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build your own website

 

Building Your Own Law Firm Website

Transferring from FindLaw to WordPress

So You Want to Build Your Own Website?

Building your own website can be very rewarding, it’s extremely economical, and with a little luck and attention, it can even be fun. The following information is tailored to an attorney who is considering switching from FindLaw or Lawyers.com to WordPress, but most of it should apply to any small business or new website.

The Pluses:

If you’re looking to get your website from a provider like FindLaw, Lawyers.com or YellowPages.com over to WordPress and do it yourself, there is a LOT of upside:

Getting Easier All The Time

Just a few years ago, if you wanted to do a full WordPress install, you had to download the entire thing in a zip file and then FTP it up to a hosting place, connect a database, edit files…. I am telling you, not fun stuff, and not accessible to beginners in any way. That has all changed; Now most hosting companies offer a WordPress install that puts you (potentially anyhow) in the drivers seat of your new WordPress site in about five minutes.

Ridiculously Affordable

It’s very inexpensive to build your own website.  If you are not particular about how it looks, it can also be done relatively quickly.  You can normally expect to pay a couple hundred dollars a year for reliable, speedy website hosting.

The Minuses

While it’s very cost effective, there are some drawbacks of building your own law firm website.

You’ve Probably Never Done it Before

When people ask “can I do my own divorce?” or “should I represent myself for this DWI?” the answer is no for all sorts of reasons, but I’d argue the primary reason is experience. What you really get when you hire a lawyer is someone who has done it before. Intimate with the process, understanding the nuance, knowing what to expect and how to handle tiny mishaps should they arise. It’s not like the filling out forms or being able to tie a tie is worth $250 an hour. It’s the experience and know-how.

Same deal with the law firm website. You CAN get that default template set up within minutes, but then what? I’m sure you’ve heard “WordPress is EASY!!”, and that’s true in the same sense that Water-skiing is easy….to people who have done it before and are already good at it. Watch anyone water-ski for the first time… that’s pretty much what you’re gonna look like. Well, I mean, you’re not going to actually get wet, or probably even be wearing a bathing suit, but that “I’m leaning forward too much and feel like this might all be a little bit out of control and I’m not sure what to do about it” part, well, that part is there.

Oh the Vernacular

I’ve been working on websites in many forms for well over 10 years now, and it never ceases to amaze me what a ridiculous set of jargon and vernacular is set up around the web. I’ve always thought it was sort of a “nerd revenge” where they’re sort of mad about not being invited to the party or whatever, so they’re home on Friday concocting a scheme where people have to say “Repoint the A-record to the new IP address and we’ll wait for it to propagate” with a straight face. Well, WordPress is honestly worse. At it’s core, it’s really just about posts, pages, plug-ins, widgets, menus and themes. If you understand those words, and already know what they mean in the context of WordPress, you’ll probably do very well. If that sounds like mumbo-jumbo to you, well, you’re gonna need to read up a bit.

So can I actually build my own site on WordPress?

It’s hard to say for sure, but if you want to take peak at what it looks like, this is a good place to start. That link will take you to Hostinger, which is a host that makes it very easy to set up wordpress and also has great speed for their hosting plans.