January 3, 2010 by Kevin O'Keefe

More cowbell

lady justice lawyer websiteHow about more cowbell and less courthouse and Lady Justice on lawyer's blogs and websites? I can't take any more of the tune being sung by law firms across the Internet.

Do you know who it was who thought pictures of buildings and scales of justice were a good idea for lawyer ads? Yellow page sales representatives holed up in cheap hotel rooms.

Yellow page sales reps were taught a two call concept. The first meeting you listen and learn. You then go back to your hotel at night to cut, paste, draw and write the ads. Unless you found phrases or artwork in the directories you cart around in your trunk, you just cut and paste an ad together. You then head back to the business for the second meeting to try to sell the ad.

I'm not sure who's most to blame for all the legal 'artwork' being carried over from the yellow pages to lawyer websites and blogs. High school kids with cheap software, Martindale-Hubbell selling 25,000 'Lawyer HomePages,' or lawyers, with the design taste of someone who shops for their suits at K-Mart.

Back in 1996 when I did a website for my law firm, I wanted the website to look the people I represented, not lawyers. No one had to tell me people didn't like lawyers. No one had to tell me claimants were not looking to find themselves in a courtroom.

Rather than pictures of the law (whatever that even means), I wanted to create an atmosphere of professionalism, trust, and comfort. It remains true today.

LexBlog graphic design professionals and our creative director will do their darndest to avoid scales and courthouses. We'll have occasion where a local historic building is desired by a client. But it's music to our hears when we hear 'no legal stuff' in the design.

C'mon guys. There are no ethic's rules that require cheesy ads. You can leave the yellow pages behind. You can let your prospective clients know you're more like them and less like other lawyers. Imagine.

Tags: , , ,
Don't get left behind, get your own blog

Lexblog

Become a part of the conversation

LexBlog creates and maintains professional, turn-key blogs for law firms and businesses. For more information fill out and send this form or call 1-800-913-0988.

all information is required please
March 7, 2008 by Kevin O'Keefe

10 guidelines for building your blog's credibility

The 'Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility' published by the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab serve as 10 guidelines for building the credibility of your blog. The guidelines are based on three years of research that included over 4,500 people.

The ten, with slight modifications to make more appropriate for lawyers and law firms.

  1. Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site. Providing third-party support (citations, references, source material) for information you present, especially if you link to this evidence, adds credibility.
  2. Show that there's a real organization (a law firm) behind your site. Showing that your web site is for a legitimate organization will boost the site's credibility. List your address and association with the firm.
  3. Highlight your expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide. Are you an authority or do you have an authority on your team? Be sure to give credentials. Are you affiliated with a respected organization? Make that clear. Conversely, don't link to outside sites that are not credible. Your blog becomes less credible by association.
  4. Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your blog. You've shown there are real people behind the site and in the organization. Now, find a way to convey their trustworthiness through images or text. Post bios that describe your background, including personal interests, e.g., family and outside interests.
  5. Make it easy to contact you. A contact page with phone number, physical address, and email address.
  6. Design your blog so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose). Research found that people quickly evaluate a site by visual design alone. When designing your site, pay attention to layout, typography, images, consistency issues, and more. Critical for lawyers and law firms.
  7. Make your blog easy to use -- and useful. Research shows that sites win credibility points by being both easy to use and useful. Some site operators forget about users when they cater to their own company's ego or try to show the dazzling things they can do with web technology. Because you're a lawyer does not make you an expert on everything, including blog design and development.
  8. Update your blog's content often. People assign more credibility to sites that show they have been recently updated or reviewed. Once a week is fine for a law blog.
  9. Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).If possible, avoid having ads on your site. If you must have ads, clearly distinguish the sponsored content from your own. Avoid pop-up ads, unless you don't mind annoying users and losing credibility. As for writing style, try to be clear, direct, and sincere.
  10. Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.

Print this one out and hand it to your blog developer and to the unknowing who want to over-lawyer your blog design and development

Tags: , , , ,