Victor Knapp, Esq. - Entertainment & Intellectual Property Attorney located in Kew Garden, Queens, NY

 
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Attorney Websites: Some Practical Considerations

by Victor Knapp, Esq.

Published in THE QUEENS BAR BULLETIN , Vol.64 No. 6 , March 2001

Attorney Websites: Some Practical Considerations

       Since internet usage has been growing at exponential rates , many law firms have chosen to publicize their company with the maintenance of a website. While 70 percent of the larger law firms are reported to have Web sites , most small-firm lawyers still do not see the internet as a tool for getting business . However, with the web's increasing potential client base and the relatively lower costs incidental to creating and maintaining a website, as compared to traditional firms of legal advertising , it would behoove many solo practitioners and small firms to take advantage of this unique opportunity.
       The purpose of this article is to introduce the reader to some of the concerns in creating and maintaining your own website.
       Why Have A Website?
       The motivations for having a website are varied. For the major law firms, having a "web presence" is somewhat expected and serves to preserve their status in the field. Many of the larger firm sites not only offer background information about their partners and associates but also detail the services offered by the firm and might even include various publications and articles pertaining to their particular fields of practice . For the majority of the smaller and medium sized firms, advertising is the key consideration in having a website.
       Advertising on the internet has a tremendous advantage over traditional advertising. With traditional advertising, the consumer's experience is interrupted by ads that separate magazine and newspaper articles and cut into radio programs and television shows. On the internet, readers visit the websites based upon their need to obtain information. Since they have opted to affirmatively visit a website, they have "pre-qualified" themselves as an interested consumer and potential customer.
       Another potential reason to maintain a legal website would be to offer on-line services to potential customers . Payments for services normally would be accepted via credit card or through the Virtual Bank (an electronic payment system designed for the web). For many solo practitioners and small firms, however, this might be too complicated and time consuming to set up and monitor so as not to be cost effective. Additionally other concerns, such as the prohibition against practicing in jurisdictions without the appropriate license, as well as possibly subjecting oneself to personal jurisdiction in another forum might come into play.
       Getting Started.
       So you have decided to join the new millennium and set up your own website. Where do you start?
Although not mandatory, it is highly recommended that you become familiar with what your target audience (the internet user) does on the internet and how they access websites. In other words, become computer literate! You will need the following: a computer, modem, internet access and browser software to get started.
       Next, it would be a good idea to take a look at some of the other lawyer websites to see what they are doing . Decide what features you like and dislike. By viewing the competition, you will not only get a feel as to what your target audience will be expecting but also how you can improve on what other firms have done with an idea toward differentiating your site from them . By doing your research and homework up front, you will ultimately wind up paying less and will save a great deal of time in the designing of your site.
       Now, you are ready for the next step: finding a good site developer. With this, you must be very careful in that there are many people out there who consider themselves "Web designers" yet lack the proper experience and skills. You are looking for someone experienced in creating sites for professionals such as yourself, as well as someone that you will be able to work together with since the actual designing and decisions regarding the content for your website will involve much collaboration.
       Possible sources for finding a competent web-designer are ads in the Yellow Pages, newspapers and trade magazines. Web searches can also be helpful . If you see a site that you like, you might want to contact the owner for a referral. However, never underestimate perhaps the best approach to finding experienced professionals: word of mouth.
       A. Website Development: Website Development Agreement. After you have selected your developer, it is a good idea to have a written agreement that clearly specifies all the rights and duties of the parties . Such contract will generally follow the format of an independent contractor agreement with the attention focussed on (a) the development process; (b) content acquisition; (c) ownership of the individual components and the completed site; and (d) appropriate warranties and indemnifications.
       It is very important that the contract contain detailed written specifications in order to verify that both parties are aware of their obligations . Within such specifications should be terms concerning delivery schedule, any deadlines, acceptance criteria, payment schedule, the addition of any third party software and any additional services desired from the developer .
