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WordPress for Lawyers
Building a Website for your Law Firm
North Carolina Bar Association
Presenter
Jennifer EllisLowenthal & Abrams, PC
&
Jennifer Ellis, JD
@jle_jd
www.LowenthalAbrams.com
www.jlellis.net
Copyright Jennifer Ellis, 2014. All rights reserved.
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About Jennifer Ellis
• Legal Malpractice & Ethics Attorney• Also Manage Online Presence for Lowenthal &
Abrams, PC in Philadelphia
• Consultant – Online Marketing for Lawyers• Jennifer Ellis, JD
• Author• WordPress in One Hour for Lawyers
• Available on ABA’s Website
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Today’s Seminar
• Choosing a domain name
• Picking a host
• Installing software
• Setting up the basics
• Design
• Choosing plugins
• Adding widgets
• Creating and editing a page
• Creating and editing a post
• Adding media
• Updating software
• Security
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Ethics
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You Can’t Build a Website in an Hour
• But you can create one in• A weekend
• A week
• A month
• Websites are a continuing project• Keep adding content
• Examine results
• Improve
• Repeat
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Why WordPress?
• Easy to install
• Easy to use
• Easy to update
• Great functionality through plug-ins
• Free software
• Supportive community
• Excellent for SEO
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Choose a Domain Name
• Your address on the web• Choose carefully
• Branding• First thing people see
• Creates a sense of who you are
• Email address
• Relate to your firm
• Easy to type
• Not too long
• No dashes
• No numbers
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Think Through Your Branding
• Firm’s Name?• Initials?
• Law or Lawfirm at the end?
• Area of practice?
• Geographic area?
• Hard to find good names• Be creative
• Use .com
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Ask Others to Look
• Bad Examples• whorepresents.com
• WhoRepresents or WhorePresents
• speedofart.com
• SpeedOfArt or SpeedoFart
• therapistinabox.com
• Therapist in a Box or TheRapistInABox
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See if the Name is Available
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Not Available?
• Add law, lawfirm or lawyers?
• Consider other options
• Be careful about adding S or ing• Especially bad if the other site is a law firm
• Domain available for sale from the owner?• Check for cost
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Choose Webhost
• Reliable
• Able to handle WordPress
• One click installation
• Recommend• Web Synthesis
• Bluehost
• HostGator
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Purchase Hosting Plan
• Don’t choose the lowest plan.
• Choose an appropriate plan• Business Level
• WordPress specific (if available)
• But….see discussion on Sucuri & CloudProxy
• The lowest level is fine for Web Synthesis
• Note, can register your domain on Bluehost or HostGator.• Not on Web Synthesis
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Point DNS
• What is a DNS?• Domain Name Server
• Domain Name System
• Connects IP address and domain name
• Type in domain name, sends it to the right location
• Like a phone book or a map for the Web
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Using Same Registrar & Host?
• Will not need to point the DNS
• It should automatically work
• Less secure to use both in the same place
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Different Registrar & Host
• Required to point DNS to the correct location
• The steps vary based on your registrar and host
• Sometimes change Name Servers
• Sometimes change IP Address
• Get information from Host
• More secure
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Warning – Email!
• Make sure you do not mess up your email when you change your DNS!
• If in doubt, ASK!
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Installing WordPress
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Setting Up the Basics
• Click on Settings and Access• General
• Writing
• Reading
• Discussion
• Permalinks
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Website Appearance
• Theme• Complete website design
• Modifiable • Coding
• Internal options
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Finding Themes
• Within WordPress• Free
• External sites• Various prices
• Framework themes• Basic underlying framework
• Theme over the framework
• Hire website designer
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Install External Theme
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Plugins & Widgets
• Add functionality
• Plugins• Back end
• Widgets• Front end
• Often work together
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Recommended Plugins
• Yoast WordPress SEO – SEO
• Askimet – Comment Spam
• Acurax Social Icons – Social Media Icons
• Disable Comments – Hides Comment Box on Pages
• Display Widgets – Controls Where Widgets Appear
• Gravity Forms – Contact Box
• Jetpack – Numerous Tools (including statistics)
• W3 Total Cache – Speeds Up Site
• Advanced Image Styles (control aspects of image appearance)
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Enter Data (If Needed)
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Plugins with Widgets
PLUGINWIDGET
RESULT
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Important – Updates!
• WordPress = Microsoft of Web• Common malware attack target
• Update plugins and software as required
• Use security• Sucuri Malware Scanner ($89/year)
• Plugin and external scanning service
• Sucuri Cloud Proxy ($9.99/month)
• Sucuri included with Web Synthesis
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Content
• Pages
• Posts
• Media
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Edit Media - Add Advanced Image Plugin
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SEO
• Content matters• What will bring clients?
• What questions are they asking?• Answer the questions
• Good links from other sites• Encourage linking with good content
• Write for sites with follow me links• Follow me = recognized by Google as
providing link “juice”
• No follow = no link “juice”
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SEO Tools• Yoast – WordPress Plugin
• On site SEO analysis
• Moz – External Help • http://moz.com
• Education
• Analysis
• Comparison
• ahrefs – Linking Analysis• https://ahrefs.com/
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Yoast
• Provides tools to analyze each page and post
• Helps with Sitemaps
• Other tools as well
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ahrefs
Provides detailed information about links
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Moz
Analyze your site against others for key words and other information
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Choose your key words
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Compare Competitors
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Google Analytics
• http://analytics.google.com
• Numbers
• Location
• Pages
• Bounce rate
• Mobile versus desktop
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Google Webmaster Tools
• http://webmaster.google.com
• Informs if problems with site
• Provide Google with sitemap
• Information about Google searches
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Ethics Rules 7.1 et seq.
• Marketing rules apply• Use appropriate disclaimers for your jurisdiction
• Do not share detailed information about clients without permission• Appropriate disclaimer – past results do not guarantee future outcome
• Beware providing specific legal advice• General, educational information
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Questions?
• Feel free to contact me
• [email protected]
• Twitter: @jle_jd
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/jle.jd