Earlier today I had a phone conversation with a great young lawyer who’s been practicing for a couple of years in a big city on the east coast of the U.S. We talked on the phone because I got an email from him yesterday and felt that I had to call.

His email asked if my law firm website generated any business.

Huh? How could he possibly wonder if our website, or any family law website, generated new clients and revenues?

I couldn’t really understand why someone would ask that question. I wanted to clarify and find out what he really wanted to know. Certainly he wasn’t asking what I thought he was asking.

We chatted for about half an hour during which it became clear that a few family law practitioners told him that websites don’t attract quality clients and they don’t work. He was told that you couldn’t get decent clients that could afford to pay reasonable fees from a website. He had become perplexed when he tried to reconcile the things I’ve said here with the things he’s being told by other lawyers.

Basically, the lawyers he talked to advocate building a referral based practice by doing good work and getting to know other lawyers. That’s good advice. You can’t go wrong with good work and getting to know other lawyers.

But, you’re leaving revenues, huge revenues, on the table if you’re failing to promote your practice on the web. Our site receives tons of traffic resulting in many, many consultations. It works.

And it’s not clients in dire economic circumstances. It’s middle-income people, upper-income people and super-duper income people. Everybody is searching for help on the web. Aren’t you?

I’m still a bit shaken that I’m feeling compelled to remind you that websites work. I thought we’d agreed on that long ago (my site went up in 1996). Yes, websites work. They generate clients, lots of clients. I’m hopeful, and fairly certain, that most of you already know the truthfulness of what I’m saying. But, I wanted to be sure.

If you don’t have a website, build one.