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I'm a lawyer in Southern Georgia (USA! USA!) that has recently decided to strike out on my own and set up my own shop (as I am tired of making other people rich and dealing with senior partner's inflated egos). I'll be a solo practitioner handling primarily family law actions in the local area, and would like to have a website to which I can direct potential clients and hopefully snag a few potential clients typing "[city name] divorce attorney" into Google. I do not need anything fancy-pants, just a landing page with a picture or two and a few nice words (with contact info, etc. staying static when/if the client scrolls down the page) and maybe a few extra pages for personal background, testimonials, driving directions, contact forms, etc. (by way of example, I'd like something similar, but a little more crisp than something like this: http://www.ksfamilylaw.com or http://www.davisonlawfirm.com). I've done very little research on the topic, and likely will use the wrong terminology and sound like a general idiot unworthy of charging hundreds of dollars an hour, but I'd love your insight so I can avoid getting ripped off and have a decent web presence. So I'd like to know the following: 1) Where should I buy the website domain, and how much should I expect to pay on a monthly/yearly basis? I've seen GoDaddy.com SuperBowl commercials, so I will assume they are ripping me off and that there is a better option out there. 2) Who should I use for hosting the website, and how much should I expect to pay on a monthly/yearly basis? I'm not going to be getting a crazy amount of traffic and likely will never put streaming videos on the site or use the site for conducting financial transactions, so I'd assume I won't need a ton of bandwidth, but tell me what you think would be appropriate. 3) If I hire a web designer/developer, how much should I expect to pay for a finished product? As well, do web designers typically handle upkeep as well, or would I need to hire a separate IT guy? Either way, how much should I expect to pay for said upkeep services. Is there a preferred way to go about finding trustworthy designer/developers/IT professionals, and how can I tell if someone is legit? 4) I've heard in passing about "Search Engine Optimization", but have no idea how it works, etc. Basically, I'd like to show up somewhere relatively early in the search for "[city name] divorce attorney". I'm not in a major city like Atlanta, so my competition for such search terms should not be incredibly fierce. Basically, what do I need to do to make Google like (without having to pay Google). Also, if I hire a SEO company, how much should I expect to pay and will it be worth the money? Please feel free to share any other insight you may have; I'm always open to suggestions. As well, if you know of some go-to primer articles on these issues, I'd happily spend a few hours reading anything you think might be worthwhile.
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Jul 16, 2015 21:55
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check out Better Call Saul
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Jul 16, 2015 22:04
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oliwan posted:check out Better Call Saul Perhaps posting these questions on a comedy forum was ill-advised.
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Jul 16, 2015 22:05
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1redflag posted:1) Where should I buy the website domain, and how much should I expect to pay on a monthly/yearly basis? I've seen GoDaddy.com SuperBowl commercials, so I will assume they are ripping me off and that there is a better option out there. 1redflag posted:2) Who should I use for hosting the website, and how much should I expect to pay on a monthly/yearly basis? I'm not going to be getting a crazy amount of traffic and likely will never put streaming videos on the site or use the site for conducting financial transactions, so I'd assume I won't need a ton of bandwidth, but tell me what you think would be appropriate. 1redflag posted:3) If I hire a web designer/developer, how much should I expect to pay for a finished product? As well, do web designers typically handle upkeep as well, or would I need to hire a separate IT guy? Either way, how much should I expect to pay for said upkeep services. Is there a preferred way to go about finding trustworthy designer/developers/IT professionals, and how can I tell if someone is legit? 1redflag posted:4) I've heard in passing about "Search Engine Optimization", but have no idea how it works, etc. Basically, I'd like to show up somewhere relatively early in the search for "[city name] divorce attorney". I'm not in a major city like Atlanta, so my competition for such search terms should not be incredibly fierce. Basically, what do I need to do to make Google like (without having to pay Google). Also, if I hire a SEO company, how much should I expect to pay and will it be worth the money? Just to give you a better example of a good legal site: http://www.medveskylaw.com/ Big, bold, header that shows contact info right away. Easy to see what legal services are offered. Nice, clean design. Also super important - it's responsive (meaning you can see it on the phone easily without losing content). The sites you linked either forbid mobile access (unacceptable these days) or cut out way too much stuff. They also have an active social media presence, which helps lets users know that you are active and availible to contact. There's plenty of web dev goons around if you post in SA-Mart. Although I probably don't have to tell a lawyer this, get everything in writing when settling on a price on a contract and set clear goals. IronDoge fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Jul 17, 2015 |
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Jul 16, 2015 23:57
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Awesome! Thanks!
