I love websites. I absolutely think they’re necessary. I do not think that anyone in this current year should go without a Web site. Think about your own business. How long has it been since you’ve actually flipped through a phone book? It’s much easier to Google somebody’s information online than it is to actually go to physical yellow pages or white pages in the phone book. I do not necessarily think that you have to spend a lot of money on your Web site.

No consulting business can be without a website

A click and build website is where you create a simple one-to-five-page Web site. This is enough for what most people starting out in this business need. The site needs to tell them how to get in touch with you, what it is that you do, and why it’s important to get involved with you. That’s the bare minimum. Now that is basically your calling card.

One of the things that I do is I change my content often. And I actually have a blog that has information so fresh content is being put on my Web site all of the time. I recommend that you do something along those lines to keep your content fresh and keep Google looking for your information. Don’t worry about those fancy things like flash. It takes someone to actually code and make that for you.

These click and build Web sites you can do yourself. You choose your own colors. You choose your own font. You choose your own layout. They have templates; you just plug in the information, and it works.

One of the things to remember is the placement of the navigation. Put the navigation in the same place on every page. You need to make sure that you are writing the content on your Web site to the lowest common denominator. What that means is you’re looking at the information; you know how it works, but can a stranger who knows nothing about you or your business, can he or she navigate your site? You also need to have white space on all the pages so that it’s very eye pleasing. The site should give your eyes a place to rest from all of the flashing and stuff that’s going on, all of the text and color.

You need to keep a logical layout and jazz it up with photographs and color. Make it something that’s specific to you. Don’t use an image unless it really serves a purpose. I have a lot of images of injured people, of medical equipment and so on and so forth. You should have a way to collect information from visitors.

Expert witnesses may want to sign up and be part of your expert witness network, for example, or you may have people sign up for a newsletter which hopefully would target attorneys. Maybe you should have a sign-up for free products. Use that information to start building your marketing plan and a Web site is an easy place to do that.

These little add-in information collectors are usually part of the Web sites, or you may contract with a click and build type company so that you can easily add this stuff to a Web site. But I definitely think it is absolutely a requirement in this day and age.

Source: Guest blogger Victoria Powell is a legal nurse consultant in Arkansas.

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