A web site for a firm can be an initial and ongoing important contact point for potential and existing clients. It is a marketing and customer relationship tool and you need to market it.

How are clients and potential clients going to find your site? You must prepare an implement a marketing plan for your site that should be in conjunction with your other marketing plans for the firm. Some suggestions:

• Plan your web site launch;
• Send notice of the launch or web site by e-mail, postcard, flyer, and brochure or invitation to existing and present clients, potential clients, or maybe purchase a targeted “opt-in” e-mail list.
• Send out a news release and send news clippings to your client about your web site. Respond immediately to press calls regarding your site;
• Make sure everyone in the firm is aware of your site and markets it and stays involved. It will grow in importance. Involve everyone in firm. Paralegals may have great insight into what clients may want;
• Register with search engines. Visit search engine sites and register under headings such as “getting listed” or “submitting a listing”. Focus on the top half dozen search sites, since they get 95% of all hits. Some companies will register your site with search engines for a fee.
• For information on how to promote your web site, visit www.wilsonweb.com, www.netlawtools.com and www.webpromote.com;
• For on-line marketing facts visit www.cyberatlas.com;
• Another way to promote your site is through other sites that will register your site under a special category such as tax attorneys, environmental law, and so on;
• Have your site address on business cards, stationary and brochures, fax cover sheets and other office marketing materials;
• Participate in newsgroups, listservs, and other conferencing and add your web site on your signature file;
• Ask others to include a link to your site;
• Key words, such as firm name and specialty area, should be near the beginning of site so search engines can find it;
• Check your metatags to ensure search engines find the areas you should be indexed under;
• At your site have visitors sign up for your newsletter;
• Create an Internet e-mail mailing list of clients and potential clients for newsletters that focus on useful information. In the newsletter, list your site and note that the newsletters are archived on the site;
• Visit www.marketing.findlaw.com for other marketing tips;
• Refer potential clients to the site to read stories of cases and type successfully handled by the firm;
• Run a one-question survey - Why did you visit the site today?
• Study search engine logs to se what customers want;
• Place the 2 or 3 top customer needs directly on your home page - the zero click level;
• Bring in users to see how they navigate the site.

For an additional reference, see The Lawyer’s Guide to Marketing on the Internet - Gregory Siskind and Timothy Moses. American Bar Association (www.abanet.org).