This is How It Works

Simply visit our web store and select a package plan that is right for your law practice and marketing budget. At our online store, you will be able to find more details about our terms of service and pricing. However, if you have any questions about the service, feel free to give us a call. Moreover, for those attorneys that are really into saving time and money, we offer a number of Extended Service Plans including our Bronze, Silver, and Gold packages.

Easy Website Development Process

We have been working on making the website development process easier and more affordable for our solo attorney clients. To this end, we have broken the attorney website development process into three main steps.

Step 1 – Purchase a Plan via LawConsuls.com

To purchase a website from LawConsuls, all you need to do is add the plan you want to your online shopping cart when visiting our website. After you select your plan by clicking the “add to cart” button associated with your desired plan, you will see the plan added to your shopping cart in the right hand sidebar of the website. When you are satisfied with your order, click the “Proceed to Checkout” link located in the Shopping Cart widget.

At Checkout you will be asked to provide contact information, confirm your website order, and agree to our Terms of Service. After agreeing to the Terms of Service, you can click the “Make Purchase” button to proceed to the payment page where you will be provided with payment information including a “pay by check” option.

Step 2 – Follow the Worksheet

After we receive and process your payment, we will provide you with a worksheet to work through. The worksheet will be a Word document outlining the steps you will need to take to help us build your website. Using the worksheet you will be able to provide us with details about your law practice as well as the content you would like to include on your website.

The worksheet will also include information that will help you prepare your domain to work with our website hosting. To learn more about domain selection and management, please download our free guide Seven Steps to Setting Up a Law Firm Website, by clicking here.

Step 3 – Enjoy Your Attorney Website

We won’t be able to complete your website until you return your completed worksheet to us. Once we receive your worksheet we will build your site and contact you when it is ready for your final approval. After you approve the site, we will then make it accessible to everyone online.

Many Lawyer Website Designs to Choose From

When you order your website, you will have several different design options to choose from. You can view the available color schemes for the Silver Package by clicking here.

Affordable Lawyer Website Customization

Most lawyer websites will require some customization of the design. Usually, this will require some custom website graphics or logos. Unfortunately, graphic design and logo creation can increase website development costs significantly due to the time consuming nature of the work. In order to make graphic design and website customization more affordable and accessible to our clients, we have included some Development Time with our Silver and Gold website packages.

For those clients that require additional Development Time for their website, we created a number of different Development Time packages that our clients can choose from including a Four Hour Time Block package that reduces the total cost per hour. To learn more about Development Time, click here.

Attorney Websites That Are Built to Grow

If you choose LawConsuls to make your attorney website, you will be making a wise decision. Our websites are built using industry standard technology that is capable of growing with your law practice. With LawConsuls, you will not need to worry about your website technology being obsolete anytime soon. Our Standard Hosting and Maintenance Service that is included with a number of our Extended Term Packages exists to keep your website up to date and running smoothly.

Every Website Starts With a First Step

You will never get a website for your law practice unless you take the steps you need to take to get one. Fortunately, LawConsuls has taken steps to make those steps easier and more affordable. To learn more about our exciting new Standard Website Service, click here.

Here are a few things you can expect from LawConsuls in 2011:

The design of a website can be considered its overall look and feel. [...]]]> Over the years I have observed that some web designers are better at designing websites, and others are better at engineering them. Additionally, I have developed the opinion that good website marketing requires having a site that performs well in both areas.

The design of a website can be considered its overall look and feel. While the engineering of a website, can be considered its back-end functionality.

By having a website that is well engineered, you will be well positioned to integrate emerging technologies into your website and evolve it along with the Internet. A well engineered website will:

• Allow you to log in and control the website.
• Expand functionality of the site over time.
• Integrate Social Media Features.
• Allow you to Add New Content Easily via Web Forms.
• Allow you to modify content quickly.
• Allow you to easily add analytics code to the site’s code.
• Allow you to modify navigational elements.
• Have an XML sitemap.
• Support changing Search Engine Optimization practices.
• Be reasonably secure against malicious attacks.

Please note, however, that the above list only touches the surface of website engineering concerns.

A well designed website will:

• Render the same or similar in all the major web browsers including Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, Safari, Chrome, and Firefox.
• Make a good first and lasting impression on those that visit it.
• Be easy to navigate and read.
• Support other firm marketing activities both online and off.

When selecting a web design company or web designer for your firm, it is important to take into consideration both web design and engineering ability. Although I believe good design is important to marketing success, I think good website engineering is essential. This is one reason why I invested so much time developing the back-end theme code that LawConsuls.com and other websites I’ve developed use. The code allows for more efficient future growth and re-designs of my websites because they all share a common codex.

Over time, LawConsuls.com has had many little changes and one redesign made to it without having to make any major changes to its core code which is essentially powered by WordPress. Although the core code has been upgraded a few times to keep the site current with web technology and new releases of WordPress, changes to the appearance of the site were made by changing the code of the site’s custom WordPress Theme. A Theme is what gives a WordPress powered website its distinct look and feel.

