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Website 101: Build and Rebuild
- 1. Session Title Presenters {Name} {Name} April 11-13, 2011 www.techshow.com PRESENTED BY THE Website 101: Build and Rebuild Presenters Courtney Ward-Reichard Steve Matthews
- 2. Overview: Website Build & Rebuild Domain Name Decisions Website Hosting Content Management Decisions Planning and Outsourcing Design Best Practices Content Best Practices
- 3. Domain Names How to choose your URL? Shorter names are easier to remember Less Named Partners – 1 or 2 Shorter Acronyms Keyword-driven domains .COM domains continue to dominate When clients guess: they guess .com Lock down .NET & .ORG
- 4. Keyword Domains Example: texastaxattorneys.com Pros: Strong factor in Google Searches Good match for firms that limit their practice areas ex. boutiques, solo and small firms Well suited to blogs and microsites Cons: Not a great fit for mid-sized and larger firms – at least not as its principal website Need to acquire from third party? $$$
- 5. The Firm Name Changes: Must your domain? Be proactive: plan for this day! Less Partners represented in the firm domain reduces the risk. Avoid changing domains if at all possible Domain Age is a weighted factor in Google Searches 301 Redirects (mapping from old domain to new domain) will help, but is an inexact science.
- 6. How to change domains properly Use Google Webmaster Tools Register both the old and new domains Use the Domain redirect feature Old domain: Use an .htaccess file to map ALL pages to their location on the new domain (301 Permanent Redirects). Redirect this domain for at least one year. New domain: Register a site map file with GW Tools Boost the temporary crawl rate in GW Tools Goal: get these pages indexed fast!
- 7. Website Hosting Hosting companies rent you an online home. Hosting industry is very competitive Most people who writes about website hosting have a financial stake. Ask friends or colleagues for referrals Check out support forums for ‘clues’ Most law firms host on shared hosting plans Means sharing that computer with up to 200 different websites Moving web hosts is not a big hurdle.
- 8. Factors for Choosing a Host Emergency Support Who picks up the phone when your website is down? Multiple domain support Can you host more than one website for the same price? Bandwidth or Storage Restrictions Any restrictions in traffic and data storage? C-panel Access Makes support far less technical. Great for DIY websites! Data backups How often? How many locations?
- 9. Content Management Systems (CMS) Required Building Block CMS Separates Content from Design – website development becomes modular: Content is isolated in its own database; Design is isolated into a small set of standardized templates; New functionality is isolated in module plugins. Editing or creating new content is instant Easier to move, back-up, and re-design your website in the future!
- 10. Comparing CMS Products Big 3: Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla Percentage of installed CMS products: Wordpress (55%) Joomla (11%) Drupal (6.1%) All three are primarily built for Linux (a.k.a. Lamp Stack) All have a large developer support community
- 11. CMS Template Development Theme Templates - Build or Buy Cost effective tactic for DIY web design Each CMS has a community of designers producing free and low cost templates. Experiment with free, but pay for premium! Premium themes average $75-150. Great value. Find the CMS “Theme Gardens” Wordpress: http://www.themegarden.com Drupal: http://themegarden.org/drupal6 Joomla: http://www.templateplaza.com/
- 12. CMS & Website Security Open Source CMS software are a starting framework: Drupal: Limit the ability to create new accounts Joomla: Reduce access privileges for users WordPress: Limit login attempts; relocate the login page Use complex passwords Deny Search Engines from indexing the Administration pages (robots.txt) Register your website with Google Webmaster Tools Warns of any kind of malware problems
- 13. Website Content Three Goals: Easy to Navigate Expresses Who You Are Attracts Clients You Seek
- 14. The Creative Brief Strategic plan All levels of personnel All stages of the project
- 15. Who is Your Audience? Solo practitioner? Plaintiff or defense? Criminal or civil? Specialized or general? Individual or corporate?
- 16. The Brand Distinguish yourself…. …but remain true to who you are. BRANDS ARE NOT ASPIRATIONAL!
- 17. Working with Vendors Determine appropriate level Clarify: scope of work costs responsibility to provide information for design and content
- 18. Best Practices: Size Need to design for small and large monitors: Design core fits small screen PLUS Background space strategy
- 19. Best Practices: URLs Why? search engines keep navigation simple Use a re-write module: http://www.firmwebsite.com/office_detail.aspx?Id=10001 http://www.firmwebsite.com/offices/chicago/
- 20. Best Practices: Photos Uniform Professional Approachable Recent!
- 21. More Best Practices Color contrast Law firm logo White space: more is better Text navigation
- 22. Best Practices: Browsers Expansion of Browsers Mobile and Tablet Use Cross-browser Testing
- 23. What to Avoid Flash Animations Incompatible with iPhone and iPad Invisible to search engines
- 24. What to Avoid Background Audio It’s annoying! Increases “bounce” Does the user want this?
- 25. What to Avoid Video Overlays uninteresting when repeated annoying
- 26. What to Avoid Pop-Up Windows
- 27. What to Avoid Scaled Images Re-size in vector graphics applications, not the browser Preserves crisp images
- 28. Content! Last stage of the design process – and the one that takes the longest Careful planning and adequate resources are critical!
- 29. Contact Information Call to action – who is the best person to answer my questions? Include email addresses Include v-card link Include social media and blog links
- 30. Indexes: Homepage or Secondary? Challenge for larger websites What can be moved? Practice-based publications Practice sub-groups List of offices Goal: flat architecture and avoiding over-classification
- 31. Keep it Fresh! Dynamic content is critical… search engines return visitors …and you need a plan: latest publications and firm news blog posts Twitter stream
- 32. Questions? Steve Matthews [email_address] Courtney Ward-Reichard cward @ nilanjohnson .com
- 33. Save the Date ABA TECHSHOW 2012 March 29-31, 2012 Hilton Chicago