Go to a bookstore (yes, there are still a few bookstores, but they mostly sell coffee and board games) and scan the books.

Look at the covers. Note that the cover of a book by an unknown author will have the title of the book in large print. If the author is well known (like John Grisham), then the author’s name is in large print.

It’s simple: known authors get their names printed in big letters. Unknown authors get small letters.

There’s only so much room on a book cover, so a great deal of thought goes into the size and shape of every element employed. What’s important gets emphasized.

This is basic marketing. It only makes sense to use the large, visible print for the words that help sell the book.

If few prospective buyers already know the author’s name, then it’s the title that sells the book. If everyone knows the author’s name, then it’s his or her name that sells the book.

What’s the First Thing You See on Your Website?

Now, load your law firm website in the browser on your phone.

What’s big?

Is it your law firm name or the title of your site?

Odds are that it’s your name. It’s likely that your site doesn’t even have a title other than your name or your firm name.

If your name is big and you’re a well-known lawyer, then we’re good to go and you can stop reading. When your visitors come to your site, they’re looking for your name because you’re the rock star.

But what if you’re not yet a rock star?

If your name is big and you’re not well known, then we have a problem. You’re the unknown author trying to sell your book with the author name instead of the title. You’re not likely to sell many books with that approach, and you’re not likely to attract many clients either.

What happens to books by unknown authors who make their own name the biggest thing on the cover? Nothing happens. The book sits on the shelf until the bookstore sends it back to the publisher for a refund. The analogy applies to your website as well.

How Do We Fix the Problem?

It’s easy. We shrink your name and give your site a title.

Let’s say you’re a lawyer who specializes in negotiating severance packages in Minnesota. Let’s put a title on your site.

How about “Minnesota Severance Packages”? Boom, done. Let’s add your name in tiny letters down below just to make you feel better.

Now, when visitors land on your site, the first thing they see is a title that addresses their concern. Is that more likely to get them interested than your name? Probably, but it depends.

Whether the title is more important than your name depends on how they happened to come to your site. Some folks are coming because someone gave them your name and website address. Some are coming because they are searching on Google. You need to think about these visitors and what’s in their minds just before they arrive. What do you want them to see in big letters so that they feel that they’ve arrived in the right place?

If you’re not well known, then the odds are that you’re working to build your practice via the search engines. That’s probably the focus of your website. If that’s the case, then it’s more important to use big letters for the title than for your name. Adding your name in tiny letters just below the title cover is for when someone referred the visitors to your site.

Consider the website visitor, the likelihood of that person knowing your name, and the source that directed the visitor to your site. Use that information to determine whether you’re a name lawyer or a title lawyer.

You can’t judge a book by its cover. That’s true. But the cover, just like the first few words on your website, determines whether prospective customers look further so that they might become a client.

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