Website Design for Law Firm

JJ Riba & Co are a Sunshine Coast based law firm established since the late 1990’s. We work in the legal areas of franchising law, leasing, and transactions related to the purchase and sale of businesses. We wish to improve our online image. Our existing website is looks out of date and needs a modern look and modern features. [login to view URL] The priority objectives are: • Attract more clients to the firm • Update the web presence with a better structured and more easily updatable website • Improve Google rankings to drive online enquiry • Communicate with the client base on a more regular basis to enhance client retention and procure new clients • Use Blogs to manage information and encourage interaction with clients and potential clients • Use the Website and Blogs to manage newsletters • We wish to be able to add new buttons, links, images and pages to the website when required Develop a content managed website to better promote the firms capabilities and areas of specialty in law Develop a CMS website to project a progressive and professional image as well as looking to the future to drive online enquiry. The website must be built fully optimised. . The critical purposes of developing a new website are: �� Aesthetic appeal –communicate the credibility of the business to your target audience. �� Up to date - easily updated from day to day to reflect changes within the business specifically and the legal industry generally. �� Self-managed - A key component will be ease-of-use, and the ability for our staff to easily manage content within the site. �� Maximise marketing - to grow our business via the webs main search engines. We would like to provide approval of Concept, design, artwork and layout at an early stage. As part of the website development, please supply the interface design of the site for approval prior to any development work being undertaken. Once the design has been approved, development can commence. A test site must be developed, so that, images and copy can be uploaded via the CMS package. The site must be standards compliant and accessible to a wide audience of users. The website is legal, must be viewable to a broad audience on a wide range of platforms, and is scalable for future developments and applications. You must test in current versions of all major desktop browsers to ensure compatibility and usability. The site must be built to be compatible across multiple platforms including Microsoft Internet Explorer 7+, Mozilla Firefox, Safari 4 and Chrome. Accessibility - The website page templates must be created with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) compliant with global web standards for developing cross-platform, browser compatible, websites with a priority ‘1’ accessibility rating for search engine optimisation. The website must be built largely as a dynamic HTML and database coded site and driven by a CMS (content management system) that will allow us to regularly update the site internally without the need to outsource site updates. . The site must be built on the Expression Engine development platform. Unless another platform is approved in writing . An on-screen prototype which will demonstrate navigation, theme and design, but not include actual interactivity must be provided in the early stages. The developer must provide for the cost of providing online support for the first 30 days of operation. Specific information related to the design is set out below: Domain names - We own the domain name franchiselawyers.net.au. This domain must be incorporated in the website as well as the firms domain name. The domain name [login to view URL] should appear if possible in the address bar if a user clicks through from the front page through to the franchising page. The first page of the website should show our firm domain however we want users to also be able to click directly through to the franchiselawyers page. This page should appear as a separate website in a google search. Front Page – We would like the front page to be very clear, like a portal. It will allow visitors to immediately chose the area of law that they are interested in by clicking on the appropriate link and moving on to the correct page. The Franchising Page may be like a website of its own and will not necessarily repeat the structure of the previous pages. Another feature of the front page should be to encourage people to communicate with others who have the same problems. – using the blog. It should be possible to post a blog from the front page or from any of the subsequent pages. The front page should be relatively bare. A bit like the Google front page but with the 4 major law areas below. 1. Franchising 2. Buying or selling a business 3. Property Conveyancing 4. Leasing Each hyperlink should be associated with a large icon associated with that theme. I would like to make the icons fairly arty as on a bare page they need to make a statement. The front page must also have a prominent invitation to use the blog. The more usual parts of the front page – contact us, search etc should be much smaller. Facebook and Twitter – the front page would have a link to face book and Twitter in a similar way to the readprint site. Utube – I would like the ability to record a seminar and then post it on the blog page. It could then draw comments and there should be provision for users to comment on the video. I would also like to be able to copy utube videos and put them on the site in that section. I like the idea of this appearing on the first page of each law area. Please look at the following site [login to view URL] We would like to be able to post high quality videos on the site. Some of these would be home made. The idea will be to link these videos with Utube and facebook in order to draw more traffic and create interest. I like the way the videos are set out on the creative site. Videos relative to each area of law should be placed on the first page of each area of law. They should be of the same size and set out as this site so that we can add to the list as time goes on. Franchise Council of Australia – we are a member and so we will want emphasis on their logo on the website and we would like to have a link to their website. In relation to conveyancing we would