequately fulfill the needs of this industry. I thought it would be of value to share some of the insight I received from those who work solely with this industry.

Q&A Session with Law Marketing Expert John Reed

The most valuable advice came from local Detroit expert John Reed, who specializes in law firm marketing. I’ve worked with John and I believe he is a topnotch expert in law marketing.

• How Important Are Websites in the Overall Marketing Efforts of a Law Firm? For a law firm, a website isn’t just a part of a marketing plan – it’s the cornerstone of your marketing strategy. Why is that? In our digital age, a website is a law firm’s new front door – clients, prospects, potential hires, referral sources, the media, and others either go there directly or, with by virtue of effective search engine optimization, click through from high-level rankings to learn more about the lawyers, the services they offer, and how they can help.  Your next big case may come from someone looking at your website, and you have to be put your best foot forward.
• What Are Some Must Have Elements of Attorney Websites or Blogs? Statistics show that visitors to law firm websites spend more than half their time looking at attorney biographies, so make sure your attorneys tell compelling stories about themselves.  Photos, success stories, direct contact information, news, and publications should all be front and center on the attorney’s page.  Similarly, your home page should be structured so that it viewers can quickly find the information they need, along with related content they may also find helpful.  You may have a great looking home page, but if that’s all that your audience sees before deciding to go elsewhere, you’re losing business development and marketing opportunities.
• What Should Attorneys and Law Firms Be Cautious About When Marketing? Depending on your specific target audience and how they use the web to source attorneys and legal information, properly optimizing your site to be indexed by Google and Bing is a critical step when drafting the content for your site.  And while ongoing SEO may be necessary, the search engines favor websites that consistently add new content that visitors will find useful.  Be wary of outfits that promise to rank your site at the top of search engine results in return for hefty monthly fees.  You may find that blogs, social media links, news items, articles, and white papers, are effective ways to deliver fresh content to your site and boost your rankings.
• What’s the Best Piece of Advice You Can Offer to Attorneys? Commit to your website.  No longer can you build it and forget it.  Creating and adhering to editorial calendars, revising content when your practice changes, and routinely reviewing traffic analytics to accommodate visitor patterns are great habits to develop as you heighten the focus on online marketing.

Insight From Other Law Marketing Experts

In browsing the internet I found a few additional experts who offered solid advice for law firms and attorneys.

• A website offers a first look at a law firm’s level of sophistication, major practices and legal services, and lawyers’ credentials. To be found online by prospects, your web presence should be an integral focus of law firm brand strategy and legal marketing initiatives. – Erickson Marketing
• But one of the biggest website mistakes we see time and time again on law firm websites is trying to overcrowd the pages, hoping the visitor will be able to see all their content at once. Going to these busy websites is like visiting your local state fair and trying to figure out from all the bright and neon signs which ride to get on; everything is fighting for your attention. – Kevin Evens from Law Web Marketing
• Five tips for improving your attorney’s blog: (1) Provide assurance. Display case histories. (2) Be brief. 250 words of anything on a law firm web site is plenty. (3) Avoid jargon and business speak. (4) Humanize yourself with a little description of your personal side. “People buy from people.” (5) Write web-friendly text.  Use bullets, subheads and short sentences to make your bio easy to read. – Doug Stern

Why Did We Create a WordPress Theme Designed Specifically for Law Firms?

I love building industry specific themes. More importantly, I’ve spoken with a range of small law firms that are practicing online marketing based on best practices that were popular over a decade ago. It is frightening. Many (not all) single lawyer firms believe in black hat SEO and DIY websites. They don’t just believe in it, they actively practice it. They have thirty websites that are filled with black hat SEO techniques and everyone of them is based on an old, antiquated, and horrible looking website theme they bought years ago.

With Frederik my goal was to give lawyers and firms an opportunity to create one professional website that is SEO friendly and based around proven white hat SEO strategies. Quickly create the website, love it, and continue to update it regularly. That is the key to long-term online marketing success and new client obtainment. I believe our new law WordPress theme can provide an avenue for a beautiful website that will attract visitors and produce results. And if you follow the advice of John Reed, you’ll hopefully have more clients than you can handle.

Interested in our Frederik law theme? Stop by our theme store to demo or buy the theme.

Interested in obtaining expert help with your marketing efforts? Then contact the law marketing expert, John Reed. I’m confident he can help drive improvements in your current marketing efforts.