Where do you search for sellers first when you need a product or service? Unless you've been living under a rock for the past decade, it's probably online.
The same is equally true with legal clients — Google is their go-to source when looking for services.
There are many reasons why having a high-quality law firm website design is essential to your business's success. For one, your top competitors already have one, and you could miss out on significant opportunities without one.
And if you already own a website, does it have a client-winning design that leaves a stunning first impression on your prospects? Does it position you as the industry expert you are? Can people navigate through it quickly?
These factors and more contribute to the success of your site.
Why is Law Firm Website Design Important?
The internet has hiked competition, and as a law firm, you must stand out among your competitors.
More than 97% of the US population uses the internet, making a high-quality website design crucial to be more discoverable to potential clients.
Besides visibility, let's look at four other reasons why having a website is a must.
1. It Makes a Valuable First Impression on Prospects
Your website is a marketing tool. It directly links you to your target audience.
As such, you need to make a lasting impression on the people who view it. Luckily, it's not a complicated process.
However, it needs time and careful planning to get right.
You should build a user-friendly website that's easy for your prospects to navigate. When a visitor lands on your law firm's website, it only takes a few seconds for them to determine whether it's reputable and if they can imagine doing business with you. So a high-quality website design can help shape the perception of your firm.
38% of visitors will stop interacting with your website if its design is unappealing or unattractive, so make sure it's well-designed.
When this happens, you'll lose out on potential customers, and it'll hurt your SEO.
2. It Sets Yourself Up for SEO and PPC Success
There's more to SEO (search engine optimization) than just targeting keywords. Many aspects of your website design will affect how your site is crawled and indexed by search engines, too.
Using the wrong website layout or structure makes it hard for search engine crawlers to index your pages, which can affect your rankings.
Having a slow website will hurt your UX, conversion rates, and search rankings.
To minimize this risk, guide your web designer through SEO best practices.
A well-designed website will increase your conversion rates from paid and organic traffic. Meanwhile, a poorly designed website with just a 1-second delay in page loading speed can hurt conversions.
A website built by someone who understands SEO and UX makes a huge difference for lawyers. Below is an example from a law firm we worked with.
This image shows how an attorney website in the Bronx ranked for the keyword "personal injury lawyer" in Google Maps two days before Rankings.io launched a redesigned website for them.
They appeared in search results close to their office. But they were almost invisible to people who were further away.
Here's what their rankings looked like only 3 weeks after we redesigned their website:
A better website allowed this firm to reach higher rankings in one of the most competitive spaces in the U.S. for lawyers. A massive number of people in New York City can now find this firm when they need help from a PI attorney.
3. It Helps Your Firm Get Ahead of Your Competition
Nearly every business now has a website, which means that simply owning one isn't enough.
How people use the internet evolves every day. To match this, web designers are offering higher-quality web design services. You must keep up with this emerging trend.
Instead of mimicking your competitors' websites, include features they don't have. Great law firm websites don't need to reinvent the wheel — but they should improve it.
4. It Generates Leads
A website optimized for drawing in organic traffic and conversions can bring you countless leads
Several factors play into a landing page's conversion potential, but your number-one priority should be to speak directly to your target audience.
Study your audience. Learn what they like and dislike, what drives their purchasing behavior, and their basic demographics. Then, use that information to design a site that connects with them.
Customers are the lifeblood of any business, so put them at the center of yours. Ensure that your website design gives them a great user experience, then take it from there.
For an excellent website design, make sure yours looks visually appealing. According to a report, 94% of first impressions result from an excellent website design. If you have an outdated appearance, the chances are your prospects will leave your site and look elsewhere.
If done right, your website can also reign in loads of organic search traffic. This is essentially website views that cost you nothing (unlike PPC ad campaigns).
Law Firm Website Design Guide: 9 Things You Need to Know
You have a vision in mind, and now it's time to bring it to life.
Or, maybe you have no idea what kind of design you want.
Whether you've already planned your site or not, these 9 law firm website design tips will help you move the needle forward on your progress.
1. Decide Whether to Build a Website Yourself or Hire It Out
How much you invest in building a law firm website depends on your area of specialization. If your firm counts on repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals from existing clients, then go with a simple website: incorporate basic information like phone number, physical address, and business name.
However, if you plan to stand out from your competitors, then you'll need to dig deeper into your pockets for an exceptional website design. That said — you may decide to set up the site yourself using a website builder or hire a web developer to help you out.
