8 minute read
How Healthy is your Legal Website?
SQuiz - How healthy From September 2018 the University of Hertfordshire’s Law School will be is your legal website?Both
Is your website driving work to your law firm or driving it away? Take this quiz to find out.
Are you confident that you know if your website is working as hard for you as it could? Do you know what points make it effective, increase your online visibility and drive leads to your firm? This quick quiz, created by Orion Legal Marketing, will help you identify how healthy your website really is.
1. If you Google the key practice areas your law firm would like to grow, does your website appear: A. In position one on Google? B. On page one on Google (but not at the top)? C. It’s invisible e.g., page 2 or beyond?
2. When you appear in Google results, does the meta tag description (the 1–2-line summary of your website page): A. Succinctly and powerfully explain the benefits you provide? B. Give a general description of your firm? C. Pick a random line from your website?
3. Does your website load: A. Instantly? B. In a few seconds? C. Yawn, unsure, I nodded off
4. Does your home page: A. Clearly say what you do and what you want the visitor to do? B. Talk about you, but not so much about your clients? C. Ramble on about nothing in particular?
5. Does your website navigation enable a website visitor to access key information in: A. Under 3 clicks anywhere on the website? B. Between 3-5 clicks C. They are likely to get repetitive strain injury
6. Do the colours and images used on your website: A. Reflect and strengthen your branding? B. Look nice but they are a bit abstract? C. No idea, just there to look pretty
7. Does your website have: A. A call to action (e.g., ‘contact us form’ on every page?) B. On some pages? C. Just on the Contact us page?
8. The profile images on your website, are they: A. Professionally taken and up to date? B. Professional but over 5 years old C. Taken on someone’s phone, whilst on holiday, about 10 years ago
9. Does your website provide: A. Valuable content for the visitor in the form of blogs and downloads? B. A few articles but they have not been updated in a while? C. No articles section – ‘I have no time, or inspiration, to write anything’ 10. Do you review Google Analytics regularly so that you know: A. Who is visiting your website, what pages they are viewing and how they got there? B. A rough idea if the number of visitors is going up or down? C. What’s Google Analytics?
11. If you view your website on a mobile device, does it: A. Automatically resize and provide the best possible viewing experience? B. Looks okay but a bit hard to read/ navigate? C. Yikes, I didn’t realise it looked that bad!
12. Do the staff biographies on your website: A. Contain recent work examples, outline your work style and the benefits your experience brings B. List a selection of facts from your/their CV C. Were written when the website was launched/ you joined the firm and not been touched since
Your results
Mainly A’s – Your website is fighting fit, just remember that to stay in shape and optimised you need to keep to a regular marketing health routine.
Mainly B’s – Your website needs a marketing specialist check-up as it’s not performing as well as it should and has some fundamental issues, so a marketing health check would be advisable to prevent any long term damage occurring.
Mainly C’s – Oh dear. Your website barely has a heartbeat and it may be driving potential clients away (if they even find it). You need to see a marketing specialist ASAP or this may be terminal.
Contact Orion Legal Marketing for a free website check-up and quote “WEBSITEHEALTHCHECK” to get free advice on how best to get your website performing at its best on T: 0118 380 5980 or email enquiries@orionlegalmarketing.co.uk
Putting your best foot forward in a challenging insurance market
In the past twelve months, we have seen
the pressures on firms continue to grow amid furloughs, lockdowns, and the stamp duty holiday. Disruption, staff shortages and mounting workloads are factors that can lead to the breakdown of some of your usual risk management processes, and this raises concerns for underwriters. In addition, insurer premiums are rising due to various factors, making it difficult for firms to secure the right cover at an affordable cost.
To secure the best possible terms on your cover amid these challenging conditions, firms must demonstrate effective management of claims risks. We recommend reviewing some key areas to present your business in the best possible light to insurers.
Supervision and file reviews Firstly - it is crucial to determine whether your staff are following procedures correctly.
While the recent global disruption will undoubtedly have caused challenges to your existing processes, it is important to demonstrate that you have adapted to whatever the ‘new normal’ is for your firm.
