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50 Spring 2018 | Issue 156 | the Verdict
ARTICLES | tlabc.org
BY SEAN DILLMAN, LAWYER/WEB-DEVELOPER
THE ROLE OF A PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE IN PRIVATE PRACTICE
In the world of private practice, a professional website remains
the cornerstone of a strong online presence. Searching online is
the first thing that most people do when they have a legal
ques-tion or need a lawyer. Even people who already have a lawyer
may look online to save time or avoid contacting their lawyer for
fear that they might receive a bill in the mail. Because you can’t
predict who is searching online and if that person may become a
future client, it’s important that lawyers maintain polished
websites with engaging content.
YOUR ONLINE PRESENCEWhat do people find when they search for you
online? Do
they find you in a legal directory? Do they find that you have
written articles or blog posts? Do they find that you have social
media accounts? Do they find your profile on your website or your
firm’s website? If you’re a lawyer in private practice, ideally you
can be found online by some or all of these means. The best case
scenario is that your website or your firm’s website is the first
search result that shows up when someone searches for you or for a
lawyer who does what you do, giving you a competitive edge in
converting window-shoppers into clients.
COMMUNICATION PLATFORMYour website is your online platform to
communicate who you
are, what you do, and how you do it. The text and photos on your
website will be used by people to connect with you and
differenti-
ate you from other lawyers. In most markets, consumers of legal
services have many lawyers to choose from. Competition is at an
all-time high with new firms opening and new calls looking for
their place in the industry. By seeing pictures and reading about
you, people may decide to stay with you, switch to you, or use you
over another lawyer who they may be considering. Even if you’re in
a market where there are fewer lawyers to choose from, your website
is a powerful tool in establishing your connection to the
region.
CALL TO ACTION AND MESSAGEA call to action is a message that you
convey to someone to
encourage them to act in a particular way: read your website,
contact you, hire you, etc. Having a strong call to action on the
first page of your website (your homepage) is a powerful way to
direct visitors and encourage them to explore your website. A
particularly effective method of conveying a call to action that
has become popular in recent years is to present a homepage
con-taining a simple, centred message on a large area of background
or whitespace. The size and central positioning of the message
captures attention and establishes the tone of the website. Because
visitors read only a fraction of the words that appear on a
website, a website should not be overloaded with too much text and
too many images. A lawyer’s website should be concise and contain
carefully drafted text to convey the central message about who the
lawyer is, what the lawyer does, and what makes that lawyer
great.
& THE ROLE OF A PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE
Private Practice
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the Verdict | Issue 156 | Spring 2018 51
DESIGN AND PURPOSEIn terms of design, websites should be
attractive, informative
and easy to use. Keep it simple. The primary purpose of a
website for a lawyer is to provide contact and practice
information. People generally want to know where you are, what you
do, and how to contact you. I recommend that basic contact
information appear at the bottom of every page in a website so that
it is always easy to find. Some lawyers also post content about
their philosophy on the law and legal practice, the process they
follow with their clients, resources that they recommend to their
clients, answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), testimonials
that they may have received from their clients and other unique
content. The goal of this and all content is to encourage people to
work with you. When it comes to your content, you have to dress to
impress. Prospective clients may choose to hire you and current
clients may choose to stay with you based on what they read on your
website. Not all lawyers, and not all websites, are created equal.
If you want your website to stand out, consider adding more focused
content.
INTERESTING PROFILE INFORMATIONSome lawyers find that adding
interesting information about
themselves in their profile helps them connect with clients and
provides insight into whether people are actually reading their
online profile. Clients often ask me about my participation in
local community theatre. At the end of the discussion I always
ask how the person learned about my acting. I’m always happy
when they report that they read about it on my profile. In
addi-tion to having something to chat about with my clients, I gain
the valuable insight of knowing my website is engaging people.
TEXT AND IMAGESWhen it comes to words, website content should be
clearly
written and typo-free. Lawyers should present their message in
common language without using legal jargon. People expect lawyers
to be detail-focused. Lawyers should use simple, easy-to-read
language and not allow typos on their website that may tarnish
their professional image. Before content is added to a website,
proof-readers should manually read the text and then run it through
spell-check software. In addition to text, images should appear on
webpages to enhance design appeal and convey information that can’t
be conveyed in words. Some people may choose a lawyer based on the
feeling that they get from how the lawyer looks. A picture is worth
a thousand words. A gentleman once called me and told me that his
lawyer retired and that he wanted me to be his new lawyer because
he saw a picture and liked the look of me. I told him that I didn’t
agree with his criteria but that I would nonetheless be happy to
represent him. The real-ity is that some people choose lawyers
based on how they look.
