P2P

32 P E E R T O P E E R : I L T A ' S Q U A R T E R L Y M A G A Z I N E | W I N T E R 2 0 2 0 Disappointing results on three critical foundational must- haves. SITE SEARCH There are three final foundational areas for international law firms that are critical to buyers of legal services, not to mention your alumni and future employees. The site-search features you offer are the first. Site-search scores in our seven studies have roller-coastered, starting at 55.5 in 2005, up to 78.6 in 2007, down to 51.9 in 2010, down further to 49.2 in 2013, up to 60.2 in 2016 and then down again this last study to 58.0. Given that a law firm's job is to ensure that its website visitors can quickly FIND what they want and need, these scores are painting a disappointing picture of unproductive searches and a lot of time wasted. Having superior and multiple search features on your website adds complexity and cost to your project – but they are one set of functionality that completely pays off. A shocking statistic was that the number of AmLaw Global 50 firms offering a separate experience search went down from 14.0 on our 100-point scale in 2016 to 8.4 in Q4 2019. Both of those scores rank as "unacceptable." Given that passing the "short-list test" is the first most important achievement by lawyers when it comes to people hiring them, it is remarkable that firms are ignoring this critical evaluation tool. Remember the four questions in paragraph 1 of this article? These make up the short-list test. These are what visitors want to know. If lawyers aren't answering these fundamental questions, the prospect will simply continue to the next name on their shortlist. 43 of the AmLaw Global 50 firms scored zero on offering a separate experience search. ADA AND ACCESSIBILITY The 10th Foundational Best Practice is Site Hygiene + Usability. Its purpose is to identify the irritating things that get in the way of a visitor having a perfect experience with your website. Because accessibility for all visitors is paramount, our researchers tested for the following: "Site meets W3C WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 accessibility standards - Level A." According to the Bureau of Internet Accessibility (BOIA), over a billion people worldwide have a disability, and according to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in 4 U.S. adults has a disability. The overwhelming number of all websites are inaccessible – this presents an opportunity for these powerful global law firms to step out and set the right example. But they aren't. No law firm scored 100.0 on Foundational Best Practice #10 because all firms failed these accessibility requirements. We used Siteimprove's Accessibility Checker and if they didn't comply with all the criteria, the site "failed." Bottom line: Err on the side of inclusiveness and comply with at least the standards that we used in our analysis. The WCAG (now) 2.2 is a series of measurable success guidelines for developers and designers, including: Perceivable: Available through sight, hearing or touch. Operable: User interface and navigation must be operable and compatible with keyboard or mouse. Understandable: User-friendly, easy to comprehend. Robust: As technologies and user agents evolve, the content needs to remain accessible. MOBILITY AND SPEED All but one Global 50 firm had a mobile site, although not all sites were responsive, which is today's standard. Foundational Best Practice # 8 is Site Optimization + Online Awareness and FBP #9 is Mobility. Researchers studied 11 attributes under SEO and five under Mobility. One of our tests was speed of the websites on both desktop and mobile devices. The Global 50 firms scored 84.7 for desktop site speed, using Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI), which recommends a score of 90+. Not bad, but it could be better. And the mobile sites only scored 49.5 for site speed. Only two of the 50 firms scored "excellent" on mobile speed. We recommend continuing to test your website on both desktop and mobile – PSI reports on your site's performance and provides suggestions on how the pages can improve. Finally . . . Alternate languages International law firms should care deeply about ensuring their website content is available to their target clients, prospects, referral sources and future employees. And, they should care that they are speaking to their various international audiences in culturally competent ways. F E A T U R E S

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