2. Use High-Quality Images and Professional Photos
The legal industry is a highly professional field, and there are many risks involved. Therefore, your prospects place heavy importance on trust — and the images you use on your site say a lot about the trustworthiness of your business.
You can express 1,000 words in just one image, so make sure your first impression is great. Polish all the images you'll use in your website design. While the images need to be high-quality, remember best SEO practices—compress them to ensure fast page load times.
However, be sure not to overdo it. The best law firm websites use images sparingly — too many images could slow down your site and distract users
Also, try to stick to one highly relevant image per 200 words. In other words, if an image doesn't deserve a spot, don't include it.
Google encourages all businesses to consider mobile website speed. The slower your mobile site speed, the more customers and traffic you lose due to lower search engine rankings. So before you launch your website, consider testing the speed using different tools like Test My Site.
Using tools like CompressorJPEG or TinyJPG, you can compress your images so they don't take up load time.
And don't forget to include images of you and your team!
Potential clients always want to see the people working hard behind the scenes to make your law firm's brand what it is. They want to interact with and relate to them. Luckily, this is easy to do with a website on just about any page.
3. Optimize Your Website for Mobile
Mobile and tablet usage surpassed desktop usage in November 2016, and the number has risen steadily over the years.
Google now uses mobile-friendliness as a key ranking factor, so ensure your site is optimized for mobile.
Mobile screen sizes are smaller than desktop screens. So, ensure that your content flows well and is easy to view. And ensure that your images are viewable and load quickly on mobile devices.
If you want to get as much out of your website as possible, it must be extremely accessible. For example, there are a couple of ways to do so for low-visioned people or readers with mobility problems.
To test the accessibility of your site, there are multiple tools at your disposal.
One way is to go to your website's backend and turn off the styling. Doing so will leave text so you can see whether your website has a proper layout.
Once you've confirmed that everything is all okay, use the disable-html extension to remove the link to your CSS file.
Put yourself into your ideal client's shoes, and check your law firm's website on a smartphone to see how it looks on mobile. Take note of how fast your website is and whether you can navigate it easily. Exploring your own site in this manner will help you identify areas that need adjustment.
4. Craft Clear and Compelling Copy
As you focus on building your firm's website, don't overlook the content. You want to keep your audience reading long enough, so make your content readable and engaging.
Whether you're crafting new copy, improving existing copy, or paying a professional to write for your law firm site, the tips below will help you craft killer content.
- Know your reader. Knowing your target audience is key to understanding how to market to them. Remember, you're not only targeting clients but also people who will refer others to your law firm. Have your readers in mind when creating content, and avoid using technical terms.
- Focus on clarity and understanding. Be sure to keep your sentences short and to the point. Audiences love it when they can scan through content quickly but still see all the main points. Keep this Dr. Seuss quote in mind when writing: “The writer who breeds more words than he needs is making a chore for the reader who reads.”
- Create content that sells. Marketing copy should attract, intrigue, and sell. If your firm is based on referrals, it's more likely to convince readers to reach out to you. So when writing copy, focus on “benefits” rather than “features.”
- Make your copy informational. You want to educate your audience through your content — so you need to go in-depth. Most importantly, the copy should address your audience's concerns and provide them with insights that help them better understand their pain points.
- Include a FAQs section. When people first visit your site, chances are they will get confused when searching for legal information. You want to make this journey as easy as possible, so have an FAQs section.
- Use the right keywords. Incorporate both short and long-tail keywords into your copy, and most importantly, scatter them throughout your website. Let the keywords appear natural — do not do “keyword stuffing.”
5. Incorporate a CTA (call-to-action) as Soon as Possible
Visitors should know exactly who you are, what you do, and most importantly: what they should do next within the first few seconds of loading your website. This means a visitor shouldn't have to scroll to find a CTA.
This is why many of the best law firm websites place a CTA button on the hero section. They want their website visitors to decide whether or not to take action quickly.
A CTA is an attention-grabbing text that prompts prospects to take some form of action. It could be to purchase a service, book a free consultation, get a free quote, or join an email list.
CTAs are meant to steer potential clients or customers to take a specific action. On websites, you could include text plus some design in the form of a button.
You shouldn't just use CTAs anywhere. Your visitors should be able to spot your website's CTAs easily.
Additionally, your CTA must be clear and simple to read. So, test out everything about your CTA — button color, text, any info you want to communicate, etc..
Position Your Call-to-Action Appropriately
Copywriters know how important CTAs are to the success of businesses. Instead of using cliché words like “submit,” use more urgent words like “get now.” Most law firm owners want to know where they should place their email addresses or phone numbers on their websites. This is critical.
