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Blog taglines : Tell them what they will find

November 25, 2005

LawFirmBlogging, a good source for info on law firm blog marketing authored by Nathan Burke, reports 52% of the AMLaw 200 law firms had a visible tagline on their website.

Burke’s detailed findings on law firm web site taglines.

  • 52% of law firm websites had taglines.
  • 20% of such firms had a generic tagline. These are basically statements that say nothing about the firm other than that they exist, ie, ‘A global law firm’, or ‘Providing legal services since 2005.’
  • 13% of the firms with taglines use the word ‘experience’ in some way. In many cases, they use the word ‘excellence’ when they use the word ‘experience.’
  • Many firms use a tagline that has some pop to it, but the tagline tells you nothing about what they do. Examples of this would be ‘awesome’ or ‘years ahead.’

One of my number one rules on Web design, and now blog design, is “Don’t me think.” Comes from the title of Steve Krug’s book on a common sense approach to web usability.

When I get to a blog site I immediately want to know what this puppy is about. What’s the purpose? What type of content am I going to get when I subscribe? Like others, I am too darn busy to spend time figuring these things out. One way to tell the world what you are writing about on your blog is a tagline of 5 to 7 words. If it’s any longer than that, go back and cut. Note that in some cases the title of your blog may be so obvious you do not need a tagline.

I agree with Burke who says “The right tagline can be a great opportunity to say what your logo can’t say.” In this case – it’s what the title of your blog does not say.

And Nathan, am I missing a link for your feed. If not, get a RSS feed on your blog – the only time I see your stuff is when it comes in via my Newsgator or IceRocket feeds.

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