Earlier this month, Ross Fisher did a post on his Law Marketing blog about the 25 worst images on lawyer websites. I had to laugh when I saw his list, since I'm always trying to get lawyers to move away from these very same cliched images on their sites. And it reminded me of a blog post I did at the end of last year, "Is Your Law Firm Website Just a Cliche?"
My post discussed cliched content or catch-phrases used by lawyers, rather than the images that Fisher focuses on in his post, but the message is the same. Lawyers just don't seem to be getting it.
A discussion on a lawyer list-serve about Fishman's post revealed confusion on the part of many lawyers, who wanted to know why these images were so bad. "Aren't we supposed to convey that we're lawyers? Don't we want to look trustworthy?" Of course. But that's simply the price of admission. Every lawyer is expected to be trustworthy (even though we all know there are lawyers who are not). And if your website can't convey that you are an attorney without using a picture of a courthouse or a gavel, you've got bigger problems.
As I said in my earlier post, most of these cliches, whether they are in the form of images or text, don't say much about the individual firm (or lawyer) in question. They are so cookie-cutter that they make no impression at all.
You don't want to look like everyone else; you want the visuals on your website to convey the differences between you and other lawyers.
(photo:http://flic.kr/p/6tXPUw)
I agree with your points. Each lawyer sites should have each own look as is reflects the whole personality of the firm :)
Really interesting facts :)
Posted by: Aaron Kelly | November 02, 2011 at 07:28 AM