In putting together a website, the developer must create and/or assemble various components into an acceptable online presence. These include text, photographs, graphics and perhaps even audio and video selections.
       Any content supplied by the developer should be specified in the agreement and be subject to your approval. To the extent that the developer does not own such content, he or she should be responsible for obtaining sufficient proprietary rights to permit the use of such content on the site.
       As to any content created by the developer, it is very important that the contract state that you will be the owner of such material. If the contract is silent as to this issue or if no written contract is entered into, the developer, as author (creator) of the material will be deemed the owner under Copyright Law.
       This will obviously not be in your better interests in the future if you wish to change designers or hosts. Additionally, ownership by you will prevent the designer from using the same website elements in other websites (such as one set up on behalf of a fellow attorney).
       Therefore, the contract should specifically provide that the Web pages and all elements thereof (with the exception of material owned by third parties) shall be considered "works for hire" and owned by you. To be guaranteed ownership, the contract should further provide that in the event that the elements are found not to satisfy the criteria for a "work made for hire" , the Developer and its subcontractors transfer and assign to you all rights, title and interest they have in the copyright and patent in such elements.
       Of course, it might not be appropriate for you to own all the elements or components of the website not already owned by third parties. For example, certain components such as search engines or other utilities (specialized software) which come from the developer's proprietary library or are custom built will likely be licensed to you (as opposed to having ownership transferred). These items have significant business value to the developer who will insist upon being allowed to re-use them without any harm to you.
       Website development agreements customarily include warranties from each party that the materials/components he or she provide do not infringe any third party rights (such as copyright, trademark, patent, trade secrets, rights of privacy and publicity) . Of course, you will want a warranty that the finished product (website) will operate in accordance with the applicable specifications. As part of the risk management process, the contract will normally also contain mutual indemnification and hold harmless provisions in case of any breach of warranties.
       In addition to the creation of the website, the parties might negotiate for the developer to provide additional services such as hosting (to be discussed herein), maintenance of the site, training, performance tracking for the site, domain name (URL) registration and the registration of the site with various search engines and directories.
       B. Content of the Web Site: The structure and design of your website is extremely important. A good website appearance and organization, as well as the providing of an easy way to move about your site will ensure you a favorable first impression with your potential clients.
       With this in mind, you will begin collaborating with the developer on creating and presenting the contents of your site. The key is to develop online content that provides useful information to potential or existing clients. Online consumers are looking for information which is one of the top reasons they are on the Internet to begin with . This need for good content (information) is what drives traffic to a website and convinces readers to linger and return.
       You must also be mindful that a law firm website that seeks to interest existing or potential clients in retaining the firm constitutes "advertising" and "other publicity" within the meaning of DR2-101.
       Your site should contain biographies of the attorneys in the firm, types of matters handled, any special skills, awards, recognitions as well as any published works authored by any of the attorneys.
       As far as design, the basic elements of your website will include a home page, table of contents, hyperlinks , secondary pages (listed in the table of contents) and perhaps a feedback option (allowing the user to contact you by E-mail).
       Depending upon who your targeted audience is, you might want to incorporate certain graphic, pictorial, or multimedia components (i.e. streaming video or audio) into your site. For example, an entertainment attorney who represents a high profiled artist might wish to include a photograph of or music clip from such person. Of course, keep in mind the following caveats: (a) Never incorporate a third party's copyrighted materials or trademarks without permission; (b) Images and graphics should enhance and not dominate your website and can unreasonably increase download time ; and (c) Streaming audio and video can be prohibitively expensive.
       In composing the text content of your site pages, it is generally not a good idea to have endless blocks of print. This encourages readers to glaze over it without even reading it. It might be better to present your information in small digestible blocks or even use bulletted lists for the readers' convenience.
       If you decide to include any published works you might have authored, it might be a good idea to protect your own material by attaching a copyright notice to your website pages . If you are publishing your work for the first time on your website and are concerned with possible infringement, it behooves you to register your work for copyright within 90 days of publication.
