Get more leads with these powerful law firm website requirements.
These lawyer website tips are working right now.
What makes a good law firm website?
What should be included in a law firm website?
Find out in this article.
1. Fast website speed
Most people will exit your website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
Don’t make that mistake. Every website user is valuable.
Test your website here https://gtmetrix.com/
And consider hiring a web developer to fix any issues that are beyond your technical expertise.
This article explains why website speed is so important.
2. Easy navigation
Can people find what they need on your website?
Can you?
Ask your friends and family to give you honest feedback.
Look at your Google Analytics. Is every page on your website getting traffic? If not, maybe some of them are hard to find.
Every good website will have a menu in the header. It must include the most essential pages. And a mobile layout should have a ‘hamburger’ drop-down toggle.
e.g. https://www.grahamslaw.com.au/
Consider adding extra menu items to your footer
And installing a search function in your header (e.g. https://kelsolawyers.com/au/)
Breadcrumbs are another great way to improve navigation. They also help Google to read your website.
See here: https://kelsolawyers.com/au/cases/
Explained here: https://usersnap.com/blog/breadcrumbs/
3. Onsite SEO fundamentals
These are essential Law Firm Website Requirements that help Google rank your website.
e.g. meta description, title tag, headings tags, keyword optimised copy, fast loading speed, keyword in URL, short URLs, alt tag in images
The site audit will display any critical areas for improvement.
4. Keyword research
What are people searching for on Google?
What words and phrases are they using?
Don’t want to pay for a professional keyword research tool? Or an SEO agency?
This tool is (almost) free: Keywords Everywhere
You can also use ‘Google Suggest’ (aka Autocomplete)
Don’t forget to analyse the keywords of your top-performing competitors.
Who ranks for the keywords you want to target? Find out. And see how they’ve done it.
5. Optimise your Practice area pages
Flesh out your practice area pages (e.g. Wills…Family Law…Construction Disputes…Business Law…etc…)
Do your keyword research, answer common questions and provide useful information.
The big law firms are great at doing this (e.g. Shine Lawyers)
Yes, your website can rank for multiple practice areas.
But, each page on your website should target 1x primary keyword.
That’s why the practice area pages are so crucial.
6. A clear CTA (‘call to action’) in a clickable button
On my website, the primary CTA is ‘Free Strategy Session’
What will yours be?
E.g. Book an Appointment? Call Us? Send a Message
I’m a fan of using a button that opens a ‘pop up’
It keeps the user on the page. And it’s fast. People don’t like to be redirected to another page.
Try clicking on my primary CTA button https://legalsites.com.au/
You’ll also see it redirects the user once the form has been submitted. This lets them book an appointment to speak with me. In marketing, we call this a ‘micro commitment’. It’s also just a really convenient feature for my new clients. After all, the appointment can be added directly into their Google Calendar.
7. Three USPs (Unique Selling Points).
In other words, how is your law firm different? Why should a client hire you instead of a competitor?
Try and choose 3 points that are unique. Don’t go for the obvious (e.g. Experienced…We listen…We’re passionate about what we do…etc…)
What are 3 things that most of your competitors don’t (or can’t) provide people?
For example, many of the big personal injury firms don’t let new enquiries speak with a lawyer until they’ve been processed by a member of staff. This weeds out the good claims from the less good. So, if you’re a small firm that does personal injury claims, maybe you can promise that all new enquiries will speak with a lawyer directly, at all times? Then you can explain why someone would find that valuable.
Why 3 points? It just works. Simple, quick and classic.
8. Responsive design (mobile, tablet and desktop)
Chances are 50% (or more) of your first website visitors are on mobile.
This number will continue to rise.
Plus, Google is now prioritising the performance of most mobile layouts over the desktop. So, that means your mobile layout is probably determining your Google ranking. At least, more so than your desktop layout is.
9. Pricing/Fees/Costs
No, you don’t need to be specific.
But, it’s ideal to address the elephant in the room.
What can you say about your fees?
For example…
Will people pay for the first consultation? When will costs be explained to them? Will they have to sign anything? Do you have different costs arrangements for different practice areas? Are there ongoing fees? ‘Hidden fees’?
There’s something powerful about addressing costs.
It’s often the biggest cause of anxiety, fear and resistance. Once this is overcome, your website users are more inclined to become clients.
Wrapping up this article on Law Firm Website Requirements
Tell us which ones you’re going to try.
Thanks for your time and good luck.
I hope you enjoyed this article on Law Firm Website Requirements.