Since nascent HTML began supporting images, colors and backgrounds, people have been experimenting with ways to dress up their pages. Website design has since flourished, with developments in code and technology giving designers the freedom to create layouts they could not have dreamed of ten years ago. But even with modern development capabilities, challenges still exist. Browser and operating statistics, coupled with on-site analytics, can help you predict what technology...
Jan 17
Design Terms: What is Grid Layout and is it Right for You?
Two websites that have a very different look and feel may, at their cores, be structured in much the same way. Before adding graphics, colors and text, you must decide what type of layout best fits your needs. Layouts can be fluid, fixed (more on that later), grid, one, two or three column. Grid layouts are popular because they can support a lot of information and content without looking unorganized....
Jan 11
Company pages on LinkedIn are still an underused resource
In December, LinkedIn released its list of the 12 best company pages of 2012. According to a post on the official LinkedIn blog, the pages were chosen because they used a range of features to both enhance the company's brand and communicate with its audience in a meaningful way. Some winners include Adobe, HubsSpot and CNBC. You can see the complete slideshow...
Jan 4
Communication counts – avoid clichés and buzzwords like the plague
Poor writing is an instant turnoff. Be it incorrect grammar, overused and tired phrases or a simple failure to proofread adequately, sloppy writing comes across as lazy and unprofessional. For attorneys who must be able to communicate with a range of audiences, from judges to peers to clients and prospective clients, bad writing habits can be costly.
You have read them – sentences that seem to drag on...
Read MoreDec 26
Top 2012 web design trends – part two
Last week we examined some of the strides website design has made while advances in technology continue to expand creative options. The year 2012 has seen the introduction of some interesting new styles and programming methods, as designers and developers eagerly experiment with some of the advanced capabilities in HTML 5. Here is the second part of our list of the top seven most popular web design trends of the...
Nov 28
Pinterest Makes Sharing Easier with New Business Accounts
Businesses have been setting up presences on Pinterest and integrating the network into their marketing for some time, but until now the site's terms have explicitly limited activity on their boards to “personal, non-commercial use.” Because the network was created for individuals, developing a consistent professional presence was not entirely easy. You can, of course, pin your own content and prompt others to pin it as well. While this...
Oct 26
Visual marketing is gaining steam with the success of Instagram
Visual social marketing is creating buzz due to the rapid growth of companies like Pinterest and Instagram. Instagram is unique in that it is both a photo sharing application and a social network. People who take pictures with Instagram can share them across the app’s native network as well as other social networks like Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter.
Instagram is young, even by web standards, especially considering the amount...
Read MoreOct 24
YouTube shifting focus to reward time watched in video rankings
YouTube is changing the way videos are ranked in an attempt to promote more quality content. This month, the YouTube Partners and Creators Blog announced an adjustment to the YouTube search algorithm that moves away from a system rewarding clicks toward one rewarding time spent watching videos. The new algorithm replaces view count with watch time.
This shift in focus began in earnest earlier this...
Read MoreOct 17
Email is still an important marketing tool for attorneys
It is easy to forget about email with all the buzz surrounding social media and with marketers clamoring to be on the cutting edge of new technologies. But while email is not new or showy, it is still effective. According to email marketing and list management company iContact, over 70% of people check their email more than 6 times a day. A study published by
Read More
Oct 10
Google’s Newest Target is Your Law Firm’s Domain Name
Recently, Google announced another algorithm change in their efforts to stop web spam. The newest change has nothing to do with your links and little to do with content. This time, Google is targeting your law firm's domain name.
The goal with the newest change is to target low-quality “exact match” domain names. For most law firms, this change may actually help their rankings.
Over the past decade, spammers in all industries (not just law) have been picking up domain...
Read More