How to Create an Effective Website for Your Legal Firm

A website is a critical tool for your legal firm. A well-designed website can be one of the most effective tools for earning new clients. In this article, we take a look at important principles to keep in mind when designing and marketing your legal firm website.

Prospects Make Choices Quickly

The majority of legal consumers make their choice of a legal firm after contacting only one firm! According to a FindLaw 1 research article published in 2014, 72% of legal consumers only contact 1 attorney. 15% check 2, and 13% check 3. This implies that the vast majority of legal consumers are not shopping around. They are finding a legal firm that they trust, contacting them, and hiring them quickly.

The majority of legal consumers are not very sensitive to price. At least, they aren’t sensitive enough to bother checking multiple legal firms to compare.

This creates two main takeaways:

1. Be the First

You must strive to be the first legal firm the customer finds when they search for an answer to their problem. Therefore, a strong search engine optimization strategy is a must. You also need an effective pay-per-click campaign that ensures users see you first in the search results. Finally, you need an ubiquitous presence among social media channels and location-based search engines (like Google Maps). Wherever the potential client is searching, you should have a presence.

2. Seal the Deal

You must make a strong first impression once the potential customer has arrived at your website. If you get them to contact you, there is a very good chance you’ve picked up another client. On the other hand, if they leave the website and decide to contact another law firm, you have probably lost the opportunity.

Your offering may be objectively better than your competition. Yet, it won’t matter much if you don’t create a strong first impression that convinces the potential client to contact you right away.

Also, make sure you reduce the friction for a user to contact you. It must be immediately obvious how to contact your firm. You should provide customers with many methods of contact so that they can choose their favorite. Phone, live chat, email, text – whatever ways you can offer, you should.

A Variety of Critical Factors

What factors are most important for legal consumers when choosing a law firm?

According to FindLaw, legal consumers weigh a large number of factors with fairly equal weight. ¹ The five most prominent factors are reputation, licensing, certifications, former client reviews, and disciplinary actions against the attorney. A successful legal firm needs to have strategies in place to address all 5 of these critical factors.

A. Reputation (87%)

The firm’s reputation is actually the most important factor for most legal consumers by a significant margin.

B. License (72%)

It may seem obvious that your firm has a licence. Yet, given the importance legal consumers put on this factor, you should not leave it to chance. Prominently display your license(s) throughout the website in relevant locations. Potential clients need to be confident that you’re qualified for the job.

C. Certifications (66%)

Prominently display your certifications throughout the website to establish credibility and trust.

D. Disciplinary Action Against Attorney (64%)

It’s unlikely you will mention disciplinary actions on your own website. However, the danger is a negative news story or bad rating that finds its way into the search results. If you do receive some sort of negative story (whether fair or not), you should do everything in your power to get other positive content about your firm to rank above the negative result. If you can drive the negative story out of the first page of Google results, few people will see it.

E. Reviews from Former Clients (63%)

Client reviews for your legal firm are also very important. Include positive testimonials full of details on your website in strategic places.

However, reviews & testimonials on your own website are not enough. You must also get positive reviews on external websites like Google Maps and Avvo. In fact, these sources may be even more important because people consider them less biased than reviews found on your own website.

Try to address all 5 of these critical factors on your website and throughout your digital marketing efforts. If you do, potential clients will be confident in your capabilities.

Importance of Mobile

FindLaw research conducted in 2014 found that 31% of customers are finding their law firm via a mobile device. ² This percentage has surely continued to rise since that study was conducted. Without a doubt, having an effective mobile experience is a must for any competent legal firm website.

One quick tip – make sure that phone numbers you display on your mobile website are set up as “click to call”.

Conclusion

The research discussed in this article provides important principles to adhere to when designing your legal firm website. It’s important to get into the mind of your legal consumer prospect. If your website addresses the factors prospects care about and convinces them to contact you, it will be a lead-generating machine.

Footnotes

¹) Understanding Today’s Legal Consumer (Findlaw 2014)

²) “Are You Ignoring a Third of Your Firm’s Business Potential (FindLaw 2014)