Real Lawyers Have Blogs : Law Blogs, Blawgs, Law Firm Marketing

Ninety-seven percent of 1,000-plus corporate Web sites evaluated by Forrester Research received failing grades. Gave rise to the Wall Street Journal's Ben Worthen's column, 'Why most business web sites stink.' May have well been why most law firm web sites stink.

Harley Manning, a Forrester vice president, told Worthern the common mistakes could be broken down into four categories.

1. Value. The first mistake that companies make when they're designing a Web site is copying features from competitors. Bells and whistles are worthless if they don't help a customer find what he's looking for. Manning says that too few companies take the time to sit down with customers and find out what they're using a Web site for and what information would make a site more helpful.
2. Navigation. Companies often opt for cute menus instead of clear menus.
3. Presentation. Web sites need to be easy to read and understand. Yet the majority of companies still feel compelled to fit as much information into as small a place as possible. Look at the text on your law firm web site. Net users scan for bolded and bulleted text. That's lacking on sites written in 'Martindaleesque' paragraph prose.
4. Trust. People are concerned about online privacy and security. Calling attention to your company's privacy policy can actually help sales, Manning says. For law firms that may mean emphasis on privacy for all intake items, including email, from the website to the firm.

Rather than looking at other law firms, look at business and corporate sites for guidance. You' ll get ideas your competitors will not and you'll be looking at sites developed with far more input from Internet users.

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