Okay, you’ve just launched your brand new website last week, and you’ve shared it far and wide, posted about it on LinkedIn, and sent around key messages via your executive committee and firm chair.
The leader of your firm’s biggest, most lucrative practice goes to the new site, and she searches for “automotive lawyer” using the fancy new site’s search function.
You can guess as well as I that she probably expects to see herself at the top of the search results. After all, she was just ranked in Chambers this year.
But when she clicks “Search,” the top three bios are associates. Or bios don’t show up at all – instead there’s a practice description, an event from last month, and a pdf from 2020.
Again, you can guess as well as I how she might react to this. And who she might tell.
Incidents like this can trip up your launch and, if you’re really unlucky, snowball into widespread skepticism and negativity about your website that can be hard to shake.
So how do you avoid this?
How do you make sure search works in a way that supports your firm’s business and meets your attorneys’ expectations?
Document search early in your web build to make sure it works the way you expect.
Here’s how to get started.
Early in your website redesign process, ask for documentation about how search will work. If you’ve had issues in the past with search, you may want to consider including specific search functionality in your requirements.
Ask your vendor to be as specific as possible. How will search work on your site? They need to tell you not only how search works on your chosen platform any any third-party add-ons—they also need to tell you how they plan to adapt these tools to your situation to achieve your priorities. Many firms don’t ask for this level of detail, but it’s critical to avoiding launch day snafus.
Which fields will be searched?
Typically, search will cover page titles, body copy, and any headings on the page. But what if you use other components such as featured content carousels, quotes, links to dynamic content like bios or thought leadership? Will those be covered by search? Often, the answer is no. If you’re designing pages that go beyond page title and body copy, you need to understand how those additional pieces of content will be covered by search.
How does search weigh and display different types of content?
If your user searches for “automotive lawyer,” “M&A webinar,” or “class actions experience,” chances are they are looking for something specific. But what if they search for “automotive,” “M&A”, or “class actions”? How does your site’s search decide which types of content – bios, events, or experience—is most important?
Often, the solution is to present search results broken up by content type. But what order should those sections appear in? And how does search handle content types with different content fields?
Be warned: it is extremely difficult to have these conversations and solve these issues in the abstract. Instead, offer your vendor some examples specific to your firm and attorneys, and use those specific instances to build out a broader approach or set of rules.
Start simple with questions such as:
- Should partners appear before associates?
- Should events appear before byline articles or webinars?
- Do you have a signature blog or event series that should get special treatment?
What kind of control do you have on a page-by-page basis?
Until recently, a big part of managing SEO was the use of keywords to ensure your site appeared when a search engine user looked for a specific word or phrase, even if that word or phrase didn’t appear significantly on your site’s content. Google’s done away with this, but often on-site search still relies on this functionality to “push” priority content to users. What options for this does your site’s search offer?
For example, perhaps you have a dozen partners who do automotive work, but you want your practice leader to appear as the top attorney in search results. With a keyword field, you can give her a boost that allows her to appear first.
This is also a useful tool if you have attorneys with commonly misspelled names, related practice areas or industries (think “biotech” and “life sciences” or “intellectual property” and “patents”), or abbreviations or alternate spellings (such as “transactions” and “transactional” or “mergers and acquisitions” and “M&A”). A keyword field can give you confidence that relevant content is easy to find no matter how a user may look for it.
To get the most from your site’s search functionality, start the conversation with your vendor early.
The best website content strategy in the world will fall apart if users can’t find what they’re looking for (and what you want them to see).
That starts with search.
