25 Things You Shouldn't Have on Your Law Firm Website

Web design: Many have tried, and nearly as many have failed miserably. And while a do-it-yourself site, with a barely recognizable color scheme and misspelled words might be OK for your local hobby group, a lawyer's professional site demands quite a bit more. It needs to be clean, modern, and as mistake-free as possible.

And it really, really can't have any of these things:

25. A visitor counter. (There have been 98 visitors to this site since 1996! Hire me, please!)

24. A guestbook. (Don't know what this is? You must've had more friends than I did growing up.)

23. An abandoned blog. (Don't start what you can't finish.)

22. Plagiarized content. (And if a staff member does steal others' content, apologize and correct the mistake immediately.)

21. Any guarantees of certain outcomes. (Ethics!)

20. A frame-based layout. (Those damn 1990s.)

19. Flash-based content. (It won't work on iOS devices. Plus, it's slow and it sucks.)

18. Auto-playing videos or music. ("HEY SORRY I JUST INTERRUPTED YOUR WHOLE OFFICE WITH THIS LOUD BACKGROUND VIDEO BUT I'M REALLY NOT SORRY! HAHAHA, GOOD LUCK FINDING THE PAUSE OR MUTE BUTTON -- SUCKER!)

17. A terrible nickname. ("The Shark")

16. A terrible tagline. ("There's strength in our numbers.")

15. Racist commercials. (Wong Fong Shu, we hope you are RIP.)

14. Incomprehensible commercials. (Maybe. This example did go viral, after all.)

13. Any other terrible, terrible commercials. (Especially the somnolent fellow.)

12. Photoshopped pictures with celebrities. (False advertising and lemonade!)

11. Stock photos of lawyers in front of bookcases. (Get a good headshot instead.)

10. Pop-ups. (They will be blocked by most browsers anyway.)

9. Comic sans. ('Nuff said.)

8. Neon text or text that needs more contrast with the background color. (Id.)

7. Spammy ads. (Don't put others' ads on your webpage.)

6. Misspellllings and other tiepoes [sic].

5. Broken images that don't load. (It happens, especially if you embed images that are hosted elsewhere. Try to fix it as much as possible though.)

4. Broken links. (Id.)

3. Overly SEO'd text. ("A Minneapolis DUI attorney can handle your drunk driving case in Minneapolis, Minnesota, because he handles DWI/DUI cases really well because he is a lawyer in Minneapolis and all surrounding areas!")

2. Anything that is happening here. (Especially that photo that looks like it was taken with a 1996 camera phone.)

1. _____. (This one's for you. Tell us your pet peeve @FindLawLP.)

Of course, you'll have none of these faux pas present on your page if you hire FindLaw's lawyer marketing experts to handle your online marketing. Contact your local consultant for a free needs assessment today.

Related Resources:

• 5 Mistakes Not to Make With Your Law Firm Website (FindLaw's Strategist)
• 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Setting Up a 'Virtual' Law Office (FindLaw's Strategist)
• 7 Legal Marketing Trends Every Lawyer Should Know (FindLaw's Strategist)