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Jul 17, 2015 00:16
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IronDoge posted:I recommend (and the web designer will too) putting everything into a Content Management System (CMS). This will pretty much let you change the text on your site with a WYSIWIG editor that makes it no harder than making a post on here. It'll save you a bit of cash having to ask your web dev to do it too. Some common ones to mention are Joomla and Wordpress. Speaking as a web developer: this really, really depends on the project. It takes longer to make a design that will play nicely with a CMS, there are security risks if it's not being constantly updated (and you would presumably have to do this yourself, or pay someone to do it), and a lot of the systems (particularly Joomla!) are not particularly user-friendly. It's really necessary to consider how large the site is going to be, and how often changes are going to be made, before coming to the conclusion that a CMS is a cost-effective idea. If you want a news page that will have updates every week or something, or a blog, or something like that, it's worth it to go the CMS route, but if you're going to be doing minor updates every few months or something, it's essentially a waste of money and introduces its own set of problems. Personally, I've been using Django for most of my clients' sites if they want a CMS. It offers me a lot more flexibility to allow them to edit things without breaking the design, or the consistency between elements, and it's certainly less overwhelming for my clients than something like Joomla. It really comes down to the specific things you want to be able to change/do. Everything else is spot-on from that post, though.
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Jul 17, 2015 00:33
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Good to know. I'd really just be using it to satisfy the bare essentials of having a website (i.e., my picture, contact info, practice areas, driving directions, etc.), as most of my business is done through word of mouth and face-to-face. I simply want for potential clients to be able to find my contact information easily if they see my name, so something like IronDoge's example would be perfect for me. Ergo, CMS might not be a necessity for me (particularly if it would be less secure). Thank you both.
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Jul 17, 2015 04:02
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Just get a Squarespace site. I'm a full time web designer/developer and can tell you that unless you're willing to drop a good chunk of money on hiring someone with talent, whatever you get from a host/registrar (like GoDaddy) or a cheap designer will reflect poorly on you. Squarespace is made for exactly the type of site you want to make and is reasonably priced. Don't pay for SEO unless you want to pay a lot for SEO. Set up a Google business listing and some social media accounts and be active. That'll provide you far more bang for your buck than 99% of SEO firms will.
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Jul 17, 2015 18:51
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While not exactly your area of operation, contact https://investigatormarketing.com/ tell him Chris sent you and he'll probably cut you a deal, I am good friends with the guy who runs the site and help him out from time to time. He also does sites for more businesses than just PI companies (lots of attorneys as it's a closely related field) and seemingly has a lot of happy clients.
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Jul 17, 2015 20:22
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kedo posted:Just get a Squarespace site. I'm a full time web designer/developer and can tell you that unless you're willing to drop a good chunk of money on hiring someone with talent, whatever you get from a host/registrar (like GoDaddy) or a cheap designer will reflect poorly on you. Squarespace is made for exactly the type of site you want to make and is reasonably priced. Seconding this based on how simple your needs are.
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Jul 17, 2015 20:45
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kedo posted:Just get a Squarespace site. I'm a full time web designer/developer and can tell you that unless you're willing to drop a good chunk of money on hiring someone with talent, whatever you get from a host/registrar (like GoDaddy) or a cheap designer will reflect poorly on you. Squarespace is made for exactly the type of site you want to make and is reasonably priced. Hmmm, this does seem much more economical. Thanks for the recommendation.
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Jul 19, 2015 00:09
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I've been doing SEO and online marketing for 8 years and started my own agency last November. Don't buy a Squarespace site. Buy a domain from GoDaddy for 8 bucks a year with a simple hosting package. Install Wordpress. Buy the Astra theme for $45. Use the built in WYSIWYG editor to create a simple responsive site that looks good across all devices. Install the Yoast SEO plugin and follow its recommendations. Claim, brand and participate on social media accounts that are linked to your site- Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and- I know no one wants to hear it- Google+. Claim your Google+ for Business page and fill out every field. Pay Yelp their blood money if you have negative reviews on their site. That's enough for most people and a firm like the ones I've worked at will charge you $1500 a month for a minimum 3 month contract. It's 8 hours worth of work. I do a few sites like this a week and generally charge like $400, to give you an idea of what it should cost. You can do it for around $100 and a weekend teaching it to yourself. I'm happy to answer questions or start an AMA style thread if people are interested in hearing more about the business of internet marketing. It's not all a scam, I swear!
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Jul 22, 2015 18:22
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