       C. Links to Other Sites: Another excellent source of information for the readers of your website is link pages. Links are electronic shortcuts (appearing as either text or a graphic with a line beneath it) that make getting from one web address to another as simple as pointing and clicking your mouse.
       Customer conscious website owners can provide links to other websites that can provide helpful information to their readers. For example, an attorney specializing in music might consider creating links to the Copyright Office, ASCAP and BMI websites for the convenience of their readers.
       Questions have surfaced recently regarding whether or not you need permission from the other site to link to it. Generally, the answer would seem to be "no" since one's placement of content on the World Wide Web is essentially an implied license to link to it, whether directly or through one of the many search engines whose software automatically searches, reads and indexes material on the Web . However, this might only appear to be the scenario where one is merely linking to another site for informational purposes as opposed to a competitor linking to another site's content to build a business on the back of the other company's site. As business continues to grow on the internet, it seems likely that linking rights will depend upon the business-oriented laws of unfair competition and intellectual property, as opposed to an uninhibited right to link.
       Recent problems have arisen in connection with a web practice known as "deep linking" . Deep links bypass a company's home page, which means that the link viewer will often skip much or all of the company's strategically placed banner advertisements. This has been a particularly contentious subject because of the commercial interests implicated .
Another thing to be concerned about if you link to another site is the possibility that such site might contain content that infringes upon the copyright of another. In such event, you might be subject to a claim of "contributory infringement" by virtue of your link.
       In summary, you should always exhibit appropriate discretion before adding an external link from your site. It would be wise to put a notice on the link page that you are not endorsing or approving the contents of any sites linked to from your site.
       D. Keywords and META Tags: In developing/designing one's website, you must be mindful as to how search engines will find, index and rank your web pages. Search engines (like Hotbot or Yahoo) have "spiders" that crawl the web visiting web pages. Everything the spider reads will go into the index (catalog) component of the search engine for future reference. Search engine software (in response to a keyword search request) will sift through the millions of pages recorded in the index to find matches and rank them in order of what it believes is most relevant . Some search engines differ in their programming , the same search on different search engines often produces different results.
       In designing your site, it should be done with a view toward "search engine optimization" to ensure that your web pages are accessible to search engines and focused in ways that help improve the chances that they will be found and receive a high ranking.
       While the search engine companies are somewhat close-mouthed about how they rank sites, much information about what factors are involved is located on a site called Search Engine Watch (http://searchenginewatch.com). This site has been described as the industry authority on search engine position and contains many helpful hints and tips.
       Search engines look for text containing keywords. A keyword is any important and relevant word used to describe what your site is about, what information you provide there, and the types of things seekers of your services may be thinking of. Important factors in site ranking are keyword location and frequency. Thus, you will want the text on your web pages to accurately reflect the core keywords of your practice. Be sure at the very least, that your top keyword is in the headline of your page and that the other important keywords are well represented (repeated two or three times throughout the rest of your page, particularly in the first 200 words of text (since some search engines do not index beyond 200).
       Additionally, have your web designer take the top 4 or 5 keywords and make them hyperlinks to other parts of your site. Search engine bots (spiders) recognize the HTML code for hyperlinks above other text.
       Where text is sparse or lacking from a web page, the use of meta tags can help to provide keywords and descriptions. Some of the major search engines look for meta tags when they index a site and use the meta tag data to better identify and categorize the site. Thus, using meta tags can help (although not guarantee) the placement of your site within these search directories.
       E. FAQ Document: Another way to provide information to potential and existing clients is with a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) document.
       F. Other Website Features: Some of the larger firms have incorporated interactive features to their websites enabling them to communicate with their existing and potential clients.
       One such feature involves setting up a listserv-type discussion area consisting of a list of e-mail addresses maintained in such a way that a single posting (i.e.- on e-mail letter or text of an article) sent to the listserv group is forwarded to all of the subscribers of the group.
