The Path of Least Resistance

If you want to expose your law firm to millions of potential cients, then there’s no better destination than the Internet. However, drafting the text for your Web site is no easy proposition. Writing for...

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If you want to expose your law firm to millions of potential cients, then there’s no better destination than the Internet. However, drafting the text for your Web site is no easy proposition. Writing for the Web requires more than just transcribing your latest stream of consciousness. Here are a few tips to consider:

First, think about your objectives for building a Web site. Are you trying to provide information for visitors? Are you trying to encourage potential clients to e-mail or call you regarding a legal issue? Prioritize these objectives so you know what to focus on.

Next, make sure your text ties into your objectives. If you want people to contact you, do you invite them to call for a free consultation or do you hide your phone number on some difficult to locate page? Do you offer a convenient contact form so that potential clients can e-mail you without having to leave their computer? Simply put, how easy do you make it for a potential client to contact you?

Also, structure your text so that it is easy to read. Bolded headlines before paragraphs cue your visitors to the topic of the text. Shorter paragraphs aren’t as visually intimidating and are much easier to digest.

Finally, while a little bolding offers structure and identifies important words and concepts, a lot of bolding suffocates the text. Don’t overdo it with bolded italicized text, bolded italicized underlined text, ALL CAPS, BOLDED ALL CAPS and other difficult to read or understand combinations. And don’t bold entire swaths of text. If a few select words are bolded on a page, then these terms stand out. If an entire paragraph is bolded, then none of the words in that paragraph will stand out.

In the end, the key to success is to offer the path of least resistance. Focus on creating a Web site where it is too easy for a potential client to understand your practice and to contact you, and you might just discover that they will.