Weave a Web site that attracts clients: create an effective Internet presence with high-quality content that draws in clients without draining your budget.

You have to spend money to make money. The more you spend, the more you make.

This old adage is usually correct. But when it comes to using the Internet to attract new clients, it's the content on your Web site--and not always how much you spend--that can make the biggest difference.

In today's electronic world, people turn first to the Internet for information, so there is really no excuse for a law firm not to have a Web site. Law firms must include the Web as a key component of their marketing strategy if they want to remain competitive and grow.

More and more people go online not only for e-mail, but also to shop, to stay informed--and, yes, to find a lawyer. Statistics gleaned from studies of American adults' Internet use show that

* 68 percent (about 137 million people) use the Internet.

* 65 percent of legal services buyers have gone online to locate a law firm.

* 38 percent search online for legal services at least weekly.

* 89 percent use search engines to find law firm Web sites.

* 86 percent go directly to a law firm's site.

* 71 percent enter law firm Web sites through portals such as FindLaw and Martindale-Hubbell. (1)

That's a lot of people using their computers instead of letting their fingers do the walking. Yet, a large percentage of sole practitioners and small firm attorneys continue to ignore the Internet.

The American Bar Association recently reported that its survey of Web and technology trends in law firms showed that roughly three-quarters of all firms surveyed had Web sites. Surprisingly, the report notes that "solos and small firms are the least likely to have Web sites, at 40 percent and 65 percent respectively," with all other firm sizes over 90 percent. (2)

There are many reasons law firms don't have Web sites. Often, the lawyers just haven't bothered or they are "too busy" to look into what's involved in setting one up. Another common excuse is that having a Web site is expensive and that marketing the site will cost even more.

But Internet marketing costs as little--or as much--as you want to spend. With other advertising methods, if you spend nothing you get nothing in return, but an effectively designed Web site can attract clients without additional marketing costs.

On the Internet, how much you spend to market your Web site does not necessarily correlate with how many new clients you attract. How well your site is designed and how well it conveys your intended message matter just as much--probably more.

If you don't believe me, go to www.webpagesthatsuck.com and peruse some of the examples of horrible Web sites. Would you hire a lawyer whose site looked like any of the ones featured there?

Go to Google or Yahoo!, enter a phrase such as "car accident lawyer" or "construction accident attorney" in the search window, and click on a few of the results. How many of the Web sites that ranked high in the results were actually law firm sites? How many were legal services directories such as www.lawyers.com or www.findlaw.com? How many really enticed you to go further and explore their content? Based on first impressions, how many of the law firms whose sites you visited would you consider hiring? Probably not very many.

Sure, you have to spend money to design your Web site, and you have to pay a company to host (store) it. But you don't necessarily have to break the bank spending large sums of money on pay-per-click and other forms of Web ads. Instead, focus your efforts first on creating an attractive, informative, easy-to-navigate Web site, then plan to attract new clients by making your site visible to search engines.

The first step is choosing a Web address, or URL (uniform resource locator). Most law firms pick a URL that reflects the firm's name, (3) such as www.joneshowellandsmith.com, or some aspect of the practice, such as www.superautoaccidentlawyers.com. When possible, choose an easy-to-remember address, such as www.robinsonsmith.com, rather than a cumbersome one like www.robinsonsmithjonesmillerandyoungtriallawyers.com.

Although there are many Web site extensions, ".com" is the one most people associate with businesses. Web surfers generally associate other extensions--such as ".org," ".net," and ".info"--with noncommercial entities. Clients and other people searching for your firm will assume your Web site is a .com (commercial), so avoid those other extensions whenever possible.

You will need to register your URL and pay a host company to store your Web site on its computer servers linked to the Internet. Name registration and Web hosting should not be a major expense. There are numerous companies and Web sites that register domain names, and the prices vary dramatically. For example, registering a .com for one year costs $35 at www.register.com, $8.95 at www.godaddy.com, and $5.99 at www.1and1.com. The cost of Web hosting also varies, as do the services hosts offer. It can cost as little as $2.24 per month at www.1and1.com; many other companies charge $10 or less per month.

Developing the design

The company that registers your name or hosts your Web site has no effect on how many visitors come to your site. Content is the key to marketing your site effectively.

Your Web site will give its visitors their first impression of your firm. If your site is too garish, too boring, too hard to navigate, or doesn't contain enough information about your firm and the types of cases you handle, you probably will not attract many new clients.

Creating a Web site is not as simple as typing up an advertisement and sending it to a newspaper. Web site construction is both an art and a science. The site's front end is the design and content visitors see and read; the back end consists of the computer code and "tags" that help drive traffic to your site.

There are several ways to set up a Web site. To save the most money, you could do it yourself using off-the-shelf software such as Microsoft FrontPage. Or you could use software that your Internet host provides, the quality of which generally varies from poor to mediocre. Another alternative is using do-it-yourself templates, like those offered by Martindale-Hubbell and Thomson West.