      Another feature involves online newsletters. Visitors to the website are invited to subscribe to such newsletters by submitting their e-mail address on the subscription form contained on your web page.
        In setting up and using these features, it must be kept in mind that you are committing yourself to not only additional expenses for the software involved but also to spending the time and resources to monitor and answer the listserv group and to create periodic newsletters.
       Additionally, the utilization of these features (especially the listserv group) can trigger many ethical concerns such as rendering unsolicited advice with a view toward inviting employment , the establishment of an attorney-client relationship in a multi- jurisdictional context and advertising.
       Lastly, interactive website features can possibly trigger claims of personal jurisdiction over the firm in a foreign state or territory. In general, website activity can range from "passive" (simply providing information) to "active" (conducting sales or rendering services). Activity at the passive end of the spectrum has been likened to advertising in a national magazine, and is not alone sufficient to confer personal jurisdiction, while operators of sites in which business is actively transacted are subject to personal jurisdiction.
       Interactive websites that permit the interstate exchange of information between users and the operator fall in the middle of the spectrum and require analysis of the precise nature and quality of contact to determine if it will support the assertion of jurisdiction.
       For these reasons, it would be wise to include a disclaimer on your website to the effect that: (a) the information contained on the website and in your discussion areas, newsletters and/or E-mail responses are not intended as legal advice; (b) that the laws may vary from state to state; (c) that any slight changes in fact patterns and legal precedents can change legal results and (d) the information conveyed cannot replace the advice of an experienced attorney and does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and the recipient of any information therefrom.
       Web Hosting: Once it is created, your website will need a home -- a "host" computer that is accessible to your clients and potential clients at all times. The computer that houses your website is called a "server".
       For small businesses, it is usual to have your ISP maintain your site on one of its servers along with the websites of other businesses. In essence, you are renting memory on their computer's hard drive. Since not all ISP's are qualified or adept at maintaining the sites (i.e. - updating information, adding new pages, deleting old information, etc.), it is quite common for website owners to contract with the same vendor for both website development and hosting services . This can be done by entering into individual development and hosting agreements or by combining all the provisions into one agreement.
       Generally, the provisions of a hosting agreement include: (a) detailed descriptions of the services the host is obligated to perform; (b) standards for performance of these obligations; and (c) transition of the services back to the principal or to another service provider at the time of expiration or termination of the agreement.
       A. Services Provided: Since the calculation of fees is based upon the services described in the agreement, it is wise to have a detailed understanding of the nature of the host's required services and to negotiate advantageous fees prior to entering the contract (when your leverage is greater). Hosting services and fees are currently very competitive. Pick up a copy of Wired magazine and review the Wired Market Section to get a feel of the different offerings. One of the first tasks that a host may provide is the securing of a domain name for the site. A domain name is a term that identifies your website to users and becomes incorporated into your URL (universe resource locator) which is your complete web address For example, Macy's URL is http://www.macys.com.
       You must choose an appropriate name for your site's address. The most logical choice would be your own or firm's name (www.smith&jones.com) or perhaps a generic term (www.criminallawyer.com). However, at this point, practically all of the generic word choices are taken in connection with the current top level domain names.
       Recently, however, the governing body for "internet names (ICANN) approved seven additional online suffixes: .info for general information; .biz for businesses; .name for individuals; .pro for professionals; .museum for museums; .coop for business cooperatives and .aero for the aviation industry . Needless to say, anxiously eager consumers seeking to purchase domain names in these new registries have been swamping websites such as www.thedomainupdate.com requesting information about the availability of their requested names with the new suffixes . However, until ICPANN completes its negotiations with the operators of the seven new domain registries, no ICANN accredited registrar is permitted to sell any internet addresses with the new suffixes.
       You will also need to decide together with your host whether you site will be accessible through its own top level domain name (i.e. - sitename.com) or whether its address will be a lower level domain name accessible via the host's website address (i.e. - sitename.host.com). If your site is to have its own top level domain name, make sure that the agreement requires the host to secure the domain name "for and on the behalf of" you, so that it will automatically follow you as owner upon any expiration or termination of the agreement.
