Full Service: Have a Website Built For You
Having a Website Built for You is going to cost more, but it’s the most direct means to get an effective and professional looking website for your law firm. Having someone else fully build your website comes with a lot of upside; it can be set up so that you don’t have to do anything. The hosting and domain name are set up in your name, which means you fully own the website, and are free to give access to whomever you’d like.
If you’ve spent the last couple years paying a company like FindLaw or Scorpion and have found you need very little on-going updates to your site, this is a great option to transition away from your more expensive site. This is an easy and sensible option for law offices who need their website to stay up and running, but are looking to stop paying FindLaw, Scorpion or Lawyers.com.
Upside:
Full-scale professional website design & Service
Your site will look great, and I will take the time to rebuild, code and redirect each page by hand. I make every effort to protect and build on whatever results your law firm website had already achieved.
Tied in with Google Maps / Analytics / Web Tools
One of the most important things you can do for your website is get it set up correctly with Google My Business. For law firms, this often can mean getting control over the listing that was set up for you by a previous provider. This process can be confusing and frustrating. I will help with that. I can also help try to keep some continuity (or rebuild if needed) your Google web tools and analytics.
Downside:
Cost
If you’re a solo starting out or are just looking for the least expensive way to get online this is probably not it. However, focusing on a provider who will sell the website as a product (pay once) and NOT a service (pay forever) makes this MUCH less expensive than competitors.
No On-Going Service.
On-going service is an option for these sites. For a lot of law firms, leaving their site alone for 6 or even 12 months at a time is NOT a problem. However, if you want to have your website consistently optimized on an on-going basis and have new content provided, you’re either going to need to do it yourself, or get on an on-going package. With WordPress, adding content is fairly easy to do, but it depends on your comfort level. For a lot of lawyers, having a blog (or a site on WordPress) is like having a gym membership….you’ll get out what you put in.
This is all about your marketing goals. If you are in a 20,000 population and just want your website to look nice and be easy to find, you probably don’t need on-going service. If you want to show up for “Minneapolis DWI Lawyer” type of searches than you’re likely going to need an on-going plan.
Contact Me With Questions
If you are working to transfer a site away from FindLaw or Lawyers.com and need help, contact me today. I can help you determine whether a full-service, on-going plan or a one-time build would be in your best interest. The fact is, there is aways SOMETHING we can do on an on-going basis, but I am very honest and open about what you could reasonably expect in terms of the benefit it would provide. Your marketing goals, your existing site, your practice areas and your geography will obviously affect what we need to do. I’m happy to walk you through it.