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52 Spring 2018 | Issue 156 | the Verdict
ARTICLES | tlabc.org
RESPONSIVE AND MOBILE-FRIENDLY With the increased use of tablets
and mobile devices in recent
years, websites need to be responsive, meaning they must ren-der
equally well on desktop computers, laptops, tablets, mobile devices
and smartphones. Because of differences in screen sizes and
physical hardware, your website shouldn’t be identical on all
devices but no matter what device a visitor uses your website
should be consistently attractive and navigable. It should be
ef-fortless for visitors to access, search, and find what they’re
looking for all at the scroll of a mouse or touch of a finger.
Webpages shouldn’t be designed for particular screen sizes and
shouldn’t include cumbersome features such as flash animation or
com-plex navigation. Single-level dropdown menus may be useful but
multi-level sub-menus within dropdown menus should be avoided
because they are usually difficult and frustrating to use. Websites
also need to be mobile-friendly. Mobile-friendly websites contain
specific features making it easier for users to interact with the
website on mobile devices and smartphones. Selectable phone numbers
on your mobile site allow users to call you from your website
without having to take the extra step of writing down your phone
number or remembering it and then re-entering it into their phone.
Access to GPS software on smartphones allows users to click maps on
your website and receive driving or walking directions. To see if
your website is responsive and mobile-friendly, visit it from a
variety of makes and models of computers and devices (mobile and
non-mobile). If your website isn’t responsive and mobile-friendly,
you may be missing a large part of the market. Statistics suggest
that soon more people will access the internet from mobile devices
and smartphones than from non-mobile devices. Further, some of the
major internet search engines have hinted that they may begin
indexing search results based on how mobile-friendly a website is;
this means that in the future, if your website isn’t
mobile-friendly, it may not appear in online search results. Most
people simply search online for what they’re looking for and do not
manually enter web addresses into web-browsers. Not appearing in
online search results treads dangerously close to not appearing
online at all.
ADVANCED FEATURESIn addition to the basic features that should
appear on a lawyer’s
website, enhanced features can be added to save time and make it
easier for lawyers to work with existing and potential clients.
Adding contact forms to webpages saves visitors from having to
record your e-mail address and log into their e-mail to send you a
message; visitors are instead encouraged to strike while the iron
is hot and send you a message before leaving your website. Contact
form messages are more useful than messages received from
traditional e-mail because contact forms can require users to
provide other information along with their message such as their
name, phone number, e-mail address and the practice area they are
inquiring about. Contact form messages present more opportunities
for tracking, organizing, and routing than messages sent from
traditional e-mail. For example, messages received regarding real
estate can be made to have the phrase
‘real estate’ appear in the subject line and then be routed
directly to your conveyancing department or a lawyer who
specializes in real estate at your firm. In addition to contact
forms, websites can include other advanced features such as online
booking (al-lowing pre-approved clients to book meetings with you
that fit your schedule), online account payments (allowing clients
to pay their accounts online thereby reducing errors and saving
time for your staff and accountant) and secure file transfers
(allowing clients to send you documents and receive documents from
you in a way that is more secure than using traditional e-mail).
The promise of better systems and time-savings may make advanced
features worth the effort. With many advanced features, your
web-developer would need to coordinate with your IT provider to
ensure that the system is working on both ends (on your website and
in your office). With the recent rise in cybersecurity issues,
efforts to implement advanced features must be done in observance
of high-level security measures.
DOMAINSJust as how a website appears is important, where a
website
appears is also important. Lawyers should consider registering
multiple domains in order to enhance their online search ranking
and attract more clients by making it easier to find their website.
Firms located in British Columbia should register multiple .com,
.ca and .law domains for their firm name, the acronym of their firm
name and any common misspellings of the firm name. Individual
lawyers, even those who work with a firm, may also want to register
domains for their own names in order to build their own profile and
prevent cybersquatting, i.e., the practice of people registering
internet domains with the sole intention of reselling them at an
inflated price. In addition to having my profile on my firm
website, I have also registered the .com for my name and hosted a
website there. While some domain names can be expensive, most
domain names can be acquired for a relatively low price.
