Slater & Zurz LLP
A personal injury firm’s main website, rebuilt in 2017 after three years of search and upkeep work across the firm’s twelve sites.
I worked with the firm from 2015 to 2018.
The project
Three years of search work, then a new main website.
I worked with Slater & Zurz LLP, a personal injury firm in Akron, Ohio, from 2015 to 2018. It started with an audit of one of the firm's websites, and it grew into a plan for the firm's whole presence online.
For three years I handled the search work and upkeep across the main site and eleven practice-area sites. I set up Google listings for the firm and for each attorney, and rewrote page titles and descriptions, site by site.
In 2017, I designed and built a new main website. The firm wanted visitors to meet attorneys who were approachable and helpful as well as capable. So the site used real photography of the team, background video, and a photo album, and it kept the menus simple, so a visitor could find the right attorney quickly.
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- Personal injury law firm
- Where
- Akron, Ohio
- Worked together
- 2015 to 2018
- Main site launched
- July 2017
- What I did
- SEO and upkeep, then design, build and copywriting
From one website to the whole firm online
The redesign came late in the work. By then I knew the firm’s sites, its attorneys, and the people it needed to reach. That knowledge shaped the new site.
- January 2015
An audit of one site
The firm asked me to look at one of its sites, the one for dog bite cases. I reviewed what was holding it back in search, then rebuilt it that spring.
- October 2015
A plan for everything online
I sent the firm a roadmap for its whole presence online, covering the main site, the practice-area sites, tracking, and search. From then on, I looked after all of them.
- 2016
A redesign, tested before it was built
Early that year, I recommended a full redesign of the main site. Before settling on a look, I built three design versions, and in June a focus group reviewed them. What the group said shaped everything that followed.
- Spring 2017
Built around the people
The plan was simple pages, plenty of photos and white space, and few words. In May, two photo shoots gave the site its pictures, one of each attorney at work in a courtroom, and one of the whole firm. My advice for the shoots was real smiles and jackets off. In the same weeks, I set up a Google listing for each attorney.
- July 2017
Launch
The new site went live on July 23, 2017. That fall, the background videos got a cleaner cut for desktop screens.
- September 2018
A new practice-area site
I built herniameshhelp.com, a new site for the firm’s hernia mesh practice, and linked it into the rest of the firm’s sites.
Why the site looked the way it did
People first
Someone hiring a personal injury lawyer is choosing a person to trust. So the site opened on the attorneys, in real photos, before it said much about the firm.
Simple on purpose
Fewer words and more white space meant a visitor could find the right attorney in a few clicks.
One network, not twelve separate sites
Each practice area had its own site. The homepage linked to every one of them, so the firm’s sites worked together instead of standing alone.
Built to introduce the people first
A focus group shaped the design in 2016. People wanted real photos, not stock, and lawyers who looked approachable but still professional. So the site opened on the people, and the photos and the video are the firm’s own.
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