The award-winning team of media and advertising professionals at Androvett Legal Media & Marketing has developed a list of seven simple and effective ways to take your website from bland to grand.

Whether you're creating a new website from scratch or simply updating your existing site, these seven essential steps can make your website more interesting, effective and relevant. For a more detailed discussion, visit the related white paper.

1. Make it Easy to Find

When it comes to online search, your goal should be simple: Have a website that’s easy for your potential and existing clients to find and read. It’s not about having a site solely focused around SEO (Search Engine Optimization); it’s about building a search-friendly architecture and providing targeted and relevant content.

2. Make it Easy to Navigate

Developing an intuitive and well-thought-out site map from the beginning allows you to direct how users travel your site and ensures they are able to quickly get where they want to be.

3. Write for Your Audience, Not Yourself

What information is going to be most important to someone who needs to hire a lawyer? They’ll likely want to know about your relevant experience, your fees and perhaps most important: What separates you from the many other lawyers and law firms who practice in the same area of law?

4. Update Your Content - Regularly

Your website doesn’t need an entire facelift every two months, but regularly adding interesting news stories, blog entries and case summaries, and refreshing your homepage and attorney bios at least twice a year will keep your content fresh and stimulate traffic to your site. Updating your content regularly also enhances search engine optimization.

5. Start a Blog and Stick With It

A blog can go a long way in positioning you as a leading expert sought for insights and information by new clients, colleagues and even the media. The key to any successful blog is providing valuable content, or more specifically, content that is unique and useful to your audience. One of the greatest advantages of a blog is that it ensures you are continually creating new content for your site, making it more “findable” (see point 4).

6. Share and Be Shared

Creating social media accounts and republishing your blog posts, new stories and other quality content can incite a social discussion that allows you to reach far beyond your website. Another effective technique is adding a “Social Media Bookmarking” widget to your site that allows readers to share information they find valuable directly with their social media accounts through the click of a button.

7. Go Mobile or Go Home

The web is accessible at all times on mobile devices such as iPhones and smartphones; having a parallel version of your site optimized for mobile viewing is now a requirement rather than an “add-on.” Whether users are reading attorney profiles, getting directions to your office or simply trying to call you, they want it in their hands and on the go.