Despite being more of a relationship business, a website is as important to a law firm as it is to any other business. These days, the first thing that most people do when they need a product or service is to search for it on the web. Even if your prospective client hears about you though a friend or some other off-line media, most of them will do a little research on the web to recheck if your firm is likely to be a good match for their requirements. Have a poor website and you are likely to turn your potential customer off even before you have a chance to interact with them. Let us look at ways in which you can ensure that the website of your law firm is working for you.
Basic features of a good law firm website
Content which drives across the professionalism of your firm and showcases the ability of your attorneys is obviously a basic requirement. Your site should do a good job of communicating your practice areas and the relevant qualification and areas of specialization of your attorneys. Being a relationship business, impressive photographs of your attorneys will be nice to have. Knowing the people they are going to interact with will make your prospective clients feel more confident and comfortable.
Once the basics are in place, you have to pay attention to what your visitors are looking for. Look at the website through the eyes of your visitor. Once they have ascertained that your practice areas match their requirements, they are looking for your experience in dealing with the type of problems that they are trying to solve. Here are six things that you should do to ensure that you have their interest in addition to their attention.
Keep all information current
Don’t give your visitors the impression that your website was published and then forgotten. Make sure that it has up-to-date information whether it is the biographical data of your attorneys or examples of recent work.
Let them know that you are the expert
Regularly publish articles and updates related to the latest developments, news and services in your practice areas. If available, include links to the publications of your attorneys so that the fact that they are experts in their field gets across to the visitor giving them more confidence in dealing with your firm.
Ensure that the users have a good experience on the website
Make sure that your website loads fast, all information is organized nicely and is easily search-able. Poor website experience is one of the factors that makes visitors press the back button. A poorly designed website will turn your visitors off and achieve the opposite result for you. Visitors automatically assume that the firm is unprofessional and does not pay attention to details when they encounter a clumsy difficult website. This is something a law firm simply cannot afford to do.
Keep the focus on the client’s requirements
While a website that has a home page that shows your firm’s rich legacy, history and historical statistics may impress someone who wants to buy your firm, the information may not make much sense to someone looking to buy your services. So instead make sure that your landing pages focus on how you can solve your visitor’s problems.