Law firm website of the month: FMC Law

FMC took its rebranding digital, with a brand new website to assist both old and new clients
FMC took its rebranding digital, with a brand new website to assist both old and new clients

FMCFraser Milner Casgrain LLP’s recent rebrand as FMC Law came complete with a redesigned website, one displaying the same sleek, clean simplicity of the firm’s new imaging.

As Warren Glenn, Digital Marketing at FMC explains, the current site represents the first of a two-phase rollout. So there will be more to see later this fall.

What were some of the web-specific goals in this new site build?

One of our primary goals was to facilitate user experience for our existing and prospective clients.  Using our analytics, we tightened up the main navigation to match what our visitors are trying to accomplish. Throughout the site we then use promotional areas to help endorse related areas of content for certain users. Visitors to law firm websites are primarily looking to find lawyers, so we have activated an auto complete search and a mouse over quick search to simplify that process.
We also wanted our lawyers to demonstrate their expertise as it matches up with clients’ needs, such as http://www.fmc-law.com/petercavanagh_class_actions. This allows our lawyers to have numerous versions of their bios, always placing the most relevant work first. Of course this content will grow in time.

Overall, we took a phased approach, so much of what users see right now are usability and aesthetic updates. Later this fall, we are going to begin our rollout of other features that will leverage social media platforms.

How long was the process, from conception, to design, to final approval?

After our new logo was approved in late spring, we had only a few months to redesign and integrate the new website with our systems. Given our extremely tight deadline, we adopted a two-phase rollout, the latter of which will be launched later this fall. Fortunately, the base is in place for what is yet to come!

You’ve given a significant chunk of prime real estate on the home page to links to recent publications by firm lawyers. Why is that important to FMC?

Our lawyers are very active when it comes to producing thoughtful information for existing and prospective clients.  Most of our decisions in terms of placement of content were based on a combination of analytics (what visitors to our site do) and information we disseminate to the market.  We intend for this to evolve into a resource centre, at which point, we will promote it differently on the home page (and website in general).

Your new students.fmc-law.com site is attractive, but does not receive home page promotion. Why not?

It certainly will! The way in which our home page is designed, we are planning to have different pages featured at different times throughout the year — one of which is our student site. As an instrumental part of our firm, our student program is important home page material and will be included as one of our featured home page rotating items. Stay tuned!

Your blogs, such as the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure blog, don’t get mentioned on the home page either. Why was this decision made?

While our blogs have become valuable resources for our visitors, they contain information tailored to specific areas of expertise which, to us, more appropriately fit on the relevant practice area page. For example, our Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure blog is featured on our Litigation page, as clients who would visit that page will likely be the ones benefiting from that resource.

Our intention is to maintain a clutter-free home page, creating an enjoyable user-friendly experience, which is exactly what the users would get as a client at FMC!


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