Having a website is imperative for most businesses nowadays, and legal firms are no exception. So, if you’re looking to take your legal practice online, what makes a good law firm website? Here are some key tips to think about.
Define your goals
Before you even think about getting a website designed or developed, it’s crucial to consider what you want to achieve from your law firm website. Identify your goals as well as your target audience. Are you looking to win over new clients or build on existing relationships? Each area of law can differ in these aspects, so don’t assume that all legal practice websites should look the same.
What makes you unique?
With plenty of other law firms for clients to choose from, your website should clearly spell out what makes you unique from your competition. Identify your skill areas, strengths and services, and make sure that these are given priority attention in the layout and navigation of your website so they are seen first.
Build trust
Whatever area of law you specialise in, building trust with your clients will be key. A good law firm website should instil trust and respect in audiences, and one way to do this is to make sure you include information about all of the partners practising at your firm. Provide biographies for each lawyer, with a photo and brief information about their experience, qualifications and areas of expertise. Always include details of any legal bodies that you are members of or legal associations, to demonstrate your industry authority.
Testimonials
Another way to build trust and showcase your expertise is to include testimonials on your law firm website. Potential clients are more likely to use your services if they can see that other clients have had positive experiences with your legal brand. Adding case studies to your website can also provide clarity and add greater insight into the services you offer.
Avoid jargon
It’s important to provide relevant information on a law firm website that a client needs to know or understand, but you won’t get this across to them if you include reams of jargon. Not everyone will understand many of the legal terms that are everyday language for the average lawyer, so try to explain information in simple layman’s terms wherever possible. Stick to short sentences and paragraphs, and break text up with bullet points so that it will be easier to read.
A useful way to get complex or detailed information across to clients is to include an FAQ section, visuals or an infographic.
While you might be tempted to add as much content as possible to your legal website, bear in mind that there is a fine line between providing just the right amount of information and overloading the site. Crucially, if you go overboard with content, your site may look cluttered and you could experience a high bounce rate, where visitors click off the site before having a good look around. Importantly, a busy site could slow page loading times, further encouraging visitors to turn away.
Many website owners feel the need to use every bit of space on their website, but good design embraces the ‘white space’ or bare areas to blend in harmoniously with the content.
Add a news or blog section
If you’re looking to build long-term relationships with clients or you want to highlight your areas of expertise, adding a news or blog section can help to make your website stand out compared to others. Adding regular content to your law firm website will encourage clients to keep revisiting it, but it also helps to boost your SEO ranking, making your site more visible on search engines.
You could add industry news as well as useful tips and information for clients, but remember to post regularly and keep your content up to date.
Check content
No matter how experienced you are in your field of law, if your website is littered with spelling or grammatical mistakes, it doesn’t reflect well on your legal brand. Always make sure you proofread content carefully before publishing it on your website.
Navigation and layout
A good legal website should be carefully designed so that it is easy to navigate and the user can find exactly the information they need. When constructing your website, think about the important sections it should include and in what order so that you can put together a site that has a logical flow and promotes a positive user experience.
Responsive design
With more people using mobile devices to search online, it’s imperative that a legal website is built with responsive design in mind. This means that it will adapt to fit the screen size of various devices, whether someone browses it on a smartphone, tablet or PC.
Visual appeal
While content is king when it comes to a legal practice website, the visual appeal of the site shouldn’t be ignored. The colours, style, design, choice of font and images all work together to create an impression, so make sure you choose these aspects carefully so that you come across as professional, trustworthy and approachable. Neutral colours exude a more professional approach, for instance, compared to brash, bright tones, while a font such as Times New Roman has a classic, traditional feel that gives your brand a sense of formality.
A good legal website should include a mixture of text and images, to break up the content and make it more readable. Ideally, include your own photos on the website, but if you do choose stock photos, always make sure they are high quality.
Include a call to action
There’s no point in creating a legal website if visitors don’t know what action they are supposed to take. Make sure you include a clear call to action on your website, such as getting in touch or filling out a form for further details. Your contact details should be easy to find and be up to date. As well as including a phone number, address and email address, include other ways of contacting you, such as through social media. This will give you a wider audience reach.
Consider SEO
A good legal website needs to be easily found online, so taking SEO strategies into consideration is essential to achieve this. There are various approaches that can be taken, but paying attention to your content is a good starting point. For instance, use long-tail, relevant keywords naturally, keep your site updated and consider adding links to improve your search ranking online.
Ongoing maintenance
Many web owners assume that once their site is up and running they can just leave it to get on with its thing, but this is incorrect and it can spoil the hard work you’ve put into getting it designed properly in the first place. A good legal website needs properly maintaining, so get into the habit of checking it regularly or employ a professional design and development company to do this for you. Check for things such as broken links and outdated information, as well as analysing your user stats so you can understand more about the profile of the audiences visiting your site. Be prepared to be adaptable to change; if some element of the site isn’t working, for example, then try and understand why and then modify it accordingly.
If you need assistance creating the perfect legal practice website, contact the experts at Innocent Digital.