encourage the agents that we are dealing with to post blogs on the conveyancing part of the website saying what they think about the housing market. or tips on selling etc. In relation to business we would encourage the accountants that we deal with to post blogs on buying and selling a business In relation to franchising we would encourage franchisees and franchisors to discuss issues in franchising code changes and common problems. Google - We want to show up in google in a relatively high position even though we are not paying for ad words. Please help us know how you will go about trying to ensure that the website is optimized for google. Please confirm that you are able to do this. We note that some of the artwork that you use in websites is repeated. We would like to ensure that the pictures that we use are not used in other websites. Is that possible? It will be particularly important on the first page of the website and the first page of each law area. News - If there were an inexpensive way of putting some news content on our page then that would be useful. News that is fed through from some other website. Blog – a lot of things we previously thought we might set out in a structured way on the website should instead be set out in an organized blog. Eg newsletters, case notes, recent developments in franchising? What are your thoughts? Website Designs we like [login to view URL] – I like the navigation system. The simple home page. The blog is the perfect set up for us on. In the Answers Tab I like the box that says ask a question? And then the most popular categories underneath that are grouped. I would like to repeat this. It would suit us to have people ask questions so that we can answer these in the blog. We would not restrict others providing answers although we need to retain control and there must be security. We would need to have some disclosure that says we are not responsible for answers provided by third parties. [login to view URL] – Blog is not as good as mint. I like how simple the blog is. And how simple the first page is. I see the blog is not receiving comments but the layout is I think inviting. [login to view URL] – Simple front page. [login to view URL] – The list of clients logos at the bottom of the page is the sort of thing that we would like to do on our first page. [login to view URL] – is the best of the local lawyer sites in terms of layout. None of these websites set out the first page in the way we propose. It should be possible to vary the pictures on the website from time to time staying with the same theme but making small changes to keep it looking interesting. Google of course do this very well. In addition to the blog and the matters set out above we expect the following information to go in the website. 1. Front Page - 1.1 Franchising 1.2 Leasing 1.3 business purchases and business sales 1.4. Conveyancing 1.1 Franchising – 1.1.1 For Franchisees 1.1.2 For Franchisors 1.1.1 For Franchisees – 1.1.1.1 How to read a disclosure document, 1.1.1.2 The Process of Buying a Franchise 1.1.1.3 10 Important things you should do before buying a franchise 1.1.1.4 The Process of Selling your Franchise 1.1.1.5 Useful links – ACCC , FCA. Code of Conduct.............to be completed 1.1.1.6 Blog 1.1.1.7 Useful Documents and Forms - proforma disclosure, 1.1.2 For Franchisors - 1.1.2.1 How to prepare a Disclosure Document 1.1.2.2 The Process of setting up a Franchise system 1.1.2.3 How to prepare or update a disclosure document 1.1.2.4 10 Important things you should know 1.1.2.5 How Recent Cases affect you 1.1.2.6 Useful Links – ACCC, FCA Code of Conduct, TPA........... to be completed 1.1.2.7 Blog 1.1.2.8 Useful Documents and Forms - proforma disclosure, instructions to lawyer, 1.2 Leasing - 1.2.1 For Tenants 1.2.3 For Landlords 1.2.1 For Tenants - 1.2.1.1 how to determine if your lease is a retail shop lease 1.2.1.2 10 important things you need to know about leases 1.2.1.3 The process of Reviewing a Lease 1.2.1.4 The solicitors advice certificate 1.2.1.5 Ueful links - Link to RSLA .................. to be completed 1.2.1.6 Blog 1.2.1.7 Useful Documents and forms – instructions to lawyer, Epitome of Lease, 1.2.2 For Landlords - 1.2.2.1 how to determine if your lease is a retail shop lease 1.2.2.2 the process of offering a lease 1.2.2.3 Useful links........... 1.2.2.4 Blog 1.2.2.5 Useful Documents and forms – heads of agreement, Epitome of Lease, instructions to Lawyer 1.3 Business Purchases and Business Sales - 1.3.1 For Sellers of Businesses 1.3.2 For Buyers of Businesses 1.3.3 For Business Brokers 1.3.1 For Sellers of Businesses 1.3.1.1 the process of selling a business 1.3.1.2 10 important things you need to know before selling 1.3.1.3 Useful Links........... 1.3.1.4 Blog 1.3.1.5 Useful Documents and forms – heads of agreement, instructions to lawyer, our brochure 1.3.2 For Buyers of Businesses 1.3.2.1 the process of buying a business 1.3.2.2 10 Important things you need to know before buying a business 1.3.2.3 Useful Links........... .... to be completed 1.3.2.4 Blog 1.3.2.5 Useful Documents and forms – heads of agreement, instructions to lawyer, our brochure............ 1.3.3 For Business Brokers 1.3.3.1 Our commitment to you 1.3.3.2 Useful Links........... .... to be completed 1.3.2.4 Blog 1.3.2.5 Useful Documents and forms – confidentiality agreement, heads of agreement, instructions to lawyer... 1.4 Conveyancing - 1.4.1 For Real-estate Agents 1.4.2 For Buyers 1.4.3 For Sellers 1.4.1 For Real-estate Agents 1.4.1.1 Special Conditions 1.4.1.2 Stamp Duty Calculator 1.4.1.3 PAMDA Compliance 1.4.1.4 Useful Links – office of fair trading, PAMDA (relevant sections only), ....... 1.4.1.5 Blog 1.4.1.6 Useful Documents and forms – heads of agreement, special conditions booklet.... 1.4.2 For Buyers - 1.4.2.1 10 Important things you need to know before buying a property 1.4.2.2 Useful Links........... .... to be completed 1.4.2.3 Blog (we should ask our clients to praise us on the blog when they are happy with our services) 1.4.2.4 Useful Documents and forms.... to be completed 1.4.3 For Sellers - 1.4.3.1 10 Important things you need to know before selling a property 1.4.3.2 Useful Links........... .... to be completed 1.4.3.3 Blog 1.4.3.4 Useful Documents and forms.... to be completed