Developing a website for a law firm – what is the first principle in the construction process?
The first principle of development a website for a law firm and legal websites is to receive direct and accurate input from Google searches. Since many people search about their legal problems every day the internet is the right platform to get answers to the questions. Lawyer websites have an important role as a response to help in complicated or routine legal areas. Who knows, it is possible that most of these lawyer websites will become the most visited websites in USA in a short period of time! Do you know the reason for this? It’s very simple, it can be assumed that for a person who has a problem in one of the legal branches, the only solution to find his questions is to contact a lawyer and search on Google. In this case, neither Instagram, nor Telegram, nor any mobile application will help him because it does not arrive and cannot be a suitable platform for receiving an answer! Developing a website for a law firm is actually a greater exposure to people who need legal services.
Developing a website for a law firm – one look
Developing a legal and advocacy website helps a lawyer or law firm stand out, grow their brand, attract the ideal client and add value to existing and potential clients. In addition, website promotion for lawyers is important for increasing the number of customers coming to the website.
This article will help you define a purpose for your law firm website, consider your value proposition, and learn the basics of legal website development functionality, accessibility, and structure. We’ll also give you tips on how to use content marketing to increase awareness and boost your CTAs and lead magnets. You will also learn the importance of legal website development principles.
Table of Contents – Developing lawyer websites
- Why is it important to have a website for a lawyer or law firm?
- The purpose of development a website for a law firm
- How to increase the performance of your legal website?
- Why should you design an accessible legal website?
- The landing pages your law firm’s websites need
- Other important parts for development a lawyer website
- Outsourcing of content production to legal institutions
- The power of calls to action on law firm websites
Why is it important to have a website for a lawyer or law firm?
Developing websites Lawyers, potential clients are looking for legal services on the Internet every day. A strong web presence is essential for your law firm to attract new clients and remain successful. The cornerstone of your presence is your website. That is, a place to demonstrate power and expertise, as well as drive traffic and requests for legal services.
Most customers start the buying process with an online search. This process also applies to e-commerce and online service providers. Your potential clients also want to make an informed decision when choosing a lawyer. Your website is one of the first places they’ll visit to see if you’re a good fit.
Developing a website for lawyers
With the increase in the population, development a website for lawyers is undoubtedly a highly sought-after commodity. The competition between activity in different business areas and for one legal services have become more important than before. Because of the large supply in many fields and certainly in the field of law, today’s market audience is an audience flooded with information and publications. In fact, these days much success in the business world is not achieved without the use of various and extensive advertising methods.
Developing websites for lawyers
On the other hand, traditional advertising methods are no longer effective in increasing the number of customers, and new marketing methods have replaced them. This topic can be extended to all areas of work, both in terms of selling goods and in terms of providing legal services. In this regard, if you work as a lawyer or law firm manager, you should look to use effective marketing and advertising methods on your website.
Define your brand identity
Having a skilled lawyer always has a great impact on the outcome of court cases. Therefore, people are always looking to hire the best lawyer or use the services of the most experienced law firm. Now, if the quality of your work is not well received by potential clients, you will lose the chance of attracting your target audience. In this regard, as a first step, you should think about creating a brand and then define your brand identity in the best possible way. It is better to choose the name and logo of your business to attract the audience at first glance, and then by using a reliable and high-quality professional website, you can convert the audience into a customer. It is worth noting that by creating a brand, you should also seek to define the brand identity. In fact, you should define your goals in providing services, solving the need and getting the best result for your client. This way your name and logo are recognized as a reliable brand by the target audience.
A website for lawyers
There is no doubt that a website for lawyers is required, especially when you are a lawyer at the beginning of your career. Setting up websites for lawyers, whether it is an active and very old firm, or a lawyer firm at the beginning, the construction must be professional, taking into account the nature of the firm and the legal field in which you specialize.
How to increase the performance of your legal website?
Functionality refers to the interactive parts of the website and the process a customer needs to go through to find the information they are looking for. About 75% of consumers say that they judge the credibility of a law firm based on the construction of its website. To avoid negative comments coming from your site, start with simple functionality.
Developing lawyer websites
So what is the concept of professional website development? It is an expression that is taken in almost every field or sector of the economy. Developing a website under the definition “professional” is actually one word that must include information and the skill and reliability of the professional and certainly when you seek to find for you the person who will create a website for you that will reflect exactly what you are. A professional website is a correct construction according to the algorithm of the various search engines, the biggest of which is the Google search engine.