WEB-DESIGNERSMost web-designers do not have legal experience or
back-
grounds working with lawyers. If possible, lawyers should hire
web-designers with legal backgrounds or experience developing
websites for lawyers and law firms because, in addition to know-ing
the basics of effective web-design, they will understand how to
present legal content, how to remove or re-word legal jargon where
necessary and how to present information that will en-courage
clients and potential clients to follow through with the lawyer’s
call to action. Many lawyers treat their website as an afterthought
and go years running it without questioning how much they’re paying
and what kind of product they’re getting. Most lawyers would
benefit from receiving a quote from another web-developer to ensure
that they’re paying fairly for their web-site. Lawyers could save
money and have higher-quality work by hiring web-developers who
specialize in working with lawyers and law firms. If a lawyer
decides that they want to switch to a new web-developer, the
process is relatively simple and requires get-ting any necessary
passwords from the outgoing web-developer.
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the Verdict | Issue 156 | Spring 2018 53
SOCIAL MEDIAIn recent years social media has become increasingly
useful for
lawyers who want to establish themselves online. One of the
major benefits of social media for lawyers is that it is a
do-it-yourself platform that doesn’t require any particular
web-development training. While social media has its place in a
lawyer’s online arsenal, lawyers can’t rely on using social media
alone for their online presence because it doesn’t provide enough
space for law-yers to provide information about themselves and
their message. Also, although many younger people (a relatively
small section of the legal market) use social media, many older
people (a rela-tively large section of the legal market) do not.
Although social media provides lawyers with cheap and simple ways
to appear online, people who search online for lawyers still expect
to find a professional website.
LAWYERS WITH POOR OR NO WEBSITESLawyers who have websites that
are outdated, unattractive,
uninformative, cumbersome, non-responsive, mobile-unfriendly and
otherwise defective (contain typos, broken hyperlinks and
malfunctioning coding), should contact their web-developer for a
tune-up or seek a new web-developer to produce a new design and
review their content.
A lawyer misses an opportunity every time someone visits their
website and leaves because they don’t like what
they see, can’t find what they’re looking for or aren’t able to
use the site.
Similarly, lawyers who have no website miss the opportunity to
connect
altogether and should at least have a homepage which provides
their basic information: name, address, phone number and practice
areas. People
may assume that a lawyer is no longer practicing if online
information about
them is sparse or non-existent.
CONCLUSIONMany people search for lawyers online: people who
don’t have a
lawyer, people who already have a lawyer but are open to
switch-ing, people who are following up on a referral, people who
are kicking tires and people who are looking for free legal advice.
No matter who is searching, lawyers in private practice should
care
about people finding them online and being happy with what they
find. Attracting new clients and retaining existing clients will
always be central to the business of private practice. People
routinely contact and ultimately hire lawyers based solely on the
strength of their website. The promise of people searching for
legal services online presents a significant opportunity for
lawyers to retain existing clients and win new ones; a professional
website is a critical element to converting those opportunities
into business. Professional websites which contain strong content
and observe good design principles maintain and propel the
reputations of lawyers by announcing that they are on their game
and open for business. In the online world where a website is like
a salesperson who never sleeps, ensure that your salesperson isn’t
asleep on the job and is hard at work for you. V
Sean Dillman is a lawyer and web-developer based in Victoria,
BC. His legal practice consists mostly of civil litigation,
residential real estate conveyancing, estate administration, and
wills and incapacity planning. As a web-developer, Sean works with
lawyers to create or improve existing websites with a focus on
conveying the specific strengths of the lawyer or firm. In all
aspects of his work, Sean aims to provide principled service based
on transparency and accountability. In his personal life, Sean
enjoys going to the gym, participating in local community theatre
and learning to speak Croatian from his girlfriend’s parents. More
on Sean can be found at: www.seandillman.com &
www.firmdesignworks.com
David P. Stark, B.Ed., LLB., FCIPBarrister, Solicitor, Mediator,
ArbitratorConfl ict Resolution Trainer
Helping turn disputes into settlements.
146 Wedgewood Drive SWCalgary, Alberta T3C 3G8
Cell: (403) [email protected]
www.starkmediation.ca
A member of the BC Mediation Roster
David P. Stark, B.Ed., LLB., FCIPBarrister, Solicitor, Mediator,
ArbitratorConfl ict Resolution Trainer
Helping turn disputes into settlements.
146 Wedgewood Drive SWCalgary, Alberta T3C 3G8
Cell: (403) [email protected]
www.starkmediation.ca