       Another service to be negotiated is your ability to update your site periodically either directly or by submitting to updates to the host.
       If you intend to be conducting some form of E-Commerce or to accept credit card payments on your site, the contract should obligate the host to provide technology that offers a reasonable level of security for credit card processing and the transmission of other sensitive date. If your host is not equipped to provide this service, you might find it necessary to outsource some or all of your e-commerce functions.
       In order to better promote your website on the Internet, you might consider obligating the web host to register the site's domain name with several of the major search engines. Of course, as we shall see, you can do this on your own. Similarly, you might also wish for the host to embed "meta tags" within your site to facilitate positive search engine results. The typical web hosting contract will obligate the host to maintain the accessibility of the site at all times, as well as to complete periodic backups of the site.
       In fact, in New York, lawyers are required to retain, for a period of not less than one year, a copy of its website pages, including a copy, for the requisite period, of each version as changes are introduced . Maintaining a comprehensive backup file of an ever-changing website is perhaps the only way to comply with this requirement.
       You will also want your host to be able to provide you with different types of visitor data (i.e. - the number of site visitors, which parts of your side they visited, how long they remained, from which links or search engines they came from, etc.). This is a tremendous aid in both monitoring your site's success, as well as assessing any marketing strategies you wish to employ or change. The host agreement should provide for interim or ad hoc reports at your request and obligate the host to maintain the confidentiality of visitor date.
       B. Performance Standards: The typical host agreement will obligate the host to provide continuous accessibility of the site as well as a reasonable level of site security. These obligations are considered to be continuing with a single failure of more than de minims proportions possibly constituting a material breach.
       C. Termination Concerns and Transition Assistance: It is important to remember that your host has physical and electronic control over the materials and information of your site. What happens if you wish to terminate the relationship because the host has failed to meet its obligations? Or suppose it becomes more cost effective and convenient to switch your site to a different hosting company? Or suppose your present hosting company goes bankrupt or out of business!
       You do not want to be in a position where you are locked out and have no access to the computer on which your site is stored, both physically and electronically. One suggestion would be to keep a current version of your site mirrored at another location, preferably on your own computer.
       Provisions in the hosting agreement should provide a mechanism and a process for relocating your site to a server that you specify following termination of the contract with the hosting firm being obligated to cooperate with you and assist you in moving the site upon payment of its costs to do so.
       In recognition of its contractual obligation to cooperate, the host should be required to provide you with access to all of the technical information concerning operation of the site (e.g. - server specifications, internet connection information, personnel requirements, software implementation) . The host should likewise be obligated to identify any commercially available software required for the website operation, as well as the particular functionality of any software that is proprietary to the host .
       If proprietary software is anticipated to be required for your website, try to negotiate, up front, a non-exclusive paid up license to continue using this software after termination. To protect yourself from a host's bankruptcy or cessation of business, require the establishment of a source code escrow for the host's proprietary software.
       Promotion of Your Web Site: A 1999 Study conducted by NEC Research Institute estimated that there are now more than 800 million web pages on the Web.
       Unless a website is actively and consistently promoted, few people are likely to find it and even fewer are likely to remember it. Therefore, it is incumbent upon you to employ marketing strategies to attract your targeted audience: existing and potential clients. Remember, what your website is offering to visitors - helpful information about you, your services and the potential benefits to them.
       With this in mind, you should do the following:
a) Register your site with the most popular directories and search engines ;
b) Create links with other websites that are non-competitive and share a common consumer;
c) Purchase or trade banner advertising with other sites; and
d) Promote your website in existing advertisements, literature, letter heads and business cards.
       A. Search Engine Registration: There are two types of search tools on the internet - search engines and directories. Both are considered the Yellow Pages of the internet . The major difference between the two is that a directory will use humans to review, accept and index submitted websites whereas search engines use programs (robots and spiders) that visit websites and assess them based upon the number of times a specific word appears . As a result of this, searches conducted on directories will often lead to more targeted results although perhaps a lesser number of web pages retrieved.