Website for a lawyer
A website for a professional lawyer, in fact it is a website that is optimized for search engines since the requirements are a parameter that is constantly updated. There is no doubt that the correct construction of a website in general, not only for lawyers, is extremely important to carry out a second process of promoting the website to the first results in the search engines. Another equally essential part is actually the nature of the site, or in other words the visual aspect dealing with the design of the site, which is actually what initially appears to visitors to your site. There is no doubt that construction is an integral part of website design. Another part of development a website for a lawyer or in general is the website’s function in terms of moving pages, buttons, etc…
Determine your target audience
The topic of what people are going to search for to use your services is very important. In fact, by knowing your target audience, you can determine the best ways to attract their attention through advertising on your site. Moreover, by using proper marketing techniques, you can convert these audiences into customers of your services.
Developing lawyer websites
Understanding the importance of development quality law firm websites , here’s how to build an accessible and useful website, plus the essentials you need to succeed and convert your visitors into leads for your firm. We will check together.
The purpose of development a website for a law firm
Law firm websites serve many purposes. They share information about who you are, showcase your service areas, and give potential customers a way to access those services. Beyond that, your website should convey what makes you unique – your value proposition – to your target customer.
A lawyer’s unique value proposition
A value proposition defines the unique value you provide to your clients that other lawyers do not. It states the reasons why the customer should choose you. You should emphasize this section properly in development your law firm website. If you don’t know your Unique Value Proposition, follow these steps.
- Identify the main concerns of your target customer. Take some time to define your client’s main concerns. These concerns depend on your core service area as well as your target customer.
- Identify how your service addresses these concerns by detailing the benefits. Now, define how your service addresses these concerns. List the benefits of your service instead of the features.
- Present yourself as a value provider. Present yourself as a provider of this unique value on your home page and throughout your website with your advocacy site.
Performance and accessibility of the law office website
A website should be two things: both functional and accessible to everyone. Legal websites that don’t work properly scare away visitors and reduce the number of leads you get.
Below are some of the most important elements that development your law firm website needs to function properly:
Easy navigation – development a website for a law firm
Site navigation should be easy to understand and follow. For example, each page title should say exactly what your visitors expect from the page. Place your navigation at the top of your site. For pages that have subpages, place them in the dropdowns associated with your main navigation.
Sitemap – development a website for a lawyer
A sitemap is a visual route of your website pages. This map helps search engines like Google crawl your site more easily.
Low scrolling
Website visitors don’t want to scroll too far down the page. Instead, they want to search. View the length of your website pages and minimize scrolling.
The search bar – development a website for a lawyer
If visitors are looking for something specific on your site, they will often look for the search bar. Add a simple search bar to your website to help your audience find the information they need quickly.
Mobile friendly construction
About 85% of consumers think that the mobile part of a law firm’s website should be as good or better than the desktop. Make sure your law firm’s website is responsive, meaning it automatically adjusts to screen sizes on different devices.
Why should you design an accessible legal website?
When development your law firm website, remove any barriers that might prevent users from having a great user experience (UX). This means an emphasis on accessibility, a method that ensures disabled and non-disabled users can seamlessly engage with your content.
Use alt text for your images. All images should have alt text so that page readers can get the message of the image. If the image is for decorative purposes only, leave the alt text blank.
Use headers. Headings, used by screen readers to scan, break up your content.
Use subtitles for all video content. Videos must have subtitles or on-screen text scripts.
Add a navigation feature. Add a skip navigation feature that allows page readers to skip the sometimes cumbersome aspects of a website.
Make sure links have descriptive names. Links in the text should be descriptive and indicate exactly what the user can expect from the next page after clicking the link.
These tips are just the beginning. A real approach requires an in-depth review of the site from the inside out.
The landing pages your law firm’s websites need
To achieve the goal of communicating your unique value proposition, as well as information about your organization and services, there are several main pages you should have on your website. These pages are:
Home Page: This page is the first place your visitors will land. This is the best place to grab your audience’s attention and make a great first impression.
About us page: An about us page should convey your mission, vision and values, as well as what sets you apart from other law firms in your field.
Biography Page: Biography is about you. Why you do what you do, who you do it for, and how you specifically help your customers.
