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Got a website? If you’re like most law firms, you probably do, but perhaps your site needs a bit of an upgrade. Whether your site no longer reflects your brand's direction or is experiencing technical issues, keeping it appealing and up to date is essential.
Fortunately, the presence of minor issues doesn’t necessarily mean your site needs a full redesign. As long as you’re adhering to the essentials—the best practices of law firm web design, you can be confident that you’re providing a positive client experience.
Here are the website design best practices to follow to ensure your website has online appeal!
1. Align your web design with your branding
One of the biggest mistakes law firms make with their websites is failing to align the design with their company branding. Consider that your website is often the first point of entry for potential clients—it needs to make an impact and it needs to be consistent with the rest of your marketing materials!
For example, if you have a law firm logo with specific colors and fonts, these elements should also be consistent with your website's aesthetic. On the other hand, if you don’t have any branding yet, this is the best place to start.
You can work with a brand designer or marketing agency to come up with colors, fonts, a logo, and brand assets that represent the “personality” of your firm. Whether your team is “fierce and determined” or “familiar and friendly”, brand design has a way of communicating that through textures and colors.
And if this just sounds like fluff, think about it: Who are the most recognizable brands that you love and what does their branding convey? Great branding makes companies feel more enticing, memorable, and trustworthy. As a law firm, you want to resonate with prospective clients in this way as well, so building a brand (and a website to match) is a critical part of your law firm marketing.
2. Ensure your website loads quickly on all devices
With the rise in mobile browsing, more people are using their mobile devices (smartphones or tablets) to search for services, products, and information. As a lawyer on top of your game, you don’t want to lose out on these potential clients just because your website isn’t suited for mobile. Mobile optimization is critical!
Use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to check if your website loads quickly (and correctly) on both mobile and desktop. This free tool will also provide suggestions for improvement if any issues are detected!
The first step to mobile optimization is to adopt a mobile-friendly website design. If your website is dated—perhaps built on an old template—you’ll likely need a redesign to move to a more mobile-optimized format. There are many mobile-friendly website templates available for purchase, and most designers today know the essentials of responsive design.
If it’s not in your budget to do a full redesign, there are some tweaks you can make now to improve your score. For one, make sure your images and media are optimized using a tool like TinyPNG to reduce file size. Also, if your site is on WordPress, you can use a WordPress cache plugin to ensure your website runs at breakneck speed!
3. Increase appeal with eye-catching, humanizing photos
Have you ever visited a website and felt that it was just too, well, “corporate”? Without eye-catching images on your website, you can convey to prospective clients that your firm is stuffy and cold—and you don’t want that! Photos can make a load of difference.
As a best practice, include photos of yourself, your team, or stock images of people on your website's homepage. A friendly face should be one of the first things people see when they visit your site. This humanizes your brand and assures prospective clients that they will be working with real people!
You can get creative by adding photos of your office, videos of team interviews, branded graphics, and other types of media to grab users’ attention. These features drive engagement (i.e., scrolling and form fills) from new visitors. Media also helps you stand out from other, more “generic” law firms.
4. Include a call to action “above the fold.”
“Above the fold” refers to the top of a web page that people see before they start to scroll. On your website’s homepage, this usually includes the main menu, a large image, and, likely, a heading. But it is also prime real estate for including a call to action.
As the term implies, a call to action (CTA) is a directive that prompts users to take an action, such as scheduling a consultation or completing a contact form. Some common CTAs used in the legal field include:
- "Schedule a Free Consultation"
- "Contact Us Today"
- "Get a Case Evaluation”
- "Speak with an Attorney Now"
- "Request Legal Assistance"
- “Call 1-800-XXXX Now”
The CTA you use should align with the preferred action you want users to take on your website. If you want them to book a consult, say that. If you want them to visit your Contact page, direct them there. The goal is to make it super clear where you want people to go and how you want them to contact you.
This CTA can be placed in the main “hero” section (i.e., the big area where the main image is) on your homepage and/or as a clickable link in the main navigation. Many law firms choose to hyperlink to their phone number so prospective clients can place a call right away.
5. Describe your services with valuable content
Your website is the primary platform prospective clients use to learn about your services, so make it count! As a best practice, you should have individual web pages for each service and/or practice area you offer.
