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What Makes a Law Firm Website Successful

What’s your law firm’s most important marketing tool? Aside from great service that sparks referrals, we’re talking about your firm’s website, of course.

The legal space is only growing more competitive, and a good law firm website is an important weapon in the battle for clients. A good law firm website can make or break your chances of reaching and capitalizing on leads and turning a prospective client into a paying client. And the best law firm websites help grow your firm and increase its value.

Because your firm’s website is likely to make your first impression on future clients, it’s important to get it right. That means it’s no one-and-done endeavor: you have to keep your website fresh by updating its design and content regularly. So, content generation, optimization, integration, and design are all important aspects of a law firm website.

Now, let’s get into the details of what you can do to up your website game.

What framework should I keep in mind when creating my law firm website?

When considering different frameworks to achieve the advertising goals for your website, we recommend going with a simple one. There’s an art to the best legal website, and we recommend the services of a leading legal marketing team to get your law firm started on building or revamping its website.

No matter how you go about it, your law firm’s website should explain how your firm can serve clients, and it should do this in a user-friendly way, with an appealing visual design and an intuitive flow. To achieve these goals, you should focus on three key elements in designing your website: subject-matter expertise, optimization, and functionality.

Subject-matter expertise

Your law firm’s subject matter expertise is truly what it all comes down to for potential clients. So, your website should showcase your law firm’s authority and knowledge.

By providing examples and evidence of your law firm’s expertise and successes, you’ll build your law firm’s credibility and expand your market reach. The best way to build trust with prospective clients is by generating quality content (and doing it regularly) that shows how you walk the talk on your website. In addition to writing pieces about current developments in the law and how your firm can help clients handle them, you can also include client case studies and success stories.

Content creation

You already know that best practices for a law firm marketing strategy include a content creation strategy. As applied to your law firm’s website, your goal with content creation should be to showcase your law firm’s work, practice areas, and lawyers. To build a long-lasting online presence and solid website, your firm needs to integrate content marketing into its overall online tactics.

To get started, ask what questions your target audience and leads might have. Consider questions like these:

  • What is the best way for a criminal defense lawyer to defend against a misdemeanor in my jurisdiction?
  • What are the rules regarding medical malpractice in my state?
  • How quickly do I need to file a personal injury claim?
  • How might my state’s family laws impact my custody dispute?

We then recommend answering those questions by creating legal content such as blog posts, social media posts, videos, webinars, and even white papers. By adding relevant legal content, your law firm website will generate new visitors and build a strong reputation.

Client success stories and social proof

By including client success stories on your law firm’s website, you demonstrate how capable your law firm is and give future clients information regarding your firm’s positive results. A client success story tells your website visitors that your law firm solves issues and that your firm can solve their issue too. Reviews and testimonials add trustworthiness and social proof to your firm, making website visitors feel more comfortable reaching out to get more information or for a free consultation.

Your website should first and foremost emphasize that your law firm is client-centric and ready to help. So, we recommend including both your high-profile cases and some smaller ones with direct quotes, if possible, from clients who enjoyed working with your law firm. These success stories should be uplifting and positive. You’ll get extra points if these stories address the questions you’re also answering in your content creation strategy. News snippets, badges, and certificates will also go a long way in building a positive reputation for your law firm.

Optimization

Boosting your website’s online visibility is important to attracting new clients and building your firm’s book of business. To do this, you have to engage in search engine optimization (SEO), which is the practice of optimizing a website to improve online visibility.

To raise your website’s visibility, you must make it relevant to users’ searches. This means your website content has to reflect the terms that users type into the Google search bar. The more relevant your content is to a user’s search terms, the more likely it is that your content will appear at the top of a Google search page. Your law firm website will best find and engage prospective clients if you boost your SEO.

SEO is also measured by the quality of your firm’s website. We’ll discuss functionality in more detail below, but for now, when assessing the quality of your attorney website, consider its layout, font, keywords used, quality and quantity of traffic, and even the quality of written content.

For SEO optimization, your firm’s website should feature a clean and interesting web design, high-quality photos and content, and contact details for your law office (including your address, email, and phone number). Local SEO is also essential to optimizing your law firm’s website. Optimizing your firm’s presence on Google Maps, Google My Business, and Yelp can help establish your firm as the reputable, go-to law firm in the community.

Functionality and usability

We cannot emphasize enough the importance of how information is displayed on your law firm website. Your law firm website design should be functional and accessible. Every design decision you make should ask the following question: will this help potential clients find and then choose my law firm?

We’ve already discussed picking the right font for your law firm website at length. Creating a compelling visual design also involves other important choices. Consider how content, like webinars and lawyer bios, will appear when laying out your website. The best legal websites can be interacted with on all devices (think cell phones, tablets, computers, etc.) and on all browsers. Your law firm website should also be laid out intuitively and be friendly and easy to use and navigate. Without these things, all the great content you’ve created may go to waste.

Lawyer websites should also include dynamic and relevant call to action (CTA) buttons to make it simple for prospective clients to become paying clients. CTAs encourage website readers to fill out a contact form to provide their contact information. Many law firms choose to work with outside experts to build their brand with web designers and marketing strategists who know the ins and outs of web and template design and can help you build a clean, impactful law firm website.

What are some ways to set your law firm website apart?

A good law firm website is design-forward and features usable content. Your law firm web design should provide a positive user experience by anticipating needs and providing thoughtful solutions.