With all these alternatives, however, your site is likely to look like you did it yourself. Hiring a professional for a few more dollars can make a dramatic difference.

The cost of professional Web site design varies dramatically, and spending more money does not always guarantee better content or more visitors. Before hiring a Web design company, get a couple of quotes and compare not only what they are offering you, but also the firms' experience and knowledge of your market. And check their references.

After choosing a Web design firm, you need to focus on the nitty-gritty of the site itself. Generally, your designer will create a few mock-ups of how the site will appear, which you can then tweak to suit your needs.

A word to the wise: Simplicity is key. Visitors should be able to get around the site and find information easily. They will leave quickly if they can't find what they are looking for.

Keep your site looking clean--don't put too much information on a page. Also, avoid flashy or gimmicky visuals, which may slow down visitors. Similarly, many sites are attractive because they contain large, colorful graphics, but these often take a long time to load, especially for visitors with slow Internet connections or older computers.

Crafting the content

Once you have the basic design, it's time to concentrate on content. First, you need to decide who you want to visit your site--your target audience--and tailor your design and content for that group. Ask yourself: Are you satisfied with your current client base, or are you seeking to expand the nature and scope of your clientele?

Next, consider the words on your site. Having well-written content that provides relevant information is absolutely critical. It is the food that feeds search engines and Web directories; without quality content, your site will almost certainly fall to the bottom of the search engine results screen.

One of the biggest mistakes law firms (and other businesses) make is writing their own content. This often results in a site that the firm's attorneys like but that does not meet the needs of clients and potential clients.

Lawyers write like lawyers, a style that may work with judges but is not particularly friendly to nonlawyers. Allow professionals experienced in writing Web site text to draft the content of your site. If you do elect to write your own content, remember that you are not your audience--your potential clients are. Provide information that they want and avoid legalese.

Your choices for content are boundless. You could simply re-create your firm's brochure electronically, or you could provide much more. For example, law firm Web sites often include information about landmark verdicts and settlements, detailed descriptions of practice areas, links to articles written by or about the firm's attorneys, and information about important appeals handled. Some sites feature videos or content that changes daily.

Before your site goes "live" for the world to see, do a test run to make sure it works. Have members of your staff, friends, and family try it out. Are there typos? Do all the links work? Do all the pages look nice on everyone's computer screens? Do all the pictures (of the lawyers and your office building) show up?

There are few more embarrassing moments than when a client tells you about a problem on your Web site that you should have discovered. After all, if you haven't paid attention to the details of your site, how much attention are you giving to your client's case?

Attracting the audience

Once your Web site is up and running, the real work begins--driving visitors to the site. This phase is often called "search engine optimization," but it involves far more than trying to appeal to Google's ever-changing criteria for ranking search results. Again, content is critical.

After your site goes live, your Web designer will submit the URL to search engines, online directories, Web indexes, and similar sites. Most search engines use computer programs called "robots" ("bots") or "spiders" that search through sites (called "crawling") to discover what information their pages contain. Robots don't read the text you see on the page; they read the raw computer software code and look for a few additional "hidden" files.

Let's look at an example of a Web site's software code. Go to www.law.com/jsp/pa/index.jsp, the Web site for the Legal Intelligencer, Philadelphia's daily legal newspaper. Click on "view" on the toolbar at the top of your browser's screen, then select "source." A new window should open. Scroll down a bit, and you should see the following:

   <TITLE> The Legal Intelligencer The Oldest
   Law Journal in the United States

   </TITLE>

   <meta name="title" content="Law.com
   Center for Regional News, Information
   and Resources">

   <meta name="description" content=
   "Law.com state and regional resources provide
   you with local and national news, cases
   and developments">

   <meta name="keywords" content="attorney,
   lawyer, counsel, government Legal
   news, Law, Legal cases, Legal Developments,
   Law news, Legal information, Current
   legal news, Daily legal news, Decisions,
   Statutes, Supreme court. Appeals court, Appellate
   courts, state specific legal resource,
   law.com">

This coded information is what search engines seek, and it can make the difference between a Web site showing up at the top of a list of search results or on page 10. When search engines review and index your Web site, they start at the home page (your main Web page) and search for these codes, also called meta-tags.

The "title" meta-tag (which in the above example begins with the code: <meta name="title" content=) should list the information found on that particular page. The "description" tag (which begins: <meta name="description" content=) provides more detailed information about the content on the page.

The "keywords" tag should include terms that correlate with the words and phrases that Web searchers commonly use when ranking sites. For example, the Legal Intelligencer wants its site to rank high when people search for "legal information," "current legal news," and other similar phrases. If you want to attract people looking for a personal injury law firm to your site, your site's keywords should include phrases such as "personal injury," "personal injury lawyers," and "personal injury attorneys." With well-chosen tags and keywords that accurately reflect your site's content, it is far more likely to appear closer to the top of the search results.