For example, if you are a family law attorney, you might have respective landing pages for Divorce Law, Child Custody, Child Support, and Equitable Distribution. Not only does having separate web pages make it super clear which specific services you offer, but it also covers more bases for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
SEO is a marketing strategy used to attract organic traffic and clients via search engines (namely, Google). If you have valuable, descriptive content on your website, it increases your chances of attracting people searching for those services. Quality content is just one of many important aspects of law firm SEO.
6. Incorporate testimonials and case studies
Now, you could have the best website content in the world, but that doesn’t mean prospective clients will be immediately ready to work with you. You have to build trust, demonstrate your expertise, and help prospective clients feel confident in your services. This is where testimonials and case studies come in.
Testimonials are statements from past clients who can attest to the quality of your services and the approach of your firm. You can ask past clients whether they’d be willing to leave a testimonial for your website. This can build trust with new visitors.
Case studies are more lengthy pieces of content that effectively summarize the case, approach, and outcome. Case studies are usually written by the law firm itself and outline the unique approach it takes to its cases.
Both testimonials and case studies can be instrumental in demonstrating your law firm’s experience, quality customer service, and approach to client services. They can be added to your service pages, to your blog, or as separate Case Studies or Testimonials sections on your website.
7. Embed Google Maps and ratings
Google Maps is the leading platform people use to find local businesses and service providers. As a law firm owner, you should set up a Google Business Profile so you can rank in Google Maps.
Once you’ve created and optimized your Google Business Profile, you can embed it on your website. Here’s how to do this:
- Find your business on Google Maps
- Click the "Share" button and then select the “Embed a map” option. Copy the HTML code provided.
- Paste this code into the appropriate section of your website’s HTML. If you're using a website builder, look for the option to add custom HTML or an "embed" block.
You can also import your star rating from Google Maps. To do this:
- For WordPress or similar platforms, you can use plugins like "Google Reviews Widget" to pull in your Google reviews and star ratings directly to your website.
- Manual Embedding: You can also manually embed reviews by copying and pasting individual review snippets or images directly into your website’s testimonial section.
8. Make ‘Contact Us’ simple and seamless
There’s a term used a lot when it comes to website design: “friction”. “Friction” occurs when design elements make it difficult for users to navigate or take action on a website. When it comes to law firm web design, friction is one of the biggest issues hindering users from converting into new clients.
One point of friction is the contact form. Forms that have too much content or are confusing can deter users from reaching out. Potential clients want a quick, straightforward way to make contact—but when confronted with overly detailed forms, they may abandon the process.
To reduce friction, keep your contact page simple. Only ask prospective clients to provide the essential information: their name, email, and a brief description of the issue. Keeping the form concise and user-friendly encourages more submissions and ultimately leads to higher conversion rates!
In addition to a contact form, you can include your phone number so users can reach your office directly. This is based on your preference, of course, but can be a great way to reduce even more friction compared to relying only a contact form.
9. Don’t forget On-Page SEO
I touched briefly on law firm SEO for your service pages, but there are many more aspects of On-Page SEO to consider across your website.
First, make sure that the page titles on your web pages are concise yet descriptive. For example, a page title like “Bicycle Accident Lawyer” doesn’t tell users much about your firm; on the other hand, “Jo & John Law - Reliable Family Law Attorneys” is more descriptive and compelling.
Second, use “keywords” throughout your content that are likely to draw in people searching for these terms. For instance, if you are a personal injury attorney in New York, using keywords like “New York personal injury attorney” or “NY car accident lawyer” throughout the respective pages on your website can help increase your rankings and traffic.
Last (but certainly not least), include adequate content on your service pages to describe what you do and why clients should choose you. Search engines like Google do not like “thin” content, so instead, aim for 500 words or more to explain each service area, your approach, and why clients should work with you.
Elevate Your Law Firm Website, No Dev Experience Needed
As a lawyer, you might assume you lack the developer experience to update your website on your own. In reality, most of the “best practices” of law firm web design don’t require development experience at all! By following most of the steps outlined in this guide, you’ll be well on your way to creating a website experience your clients will love.
From mobile experience to SEO, Google Maps to testimonials, there are a few simple ways to elevate your website. Not only will this make your website faster and more user-friendly, but it will also increase the likelihood of turning new visitors into paying clients!
