Website maintenance frequently jeopardizes the quality of legal websites because the person who initially created the site is no longer available. Also, law firms are often so busy with lawsuits that Internet marketing gets sidelined.

However, it’s important to find someone to update your site, even if it’s not the same person who created it. Just like cars, websites need maintenance and tuning to ensure that everything works properly from the backend, which is read by internet browsers, to the frontend, which is read by users.

Many times, changes in legal practice occur so quickly that the website does not adequately reflect the true Internet identity of the firm. Things that often change on a law firm website are practice areas, types of clients, attorney biographical information, and promotions.

A website that is not up to date with current information risks losing visitors who notice that your website is out of date. That visitor may never return to your site, and instead retain legal advice from a competing law firm. There are many legal websites vying for potential clients in particular practice areas, each posting current information on the latest legal trends.

When you consistently maintain your website content, you increase the credibility and trustworthiness of the site. With increasingly sophisticated leads, users can quickly tell if information on a website is out of date.

The American Bar Association maintains guidelines on what information should be included on a law firm’s website. Each state bar association may pass its own more stringent guidelines as it sees fit. Depending on the state, the law firm’s address and attorney information is required, as well as a notice that the website is for advertising purposes. Check with your state bar association for specific details.

Other rules may apply, including a disclaimer about privacy and customer communications. Most legal websites post information indicating that the website does not form or maintain a client/attorney relationship.

Also, if you have press releases posted on your site, they should contain recent dates first and be read in descending order. This shows users that someone is maintaining the site’s content. Any broken graphics or links should be fixed as soon as possible. Designers usually fix these kinds of problems.

An SEO team or specialist should maintain your site’s back-end and front-end links to ensure that the site ranks correctly for keywords in search engines. What good is a website that no one can find? With the proper HTML and meta tags on the back end of your site, an SEO specialist can ensure that your site ranks for the keywords you choose. These can change as often as you like, however it takes at least three months for the changes to be reflected in the search engines.

And last but certainly not least is your server. The machines that run your websites, known as servers, need to be running at optimal performance to ensure your website loads quickly. Up-to-date software is also necessary to prevent viruses and security breaches.

Slow page loading is one of the main causes of lost potential customers who will go to another site that is running faster. In addition to loading your pages, you want to make sure that all the processes on your website are running properly as well.

Regular maintenance, from the back end to the front end, will keep your website purring and connecting with potential customers and the specific demographic you are targeting.