So include your contact information on your website header. This is the place your website visitors are likely to interact with first.
Live Chat is the Next Big Thing
Live chat is fast becoming one of the best features you can have on your website. It converts better than just having a contact page with a form on your website for your visitors to fill in. Instead, prospects are more likely to use the live chat option as they are guaranteed a response almost immediately.
Chances are, your prospects will have some issues they want to sort out, and they don't want to wait long. What if you offered to solve their problems instantly and keep them happy? A live chat option will help you do this.
Additionally, live chat support converts better. When your target clients contact your customer support team, chances are that a rapport will be built, which could lead to a sale. Customers are happy when their issues are solved.
6. State Who You Are and What You Do Immediately
According to HubSpot, 55% of visitors spend no more than 15 seconds on a website.
So, when you launch your website, users should be able to tell instantly who you are and what legal services you provide. Are you a personal injury law firm that focuses on mass tort cases, a multi-practice law firm that offers services in multiple languages, or a boutique corporate law firm comprised entirely of former prosecutors? Your potential clients should be able to know immediately what it is that you offer.
Whether you're a large-scale family law firm or serve a niche market, the key here is to explain whatever services your law firm website offers in a matter of seconds. Ensure your potential clients don't need to scroll down the page to find this out.
The next step is to quickly tell your website visitors what differentiates you from other law firms. Audiences are interested in learning a little about your firm's history, core values, associates, and more.
While it wouldn't make sense to stuff your homepage with all these details, it helps demonstrate your prowess. You will also want to embrace the “psychology hack” by establishing social proof to validate your services before clients can opt in. This way, your visitors are more likely to explore your website.
7. Build an Easy Site Navigation
Small Biz Trends reports that easy website navigation is now one of the most critical factors in SEO and the length of visitors' stays on a page.
Why?
Simple — because users value it tremendously.
Don't Leave Your Visitors in the Dark
The same report found that 94% of survey respondents say easy website navigation is the most critical website feature a law firm should invest in. To put this into practice, you'll want your site to have a simple and straightforward menu structure where prospects can look for anything they need from your website.
Make Contact Information Prominent
Many of the respondents also said that it would be best to find the “About Us” page, the blog page, and the social media handles easily. Most businesses place their social media handles on the footer of their website, but when you do so, ensure there's a clear CTA such as “follow us” or “let's connect.”
Increasing Dwell Time is Good Law Firm SEO
Easy navigation will increase visitors' dwell time, which is a positive signal to Google. The longer visitors stay on your site, the higher Google ranks it.
However, failing to retain visitors on your site for a long time or having a high bounce rate will hurt your ranking performance.
Since navigation is clearly important for a great law firm website, what should you do to improve it?
How to Improve Website Navigation with Great Law Firm Web Design
Be Consistent
If you've chosen to use a specific navigation style, be sure to use it throughout the site unless a change is needed. Changing your navigation from one page to the other means your website visitors are more likely to lose their patience and leave.
Use Categories
Categories should be sequential and have a pattern. Ensure your categories make intuitive sense so that your website visitors don't have to click through lots of links to get to what they want. Not only is that bad for the user experience, but it could also minimize the chances of the search engine bots crawling and indexing your website.
Make Navigation Elements Clickable
Ensure that all the navigation elements included on your site are clickable, especially when you have many categories. This should be applied in all areas, including your drop-down menus.
Write Clear and Accurate Page Titles
You'll need to ensure that your navigation titles are clear and accurate. In other words, your website visitors should have a basic idea of where they are going when they click on a specific link. Don't get too fancy with words, or don't try to be so unique in areas that don't require any uniqueness. A good example is using the text “How I Can Help You” instead of the usual “Service” for your service page.
Check for Broken Links
If you have images with clickable links, make sure that the links are working perfectly. The worst thing website visitors ever want to experience is clicking on a link only to be shown a 404 error message. There are many methods you can use to find broken links on your site. Take advantage of this and save your reputation in the process.
8. Include Testimonials and Social Proof
As mentioned before, social proof goes a long way to validate whatever services you're selling. Others' opinions influence most decisions, and as such, you need to incorporate social proof into your law firm's website.
According to a study by Bigcommerce, using customer testimonials can increase revenue from every customer by 62%. However, this isn't too shocking once you realize that a stunning 92% of consumers use testimonials to help make their purchasing decisions.
It's obvious from studies like this that social proof is a critical aspect of decision-making.
