Top 10 must-have website features for marketing a law firm
The most important tool when it comes to marketing a law firm is an effective website
There are 10 must-have features that every law firm needs to bear in mind when it comes to the design of a website:
1. Mobile friendly
Your website acts as a shop window that’s available to your clients 24/7, no matter where there are. Around half of web traffic worldwide can be attributed to mobile users so it’s vitally important that your website is mobile optimised. Online campaigns are a key part of marketing a law firm. If your website isn’t mobile friendly then any interested clients are likely to navigate away from your site before you can convince them to work with you.
2. Eye-catching
Your law firm website needs to be engaging and eye-catching. You have approximately 8 seconds to grab and retain the attention of any visitors to your website. A lot of effort goes into marketing a law firm, but all of this time is wasted if your website doesn’t capture the attention of your audience.
3. Quick to load
With this in mind, how quickly does your website load? It doesn’t matter how good your digital strategy is, if your website isn’t loading quickly then you’re missing out on potential clients. If it takes longer than a couple of seconds then it’s likely that visitors will lose interest and navigate away before they even get to see any of the content on there.
4. Updated information
There’s nothing more frustrating than out of date information. Whether it’s a change in team members or the opening of a new location, you need to be transparent with your clients. Visitors to your site will be looking for proof that they can trust your law firm to help them with their legal issues, so don’t get off to the wrong start by providing them with incorrect information.
5. Prominent contact information
Your website is useless if it doesn’t clearly communicate your contact information to your clients. Ensure that it appears in several different locations on your site including at the top and bottom of every single page. This means that clients won’t have to waste time searching for ways they can get in touch.
6. A blog
An excellent strategy for marketing a law firm is creating a blog on your website. Not only is this invaluable in terms of SEO, but it’s also fantastic when it comes to validating your business. A blog is your law firm’s chance to demonstrate its knowledge and allows you to give your clients an idea of how to deal with common legal issues that they might be facing.
7. Testimonials or reviews
Clients will generally visit your website in order to validate what they’ve heard about your company. Testimonials and reviews mean that your clients can get an unbiased opinion of how good your law firm is. For all of the money you might be spending on print advertising, or social media campaigns, marketing a law firm will only ever be successful if you have the evidence to back up what you’re promising.
8. Biographies and consistent portraits
More than 30% of the visits to your site will be to your people pages. Because of this, it’s vital that you display biographies and consistently-styled portraits of all of your lawyers. This tactic will allow you to humanise your company and is a great strategy for law firms to utilise.
9. Clear, plain language
Tone of voice is really important when it comes to branding a company. This allows you to give your company a distinct voice which is a key part of marketing a law firm. You need to remember that most of the visitors to your website won’t have the training or education required to understand legal jargon so using clear, plain language is key.
And finally…
10. Are you proud of it?
The most important thing to consider is whether you’re proud of your website or not. You may have worked really hard on developing your logo and proposition, but a website is equally as important in terms of branding a company. Can you really say that you’re proud of the website that your potential clients are viewing? Marketing a law firm might seem easy, but if you’re not proud of your website then it’s time for a redesign.