As noted above, your law group’s website should be accessible, and potential clients should be able to contact your law firm quickly and easily. The user experience on your firm’s website and homepage is critical to ensuring that online visitors stay on the website long enough to engage with your content and learn about the exceptional legal services your firm has to offer.

Follow these three tips to create the optimal law firm website design so your law firm stands out and keeps visitors on your site.

1. Keep it clean

We recommend a streamlined, clean website and homepage. A cluttered home page filled with moving banners, animations, and endless pop-ups doesn’t scream professionalism. After all, you don’t want to lose the potential client before they even get to the name of your firm. Your homepage should feature a direct and concise firm statement, your firm’s logo as a header, a contact page, and clear navigation to additional pages that explain your firm’s expertise and knowledge.

2. Keep it interesting

The typography, color scheme, and symbols of your website and law firm logo can convey a lot about your firm by saying a little. Is your firm classic and traditional with a rich history? Or is your firm more modern and cutting-edge?

A smart choice of font can convey seriousness or help build casual rapport. The same goes for your law firm logo design and graphic choices, which offer the opportunity for some creativity. Choosing a unique, eye-catching design can set your law firm’s website apart from all the lookalike pages on the internet and stop possible clients from scrolling on by. Use real photos rather than stock photos when possible to give clients a sense of who you are.

Of course, keep in mind that you don’t want to go overboard here. Clients may perceive a crowded, brightly colored website as unprofessional.

3. Keep it connected

The best law firm sites consist of more than a homepage. Your law firm website should have individual landing pages for each legal service that you offer. You should also include pages for engaging attorney biographies and pages that detail your expertise and case studies. Depending on your practice areas, an FAQ page may also be a good idea.

Whether you’re a small estate planning law firm or a big business law firm, we highly recommend outsourcing the legwork to the marketing experts to help build you a new website or revamp your current one.

How can you build authority with your law firm website?

As lawyers, you know that authority is important. We’ve discussed how to build authority with your legal website throughout this article, but given its importance, we’re mentioning it again here.

Building authority does not necessarily mean having an authoritative tone. The best way to build authority for your law firm is to know your target audience and to address them specifically. By understanding who your law firm is generating content for, you’ll better know what type of content to create and the tone in which to create it. For example, if your law firm focuses on business law, you’ll likely want to present your website’s content in a formal business tone. This will convey knowledge and competence, and your law firm’s blogs, webinars, white papers, and other similar content should be drafted in a similar tone.

However, if you work in juvenile or family law, the tone of your website, and thus the authority that you build, will be different. Potential clients will seek out your firm during periods of stress, and your firm’s website and related content should recognize that. The tone of relevant content should be softer and more human to convey your firm’s competency, both emotionally and legally.

By knowing your audience and putting them first, your law firm will prove both its authority and competency. The tone and presentation of the content created should also be backed up by in-depth, expertly written content. By focusing on your target audience with your firm’s website, you’ll establish your law firm as both client-centric and approachable.

What are some examples of the best law firm website designs?

As with fashion, the best law firm web design changes each year. We recommend working with marketing professionals to stay on top of the trends and ensure that your website is competing.

The following are legal websites that achieve the framework discussed above. Each website highlighted below establishes the law firm as a reputable business and helps the firm reach a larger audience and therefore generate more leads.

Paul Benson Law Firm

Paul Benson Law Firm is a law firm specializing in personal injury law, including car accidents, slips and falls, and pedestrian accidents.

The site’s homepage is clean and concise. It features the attorney’s succinct firm statement as well as links to landing pages showcasing the firm’s expertise in personal injury law. It is client-centric, written in an appropriate, authoritative tone, and features a “get in touch” CTA. We also note that the firm logo is distinct and interesting but still professional.

Collin County Law Group

Collin County Law Group is a law firm specializing in criminal defense, juvenile law, and family law.

The firm’s homepage includes clear information regarding the firm’s specialties as well as multiple avenues to contact the law firm for more information or a consultation. The website features multiple landing pages regarding the firm’s recent positive case results and client testimonials regarding the firm’s superb service. Moreover, its pages are easy to read and navigate.

M. Mathew Law Firm, PLLC

  1. Mathew Law Firm, PLLC, is a law firm specializing in immigration law.

The firm’s homepage is approachable and clean and features the firm’s various accolades and badges suggesting the firm’s reputation to visitors. The website also features a compelling attorney biography page with easily accessible contact information, which humanizes the firm and improves its SEO.

Denning Law Firm, LLC and Marker and Crannell Attorneys at Law P.C.

Denning and Marker and Crannell have created helpful pages for visitors to access additional information regarding each firm’s expertise.

Denning’s blog is updated regularly with information and resources related to its practice areas, helping clients understand their need for legal counsel and support.

Crannell’s website features an extensive FAQ page that asks questions to showcase its lawyers’ legal acumen and provide resources to potential clients. These websites achieve their goal of establishing their law firms as leaders in their respective practice areas.

Get started on your law firm website today

Following the tips mentioned above can accelerate the performance of your law firm’s website. By using tactics that enhance your site’s visibility, including increasing your website traffic by implementing SEO and improving your content generation, your firm will be optimized for new leads and prospective clients. The right tools, solutions, and marketing experts will help you create a website that builds awareness about your law firm as well as a more profitable client list.

 

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