It helps potential clients make rational decisions or alleviate uncertainty in ambiguous circumstances. Not because they've fallen victim before but because they trust other people's decisions to help steer their own.
Social proof within the legal marketplace entails testimonials and online reviews.
If a client reviews an attorney on Google, Facebook, Avvo, or another website, they help build social proof for your online presence. If client testimonials on any of these networks are scarce, consider adding a feedback operation to your client relationships.
Consider Including Video Testimonials
Social proof integrated with videos has proven to be more persuasive. According to a study from the Content Marketing Institute, videos are the third most-used type of content by marketers.
Combining testimonials with video content doesn't just appear more engaging to users or savvy to marketers. It also assures users that your testimonial is coming from a real human who believes in you.
9. Optimize Your Law Firm's Website for SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical for your law firm website because it brings high-quality leads through organic search traffic.
By optimizing your website, you make it easier for search engine bots to crawl and index it, which leads to higher search engine rankings.
However, it's important to note that SEO is a long-term strategy, and it rarely brings law firms success in the short term. It can take 3 months to a couple of years to begin organically ranking for your desired keywords.
5 Examples of High-Quality Law Firm Websites
Now that you know the fundamentals of law firm website design, let's look at five law firms that are doing it right.
Rawlins Law
Rawlins Law emphasizes its commitment to clients through clear communication. The site features a clean layout that helps potential clients find information quickly.
Good Design Elements
- Clear Navigation Menu: The top navigation bar is straightforward, allowing users to easily access various sections such as practice areas and testimonials.
- Responsive Design: The site is mobile-friendly, ensuring it looks great on devices of all sizes.
- Bold Call-to-Action (CTA) Buttons: Prominent CTAs, such as "Know What Your Case Is Worth," stand out against the background and invite users to take action.
Rosenberg & Gluck LLP
Rosenberg & Gluck's website is a user-friendly informational portal for potential clients seeking legal help. The site presents a wealth of resources in a visually appealing manner.
Good Design Elements
- Intuitive Interface: The layout is clean and easy to navigate, making it simple for users to find relevant information about the firm's practice areas.
- Strong Visual Hierarchy: Effective use of colors and typography guides users visually through the content, emphasizing key information.
- Informative Resources: The site includes informative blogs and FAQs that enhance the user experience by providing essential insights into personal injury law.
Fuicelli & Lee Injury Lawyers
Fuicelli & Lee effectively demonstrates its expertise and compassion for clients through an organized and resource-rich site.
Good Design Elements
- Compelling Imagery: The use of rich colors in the Colorado scenery fosters a sense of connection and reinforces the firm’s dedication to client care.
- User-Friendly Layout: Information is presented in bite-sized chunks, making it easy for visitors to absorb important details quickly.
- Client Testimonials: Highlighting testimonials builds trust and helps potential clients see the firm’s success in helping real-life cases.
Boohoff Law
Boohoff Law focuses on personal injury cases and strongly emphasizes being your ally in a time of need. The site is designed to make clients feel informed and empowered about their legal rights.
Good Design Elements
- Engaging Content: The site includes videos and blogs that provide valuable insights, making complex legal topics more relatable and understandable.
- Easy-to-Find Contact Information: The phone number and contact options are prominently displayed throughout the site, ensuring users can reach out with ease.
- Clear Practice Area Pages: Each practice area is dedicated to its own page, enabling potential clients to learn about their specific legal concerns in detail.
Chudnovsky Law
Chudnovsky Law's criminal defense website makes a bold statement through its use of black-and-white imagery showcasing its attorneys and front-and-center unique value propositions.
Good Design Elements
- Bilingual Pages in the Navigation Bar: Chudnovsky Law's Spanish-speaking client base will have an easy time navigating to the help they need with a well-designed drop-down menu.
- Legal Resources: The site prioritizes education and offers helpful guidance to those who need quick answers to their questions.
- Professional Design Aesthetic: A polished and modern design instills confidence in users regardin
- g the quality of legal services provided, encouraging them to connect and get the help they need.
A High-Quality Law Firm Website Design Is Key to Internet Success
Building a website from scratch isn't easy—and it's not always fun—but it's an essential factor for any law firm's online success.
In today's digital world, it isn't enough to buy a domain and regurgitate copy. Get on par with other law firm websites, but don't settle for their levels — exceed them. Be confident in your differentiation factors and seek to satisfy your users first.
If you're feeling overwhelmed, always go back to the golden rule: users first.
Once you nail your site's user experience, you can always return to implement more advanced marketing strategies and web design techniques.