Supervision will help you determine whether employees across the firm are conducting legal work correctly. Firms should consider whether increased home-based and hybrid working has affected the way staff follow procedures. While training largely remains remote, employers should take the time to schedule follow-up meetings to make sure this has been digested and understood.
From experience, these issues can be messy and time-consuming to untangle, so it is best to avoid them in the first place. Insurers expect training and professional development to form a fundamental part of your practice and will be interested to know what you are doing.
Learning by watching and listening to others helps us to assimilate ideas, knowledge and even technical skills. Hearing others in your team explain a problem or deal with an issue provides a valuable resource. Many law firms have coped despite a fragmented workforce, with some staff members completely isolated when dealing with numerous challenges, often completely alone. It remains vital to check in regularly with employees to ensure they are coping with their workloads.
Managing caseload capacity Solicitors often face enormous pressure in their roles due to incredibly tight, often unavoidable deadlines. In reality, it is very easy to miss a deadline when you are struggling, feeling overwhelmed or overloaded with work. In order to maintain good risk management practices, it is paramount to be aware of what your colleagues have on their desks. during the stamp duty relief period because the pressures became too much for their team. This won’t be appropriate for all and may not be right for your practice, but it shows one of the many ways that firms have chosen to mitigate risk.
Adapting existing procedures for a new environment In the vast majority of cases (excluding sole partners or very small practices) old policies will not be fit for purpose. A classic but simple example of this is confidential waste disposal. In an office environment, there may be a confidential waste bin or shredder but how does this work at home? There are ways to check compliance in the office – you can go through bins if you are so inclined – but it’s not so easy when working remotely.
Those operating on a network may have experienced difficulties when printing documents on a local printer. This often means sending documents to a personal email, on perhaps an unsecured laptop. In which case, it is unlikely this will meet client confidentiality requirements or comply with data protection laws.
It is crucial to ask yourself: “does this policy work for our new set up?” If the answer is yes, you are winning. However, it is more likely that certain aspects will need to be amended and enhanced for remote working.
Technology should also be reviewed to check that it is covering all the things you need it to do. In the coming months workplaces will see a variety of requests for agile working and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. All you can do is adapt your processes and procedures and make sure that it works for you.
Culture is important to compliance but cannot really be taught. It comes from working in an office environment surrounded by people doing the same or similar job. To counter this, you need to build a strong, clear compliance framework that everyone understands and buys into.
It is also vital to ensure that administrative errors are picked up, given that the vast majority of mistakes do not relate to the law at all. File reviews improve the likelihood that employees will record dates accurately, take notes, progress matters, and maintain strong client communication.
Undoubtedly, many firms will have had fewer opportunities to overhear whether someone is struggling, and in some cases, managers will choose to skip one-to-one meetings. To counter this, it may help to schedule more regular catch-ups or team meetings to discuss issues.
Given the above, it is also vital to get reviews back on track. It might be appropriate to conduct more reviews/meetings to ensure employees can manage their cases.
Staff training Training has always been an important element of the legal profession. While this will likely have taken a new shape during the last 18 months, now is the time to review it to ensure it meets the standards of your firm.
Recent recruits will likely have received a different kind of training from their colleagues due to the constraints of the global pandemic. If there are gaps in the knowledge of junior team members, these will soon start to present themselves and may lead to complaints or claims under the PII policy.
Caseloads are a big topic of conversation for law firms, and with good reason. But it is hard to achieve the perfect balance. To keep things manageable and organised, you should maintain a detailed, relevant checklist. This should include information on necessary steps, documents, strategies and deadlines for cases, while also identifying the parties involved in the process. The optimal caseload allows firms to be profitable and solicitors to achieve a good work-life balance. It is okay to ask for help, say no to client demands and choose not to take on any more instructions. Many firms closed their doors to new conveyancing instructions We regularly add guidance notes, templates and content to our client portal, but if you need help with something specific, please contact any of the Lockton team who will be delighted to help.
Samantha Pye
Lockton Solicitors