There is an art to determining effective keywords. Web sites such as www.wordtracker.com catalog how often keywords or search phrases are used and their efficacy, and they offer this information for a fee. Web marketers use services like this to determine which keywords will generate the best results in their marketing campaigns. Similarly, you (or your Web designer) may want to pay for and use this information to create Web pages that are more likely to rank high in search results, so you will get more visitors without spending extra money.

Bots also look for "hidden" files on your Web site, including robots.txt and sitemap.xml. The robots.txt file tells the bots which pages on the site to search and which not to search. Suppose, for example, your Web site included pages that couldn't be accessed without a password. In that case the robots.txt file would notify the bots not to try to search those pages.

The sitemap.xml file (not the sitemap the public sees, but a separate file stored on your Web server) serves a different purpose. It lists every page on your Web site, including the date each was created or last changed. If a page hasn't changed since the bot last visited your site, it won't review the page again. This is important because one criterion for ranking higher in search results is how frequently your site is updated.

You can generate sitemaps for free at www.auditmypc.com/free-sitemapgenerator.asp. After you create the sitemap and save it to your Web site, you can notify Google about your site and sitemap for free at www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login. After registering your site, you will have to install some additional code (again, not seen by visitors) on the site.

Google will eventually go to your site and index it, preparing a report confirming that your site was indexed, and listing when it was last accessed by the Google bot, the most popular search queries that brought visitors to your site, pages that refer to your site's URL, and pages that link to your site.

Many other factors can improve search engine rankings. Perhaps most important are links--places on other Web sites that send visitors to your site. The more sites that link to your Web site, the more likely yours is to rank higher in search results. Thus, listings on sites like FindLaw and Lawyers.com that contain a link to your Web site will help you rank higher.

There are many ways to create links to your site. If, for example, you write articles, you can distribute them to Web sites that will republish them for free. These articles should list your Web site, so the number of links to your site will increase, as will your search engine ranking.

Another way to ensure your Web site ranks higher is to publish or regularly contribute to a blog, short for Web log. A blog is an online journal or newsletter that is frequently updated and intended for either the general public or a specific audience, such as attorneys.

If you have your own blog, you can link it to your site. Or, if you contribute postings to others' blogs, include your Web site in your e-mail address, creating additional links to your site. A side benefit of having a blog is that it can also generate new clients--people who visit it and read about your particular expertise may contact you about a legal problem, and other attorneys may contact you with referrals.

Price of promotion

Tags, keywords, and links form the basis of a Web marketing strategy that is the least expensive to put together--generally, these marketing tools cost nothing to use. The next level of promotion costs more and, like advertising in newspapers or on radio, has varying success rates.

Do a Google search for "Philadelphia lawyer," and look at the results. You'll see advertisements at the top and along the fight side. The links at the top that appear whenever certain words are searched are called "banner ads" or "sponsored links." Advertisers pay for the privilege of always appearing at the top of pages for the results of specific keyword or phrase searches. These prime spots can be expensive, and the most popular terms are generally sold out.

In the right-hand column are additional sponsored links, commonly called "pay-per-click" (PPC) ads, which also appear whenever specific words are searched. The cost of a sponsored link depends on the popularity of the word or phrase being searched. PPC advertisers pay a fee to Google or other companies only when someone actually clicks on the advertiser's link.

PPC campaigns are highly customizable and can be tailored to virtually every budget. Advertisers can limit their advertising to certain times of the day, to people whose searches originate from particular geographic areas, or by cost. For example, you could create a PPC campaign with a maximum budget of $5 per day or $150 per month. Once the cost of the clicks matches your specified budget, your advertising stops.

Other advertising options are generally more expensive. For example, you can purchase banner ads on specific Web sites. You can use pop-up ads, or buy e-mail lists and send e-mail to prospective clients. You can also partner with another Web site, such as a TV-or radio-station site, and co-promote your site there.

As potential clients rely more on the Internet and far less on the Yellow Pages and other advertising media, law firms must include the Web as a key part of their marketing strategy. Begin by creating a high-quality, optimized Web site and then progress to advertising through limited PPC campaigns.

Your next new client is almost certainly searching for you on the Internet. Don't let that client go to another firm because you aren't there.

Notes

(1.) See Lee Rainie, Pew Internet & American Life Project, Search Engine Use Shoots Up in the Past Year and Edges Towards E-mail as the Primary Internet Application (Nov. 20, 2005), www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_SearchData_1105.pdf (last accessed Nov. 29, 2006); Pat Yevics, Websites for Solos and Small Firms, Md. B. Bull. (Apr. 2005), www.msba.org/departments/commpubl/publications/bar_bult/2005/april05/solo.htm (last accessed Nov. 29, 2006).

(2.) Am. Bar Assn., 2006 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report: Web and Communication Technology Trend (ABA 2006).

(3.) Id.; 95 percent of firm domain names are either the firm name or a variation of it.

Attorney DANIEL J. SIEGEL is the president of Integrated Technology Services in Havertown, Pennsylvania. He can be reached at [e-mail]. The views expressed in this article are the author's and do not constitute an endorsement of any product by TRIAL or the American Association for Justice.