All of the changes to LawConsuls.com are steps toward its future theme design and layout, but none of them would have been possible if the site was not engineered well.

By having a well engineered website, you will enable your firm to more easily experience future growth online. In contrast, a poorly engineered website will hinder your future online growth potential.

Connect with LawConsuls

If you want to stay informed with the latest happenings at LawConsuls.com, subscribe to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter. If you are a lawyer or law firm office manager looking to set up a law firm website, but don’t know what steps you need to take, please download our free step by step guide to setting up a law firm website.

The above list should give you an idea of the type of visitors that [...]]]> If you have a law firm website, it will attract a number of different visitors These visitors may include:

• Potential Clients
• Clients
• Opposing Counsel
• Referring Attorneys
• Service Vendors
• Competitors
• Members of the Press
• Current Employees
• Past Employees
• Job Seekers
• Insurance Adjusters

The above list should give you an idea of the type of visitors that your website may attract over time. Given that a website may attract so many different types of visi tors, the usual practice is to design a home page that each visitor type will understand and find relatively intuitive to use.

However, this doesn’t mean each visitor’s interest should be considered equally while designing the website. Rather, home page content should target and speak to the visitors that contribute most to the bottom line. For example, if your firm relies on attorney referrals for most of your clients and cases, you should prominently speak to this audience on your home page.

The important thing to remember, however, is that people will see what you are before they hear what you are. Thus, it will do you little good to have a website with great content that fails to make a good aesthetic impression.

You want to look successful.

In order to look successful, you need an impressive looking site. Creating a site that truly impresses the eye will often require investing in professional photography and/or acquiring some excellent stock photography for use on your lawyer site.

For example, popular stock photography websites like http://istockphoto.com have numerous images with legal themes that may appeal to your target clients. To view the images that have a legal theme, just type “law” or “lawyer” into the search box to get started.

Using stock photography can be a great way to get affordable high quality graphics for your website. Technically speaking, most web designers will be able to integrate photos you provide to them into a custom design for you. Thus, if you do a little leg work yourself, and have a cool web designer, you may be able to reduce the cost of your own website by using well chosen stock photos in your design.

You can also increase the perception of success that your website conveys by having advanced features on your site. Such features would include a side bar web form or searchable database of frequently asked questions. The reason these features will help you look more successful is because they are not easily developed by amateurs. As such, you will look successful enough to buy such features which will inevitably increase your ability to make a good impression.

Connect with LawConsuls

If you want to stay informed with the latest happenings at LawConsuls.com, subscribe to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter. If you are a lawyer or law firm office manager looking to set up a law firm website, but don’t know what steps you need to take, please download our free step by step guide to setting up a law firm website.

Changing a Domain Can Effect Many [...]]]> Most law firms should talk to and/or work with an Internet marketing consultant or law firm web design company before changing a domain for numerous reasons. Below are a few things to consider before pursuing a domain name change for a law firm.

Changing a Domain Can Effect Many Things

Changing a domain name can adversely effect one’s current search engine positioning and even future search positioning. This is because most web sites will achieve some form of search positioning even if no formal Internet marketing campaign or SEO was done on their behalf.

Even a web site that did not rank very well would have some value as a digital asset for the firm.

More importantly, however, changing a domain name will also generally require setting up a system for transitioning emails sent to the old domain to their equivalent boxes on the new one. As such, even if a firm ultimately decides to switch domains, it should still maintain control of the old domain and continue to keep it registered on the firm’s behalf.

The Age of a Domain is Also a Factor in its Performance

Top SEO experts believe that the age of a domain is a factor that will influence a domain’s search engine positioning. Frequently, this factor is referred to as “age deflation.” Thus, keeping an old domain in operation may be preferable to starting from scratch with a new one.

Thus, if a firm just added a partner and now wants to change its domain, email, and website to reflect the addition — they should think very carefully about it. If the professional rules of their jurisdiction do not require such a change, then perhaps it is not the best move for the firm’s marketing future.

Re-Branding a Website Can Be a Better Solution

In most cases, it would be more logical for a firm to simply redesign and brand a current website while preserving the domain that it is on. However, there are a few cases in which a new domain may be advisable if the transition was handled correctly such as:

• If the current domain is difficult for potential clients and others to remember (such as a domain based on multiple partner initials – www.tmgnrlawyers.com).
• The current domain is excessively long and hard to type (such as http://tmgnr-criminal-law-miami.com)
• The law firm is not using their domain for email, has achieved minimal rankings, and is using a poorly chosen domain name that is not that old (in such case the current site’s search positioning could be transferred to the new site and domain through the proper use of redirects and web re-design best practices).

Re-Designs Need to Be Handled Correctly

Many small law firms today will be needing to upgrade their web sites in the very near future. This is because many of them still have static html sites that look dated or are difficult to update. This is why such sites should be replaced by new technology that is controlled by a Content Management System and that allows for easy updating and content syndication. Such a transition will often require changing the site architecture and the URL structure of the previous site.