       However, search engines are still the primary way that people look for websites . There are many ways to submit your website to multiple search engines.
       One way is to take advantage of free tools such as Promote It Here and Add Me. However, there will be no visible verification that your site was, in fact, actually submitted. Therefore, it is probably best to submit your site manually to the top search engines.
       While submitting your site may be a little tedious and time consuming, it is fairly easy. Most search engines have a button or hyperlink titled "Add URL" or "Add a Page". Clicking on this will open a registration form where you can type in your URL and any other information requested. The search engine will then dispatch a "Web Spider" to your site to gather information.
       You can also hire a registration service to take care of getting your site submitted. For example, services such as "ineedhits.com" specialize in search engine submissions as well as other website marketing promotional activities (i.e. - banner advertising and newsletter sponsorship) . Some businesses such as Submit It (www.submitit.com) will even do it for free. Also, many ISPs will provide URL registration with search engines as part of their package of hosting services.
As we discussed earlier, search engines will rank websites utilizing different formulas including keyword frequency, keyword prominence, and listings. Not only do you want to have your website registered with the various search engines, but you also want it to be ranked highly such that it will pop up toward the top of the list of search results. It affords you little benefit if the number of search results equal 1286 and your site is listed as number 987. Readers are not going to have the patience to review much more than the first 10 sites listed.
       With this in mind, you might want to take advantage of some of the "paid ranking" features that some of the search engines like Goto.com and AltaVista are offering .
       B. Directory Registration: Directories (like Yahoo) use human beings to decide what and where to list their websites. When you list with a directory, either you will submit a short description to the directory for your entire site, or the reviewer/editor will write a description of it, if and when they review your site. A good site with good content is more likely to get reviewed than a poor site . Some directories will include links to your website very quickly, others, like Yahoo may take time to evaluate your site.
       You might also wish to purchase a listing with some of the major legal directories. Martindale Hubbell (an affiliate of Lexis Publishing), described as the "grandaddy of all legal directories , has a popular website (www.laywers.com) with a database of more than 420,000 attorneys. The database provides detailed credentials about each lawyer's education and training. In fact, Martindale Hubbell is the official legal web center for America.
       On Line (AOL) and has priority listing for the keywords "Laywer(s)" and "Attorney(s)" 
The West Legal Directory with its own website at www.LawOffice.com also boasts an extensive data base. West has a contract with Big Yellow in connection with lawyer listings over the Internet and can provide free links within your website to any reported cases you might have handled.
       Both Martindale Hubbell and West have packages wherein they will create and host a website for you and list it with their respective directories. Additionally, West, depending upon what level package you purchase, will register your site with numerous top search engines.
       For those of you who already have a website, or choose to develop your own , you can add a hypetext and/or graphic link to your "official website" from the one created by Martindale Hubbell or West.
       The FindLaw Lawyer Directory (www.findlaw.com) also offers listings to lawyers. For $100 per year (substantially cheaper than either West or Martindale Hubbell ), your profile listing can feature a link to your website.
       Another directory not be overlooked is the Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic) Telephone Web Directory. Similar to West and Martindale-Hubbell, they will create and host a website for you and will list it with various search engines. Fees are approximately $95 per month.
       C. Links from Other Sites: Recently, some of the search engines (AltaVista, Excite, Google, Lycos and the "webpages" search portion of Yahoo) have adopted a new ranking system that actually measures and ranks the number of links directed toward a website. In addition to keyword relevancy, title and meta tag optimization, and directory listings, "link popularity" has become another significant factor in obtaining high search engine rankings (which consequently is likely to generate more traffic at your site).
       Not only the quantity of links to and from your website are considered, but more importantly, the quality of such links seems to be an increasingly major factor with some search engines For example, a site with several links to it from "popular" websites could possibly have a higher ranking than a site with hundreds of links from minuscule free links pages.
