Do you already have a website for your law firm? Did you launch your law firm’s website five years ago, and haven’t updated it since? Or have you just invested in a new website, but can’t find it yet listed on search engines? These are common issues faced by law firms every day.
A website is an essential marketing infrastructure for your business. Gone are the days of clients finding you by searching through their hard copy of the Yellow Pages; when clients are looking for a lawyer, they will turn to online search engines to give them an answer.
So how does a search engine know who to suggest? A search engine knows from the quality of your law firm’s website. Your law firm must have a user-friendly and search engine optimised website in your marketing strategy; anything less isn’t worth the effort.
As a law firm in the 21st century, you’re servicing clients who expect the level of service from your website that they receive from scrolling Facebook or Instagram – clear, quick, and easy. Having said that, your social media platform should not be a substitute for your website. Don’t miss out on business because your law firm’s website is letting you down.
Read on for our recommendations when it comes to investing in your law firm’s website and getting the most return for your investment.
Keeping your law firm’s website up to date in the digital age
Considering the pace of technological advancements, websites are becoming better than ever, but also outdating sooner. The hard truth is you will not get any traction with your law firm’s website if it stays the same as the day you set it live.
If you never post on your law firm’s website, never update the hosting platform, and never make it mobile-friendly or accessible, then the reality is potential clients will never find your law firm’s website. And if potential clients do manage to access your law firm’s website, and find an unfriendly, complicated and clunky site, then they will leave, and likely, never come back or contact your law firm for advice.
Let us explain how to avoid that, and instead ensure your law firm can reap the full benefits of an optimised and user-friendly website.
Key items for your law firm’s website
A good law firm website begins with making it easy for clients to find information. A client-friendly website will have a professionally designed homepage with a navigation menu linking to further information. These menu sections include ‘About us’, ‘Services’ and ‘Contact’ pages. A website with a short menu of options will help potential clients get quick and easy access to information.
As well as being user-friendly, all of the best law firm websites have professional branding and imagery. Graphics and/ or images will make a bigger impression on potential clients quicker than words. Along with a brand-rich home page, consider adding a profile section with photos and short summaries about the lawyers offering their services at your law firm.
A professional law firm website also includes relevant content that provides clients with the information they need to contact you. In addition, including conversion tools such as eBooks and other online tools will help you capture these leads.
Last, but definitely not least, your law firm website needs information to make it easier for a client to get in contact. Your website can list your phone, email and address at a minimum. It can also house a contact form and even an online scheduling system, such as Calendly. Visit our latest video tutorial on how to become a Calendly power user. Providing clear and easy links to booking and contact information ensures your website is working for the user and for you.
So having a great website is the start – getting clients to find it is the next part. It is not a set and forget process when launching a new site. So how can clients find your website? By making sure your law firm website is set up with search engine optimisation (SEO).
Search Engine Optimisation – the key to your website’s success
Quite simply, without an effective website primed for search engine optimisation, you’re wasting money on hosting a site that may as well not exist. There are a lot of factors to get right on your website, and with technology always changing, it can be hard to keep up. SEO simply requires you to take certain steps when building and publishing your website so that your website can talk to search engines like Google.
Google cannot tell people about your website if it can’t find your website or recognise what it is about. Search engines look through ‘keywords’ to find websites. If a client searches for ‘estate planning lawyers’, and your firm offers that service, you want to repeat words and phrases that include ‘estate planning’ across your website’s pages. You can do this by mentioning it on your service offering page, ensuring it features in your lawyer’s summaries, and even blogging about it. Doing this will build your law firm website’s potential to make it to the front page of search results.
SEO steps to take for your law firm’s website
In summary, you need to take the below steps to ensure your law firm appears on the first page of search results. Only then will potential clients find your service offerings before they find your competitors. Your website, to qualify in search engine results, should have:
- articles with the key words of your offerings, for example family law, criminal law, estate law
- a service offering page using key words tailored to your service offering
- SEO prompts in the framework of your website, which can include personalising website urls
- Implementation of important Google tools.
However, it isn’t just about what you write on your website. Search engines also assess your websites on whether it is fast, mobile compatible, and meets the search engine’s standards of quality and security.
So, firstly, get the best website for your business and budget. Secondly, fill your law firm’s website with SEO content to facilitate it appearing on search engines. You cannot have a good website without good SEO, and vice versa.
Create an SEO friendly website for your law firm
Are you feeling a bit overwhelmed and out of your depth when it comes to creating a good law firm website or helping it rank? We can build, host, and manage law firm websites for optimum performance and conversion with the user in mind.