If the re-design is not planned and handled correctly, it can result in lost rankings and opportunity for the firm. To be handled correctly, each page of the old website should be redirected to the corresponding page on the new website. Doing this will help prevent broken links and also tell the search engine’s where to send new traffic.

If your law firm is considering a website re-design, working with a law firm web design company that knows how to correctly handle such a transition is extremely important. To find out more about our web design service for attorneys, click here.

However, does it really make sense to build your own law firm website when you could simply purchase the help of an experienced web designer?

For solo lawyers with tight budgets, [...]]]> Technology is making it easier and easier to build a web page. In fact, you could even build a web page using Microsoft Word.

However, does it really make sense to build your own law firm website when you could simply purchase the help of an experienced web designer?

For solo lawyers with tight budgets, the answer to this question is not so easy. However, the good news is that even struggling solo lawyers should be able to afford quality web design assistance if they look in the right places. A good place to start looking is a free attorney web design guide we released called Seven Steps to Setting Up a Law Firm Website.

As with anything in life, you often get what you pay for, and if you try to do it yourself, you will probably get amateur results.

DIY Web Design Can Cost You Clients

The reason for this is that many DIY websites don’t compete very well online because they simply fail to perform against their competing sites in one way or another. They may fail to create a professional look or simply be poorly optimized for search engines. However, if you have not designed a website before, chances are you will do something incorrectly when building your own site. Worse yet, you may not even realize the errors until months later resulting in site malfunctions and lost client acquisition opportunities.

So if the competition is building their own website, they will most likely end up building a bad website for themselves because they are inexperienced at web design. Just as you wouldn’t fix your own car, you shouldn’t build a website for your law practice — unless you are qualified to do so.

Control Costs But Use a Professional

If you want to look successful, hire an experienced web designer and photographer to help you create your professional image online. You can still do some things for your website that will contribute value and keep your costs down, but programming and graphics is something you should seriously outsource to a developer. Otherwise, if you do it yourself, you may create an amateurish site that will make you look unsuccessful to your prospective clients.

Designing a good website is not easy, but technology is making it easier to design a bad one. It takes a considerable amount of time to learn web design skills and stay current with the advancing technology making most DIY web design ventures impractical for lawyers.

Therefore, if you want to get a good attorney website, you should hire an experienced web designer for the job. However, this does not mean you should be uninvolved with your website. To the contrary, by being involved with your law firm website you will increase the chance that it will become a successful part of your law firm marketing.

Things You Can Do to Add Value to Your Site

Here are a few ways you can actively increase the quality of a law firm website without being a programmer:

• Creating frequently asked questions and answers for a FAQ page.
• Creating blawg content that follows recent developments in the law and court decisions.
• Producing helpful pdf downloads for prospective clients. For example, some personal injury attorneys have created branded downloadable pdfs that explain what to do if your in a car accident.
• Providing recent news about your law firm such as announcing new hires or recent litigation victories.

However, in order to be an active part of your website marketing it helps to have a website that will allow you to update it easily. This will usually require investing in a dynamic attorney website powered by a popular content management system that allows you to update content via simple to use web forms. Having a website that you can update yourself will empower your web marketing giving you the power to create your own search optimized content at will. The cost for creating such a site can be so reasonable it often shocks me how many lawyers are not taking advantage of this opportunity.

LawConsuls produces affordable websites powered by the popular WordPress blogging and content management platform. If you would like more information about our WordPress web design services for lawyers and development rates, please feel free to submit a lawyer web design inquiry.

There are many factors that are believed to effect the search performance of a website. The factors will usually be split into two categories.

• On-page Optimization
• Off-page Optimization

On-page optimization basically refers to the search engine friendliness of your own law firm website. In contrast, off-page optimization refers to the quantity, quality, and search engine friendliness of the links pointing to your website.

If you want to learn more about on-page optimization, you can download a copy of Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide which does an excellent job of explaining the basics.

Common terminology used by SEO service providers to describe more advanced on-page factors include the following terms:

• keyword density
• keyword frequency
• keyword prominence
• keyword semantics
• keyword diversity

Off-page optimization factors that can influence rankings include:

• the quality of websites that link to you
• the number of websites that link to you
• the IP address of the websites that link to you
• the Google PageRank of the websites that link to you
• the page titles of the websites that link to you
• the content of the pages that link to you
• the anchor text used in the link to you
• the position of the link inside the page that is linking to you

To learn more about off page optimization and link building strategies, you should consider picking up a good SEO book at your local library or book store. Additionally, popular SEO websites like Search Engine Guide and Search Engine Land are a good resource for learning more about on and off page optimization techniques.

Ultimately, however, the success or failure of a law firm Internet marketing campaign will be determined by the strategy the campaign follows. Thus, if you are planning on investing in Internet marketing, it can help to first find a trusted Internet Marketing Consultant for your law firm.