       What you might want to do is to research the search engines for sites that your targeted audience might be visiting. For example, if you specialize in music law, you might consider searching for sites that new and upcoming artists, managers and labels frequent. Then go to these sites to ascertain if they have a links page. If they do, either submit your link (by on-site submittal) or e-mail the webmaster.
       To achieve ranking in these search engines that only consider the quantity (as opposed to the quality) of links to your site, you will want to link up with as many sites as possible. To find these sites, you might want to consider visiting two websites that have compiled a list of directories and websites that accept links. One is Virtual Promote Top 500 (now Top 700) and the other is "Grandfather of All Links".
       D. Online Advertising: Online advertising is another mechanism for driving traffic to your website. Perhaps the most familiar form of Web Advertising is the "banner ad". This conspicuous stand alone image or graphic is often strategically placed at the top or bottom of a website and provides a clickable link to the advertiser's web page . In general, these banner or gateway ads seem to be an effective means of attracting customers to businesses.
       A popular way to augment the use of banner ads is the purchase of "keywords". You can buy the right to the ad impressions to Keywords that are likely to be used by customers doing a search for your particular type of services .
       Two potential downsides to banner ads exist. The first and most obvious is their cost which can range from $.10 to $.50 each time someone merely clicks on your ad . These clicks can obviously build up your advertising bill. Secondly, banner ads interrupt a consumer's experience. Most consumers visit a site to see and view its content and not to go elsewhere. Consumers are only likely to click on your banner ad if their perceived value of the content on your website is better than the content they are currently viewing .
       For solo practitioners and small law firms practicing in a local area, the cost effectiveness of banner ads, would seem to be somewhat questionable.
       E. Existing Advertising: It is also a good idea to promote your website in the physical world (as opposed to the world of cyberspace). To get your website address in front of as many people as possible, it would be wise to include it on your business cards, stationery, and any print advertising you might have, including your Yellow Pages listing.
       F. Monitoring: After your site is up and running and listed with the various search engines, directories and linked sites, you should periodically monitor it.
One important consideration would be to keep your content "fresh". Web searchers expect change. With it, you generate repeat visitors, your site gets bookmarked, people might create links to your site and advise others about your site . To keep your content current, you might want to list any new profile cases you have recently handled or any new articles written. You might also want to advise the readers about newly decided cases and/or legislation and how they affect them.
       You also want to periodically check how your site is ranked amongst the various search engines. A good way to do this is through Submit It's positioning agent located at www.positionagent.com. This reports where your website is currently ranked in the leading search engines for your selected keywords. From this, you will be able to tell when to revise your listing as well as to which metatags to revise .
You might also consider visiting Web Ad.Vantage which offers a service that reviews a site's components and recommends changes to achieve search engine optimization. A visit to WebsiteGarage.com will give you ratings on factors like the length of time your pages take to display and the number of links to your site.
       Lastly, you should periodically monitor the activity logs generated by your host or ISP. Hypertext links produce traffic that shows up on basis log reports. From your log files you can tell such things as how many people are visiting, how long they stayed on the site, how much information they downloaded, and most importantly, where they came from and what pages they visited . The dates and times of your visits will indicate any traffic peaks and valleys at your site and whether there is a desired increase in visits after you implemented a particular listing or ad campaign . Additionally, activity records can tell you if many files on your site are being opened or if your visitors are merely glancing at your home page and going elsewhere .
       Conclusion: The internet provides a new frontier for advertising by lawyers. While the majority of large firms have a web presence already, more and more of the smaller firms and solo practitioners are developing websites.
       A favorably negotiated website development and hosting agreement along with the creation of useful content for readers and inclusion of search engine optimization features will maximize your investment in this new form of advertisement.
       The effectiveness of your website will be greatly enhanced by both on-line and off-line promotional activities, as well as periodic updating of your site's contents and the monitoring of the site's traffic.