A lot of new or redesigned websites can fail. Much of these failures center around just updating the site because it just looks old. Granted, that isn’t a good thing, but you want your law firm to have a successful website that is reflective of your firm.
How do you gauge when a new law firm website is better and more successful than the previous one?
Identify the law firm website goals
The number 1 objective is typically to ‘get more clients’… which is understandable! Let’s convert some prospective clients into actual clients. In order to do that, we must look beyond the website and a more in-depth look at your law firm, itself.
Get the right type of traffic
The ‘get more clients’ directive brings up topics that impact your firm’s website, such as:
- Can you identify and describe your ‘perfect client’ or clients?
- Does your current website/marketing cater to that client (or clients)?
- Does your current law firm name have local and/or national recognition behind it?
These are just some of the high-level considerations surrounding your firm. Strategic planning will help set up your firm for success and one of the factors is your online ecosystem. Business plans, marketing plans, social networking efforts, internal committees, and outside perspectives all help to set up the pillars your website will stand on.
It’s important to remember that all clients may all be at different stages in making their decision to use a specific law firm.
Prospective Clients
These visitors may just be doing some general research, as such they will probably use search engine results to locate the firms close to them as well as the situation they are dealing with.
What firms are close to me? What firms specialize in what I’m dealing with? What firms come recommended?
Educating these prospective client visitors can be done through blogs or FAQs. This type of content is great because it can pickup keywords that the prospective client would be searching for.
A more narrowed focus of content would be case studies, practice areas, specific attorneys and even online ratings.
Interested Clients
These clients have done the above research, so they may be coming to the firm directly. They are visiting your law firm website to select you. Knowing that leads us right into the next two topics.
Help prospects find what they need
Users tend to get frustrated over the same things, no matter the industry. For a law firm, there are a few key items that be a supportive reason for redesigning.
How to make contact
Make it easy for the user to get in touch and engage with you. Contact us links and call or chat icons are popular for that quick touch point.
Make sure your locations are visible and easy to find.
Determine your experience
Your law firm is made up of lawyers and practice areas. Accolades and good PR can go a long way. Your law firm is tied to the lawyers, so individual awards such as being “Lawyer of the Year” or firm-wide awards like being the “Best Place to Work”, or associations and community involvement can help confirm the prospects decision.
Navigate your site
A sin in many a navigation can be the lack of clarity. Use terminology that your target prospect would use. Getting fancy with naming convention can create confusion. If the section is a blog – call it a ‘blog’ and don’t over think it!
Stand out against your peers
Keep in mind, some users may be doing the research – does your website look like all the rest? Can you confidently say that your website and marketing separate you from the others?
If the general structure is the same as the others, you might get confused with your competition. Think about it, if you are the only local law firm website that utilizes a left-side navigation, it is an immediate differentiator!
Likewise, your branding and visuals are an indication of the user of what is important to you. They can communicate a specialty your firm excels at, if the website is more focused on gaining more experienced attorneys for the firm, or if the website experience makes it easier for the prospective client to inquire about your services.
Going further they can communicate the perception of your company. Are you progressive and more modern? More traditional and have a legacy? Do you have one or many partners? Is your firm new and growing? Many firms fall victim to their name and logo suffering from the “alphabet soup” approach by using acronyms and big ampersands as artistic elements. If your logo and brand suffer from some of these repeated elements and you are getting lost in the sameness, consider a rebrand paired with your website.
Did you find any of this insightful? We hope so! If you are intrigued and would like to take some next steps reach out to us at 4CDesignWorks and let’s start making something awesome for your business.