Too many law firm web pages are designed like business cards or thick brochures. They often either have too little information (just a single page with the firm name and contact information) or are loaded with it (paragraph after paragraph listing specialties, experience, and biographical details). The designers of these sites think to themselves: “I want my clients to know this about me.” But this type of web design fails the single most important concept in online marketing.

The key to successful online legal marketing is this: Design your site for the action you want your readers to take.

If the goal of your site is to find clients (and I assume it is), then you should make sure that every design/navigation/content decision is based on accomplishing the goals of (1) drawing traffic from potential clients, (2) filtering out the potential clients you do not want, and (3) convincing the potential clients you do want to contact you. And you want to accomplish all of these things in a way that is simple, smooth and obvious to the people using the site.

One great r