Service Page: The service page is all about the services you offer and how your services benefit customers.
Contact page: One of the most important pages on the website is the contact page, which gives visitors the opportunity to contact you for more information.
Recommendations and reviews online
Website visitors trust online reviews like a personal recommendation. That’s why you should put the certificates on the website. Make it part of your process to get customer feedback. You can then add a dedicated testimonials page to your website, display them on other pages, or both.
Blog posts, podcasts and content marketing
Content marketing is a marketing strategy that involves producing quality and useful content to generate interest in your services. Your website is only one piece of the content marketing puzzle. But the content hub is where all other content leads, like blog posts and podcasts.
The importance of a blog in development the website of law firms
Blogging is an important part of your content marketing efforts, even as a law firm. Blogs are ranked as the 5th most trusted source for accurate information that matters most to your customers. Businesses that post daily get 5x more traffic than those that don’t.
Maybe the lawyers are too busy. However, the amount of time you spend blogging will pay off even more. So make it a priority.
Schedule a time to create content. Schedule time in your content calendar to create new blog posts. Set aside a few hours each week to plan your posts, write them, and schedule them to go live. Start with a few posts a week and then increase.
Rewrite previous content. Use previous content to create new content. For example, select a previous article and add additional information to make it more in-depth. Or expand on a topic from your website in a blog post.
Outsourcing of content production to legal institutions
If you find you can’t do it alone, ask for help. Outsource your content creation efforts to a content marketing agency or professional copywriter.
Blogging is just one form of content marketing that you can use in your marketing strategy. As you learn and grow, consider the following new forms:
- podcast
- Electronic books
- Movies
- Social Networks
- Email marketing
- Online seminars
- Infographics
The power of calls to action on law firm websites
Visitors to your law firm website who are ready to take the next step with you need to know what the next step is. This is where your calls to action come in. A call to action (CTA) is a tool used to inspire action from website visitors.
The website should have a contact page as well as a CTA on every page. The CTA may vary depending on your goals. Do you want to easily generate leads from clients looking for your legal services? Placing a contact button or contact form on your website pages may be sufficient. Or if you want to generate email addresses for your email list, a CTA to subscribe to your newsletter is the best choice.
Follow these steps to create the correct readings:
Keep them short and simple. A call to action should be concise and tell the visitor exactly what they will get if they act.
Highlight them. Use call-to-action boxes, pop-ups, headers and more to make your CTA stand out from the rest of your web page content.
Use strong words. These words create an emotional response that compels the reader to take the next step. For example, use words like inspiring, free, impactful, new, etc.
Principles of development a website for a law firm
Website design for a law firm refers to the aesthetics of a website or the visual aspects involved in creating a website. This includes creating outlines from images to text. Believe it or not, not properly development your law firm website can cause your online presence to fail. The first impression of a website is mainly related to its construction and the first impression takes only 0.05 seconds.
In order to create a first impression with the construction of your website, it is important to follow some basic principles of law firm website construction.
keep it simple
All development features on your site should serve a purpose. A cluttered build makes your content difficult to use. Don’t leave your audience in the middle of a collection of graphic and visual elements. Keep your build simple.
Create an easy to follow navigation (menu).
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: put the easy menu on the site and place it at the top of your site. This will help your audience find what they are looking for quickly.
Follow an “F” pattern in development your website.
Most users follow an F pattern when reading online content. This means they read the top of the page first, the bottom left, and then across the page again. Anything you want your audience to notice first should be in the top left corner of your page (like your logo). The rest of your elements should follow the pattern.
Emphasize the reading Use lots of white space and scatter visual elements across the page. Use headings in your text as well as easy reading. Be sure to use a good font size. A font size of 16 pixels is suitable for the body of the text.
Stay on brand.
The construction of your website should communicate with your brand. Use your brand colors and logo. Create images and elements that match your message.
Most clients visit your law firm’s website before contacting the firm. If not, you’re missing clues that could mean the difference between success and failure.
In conclusion – development a website for a law firm
The first principle of development a website for a law firm and legal websites is to receive direct and accurate input from Google searches. Since many people search about their legal problems every day the internet is the right platform to get answers to the questions. Lawyer websites have an important role as a response to help in complicated or routine legal areas. Who knows, it is possible that most of these lawyer websites will become the most visited websites in USA in a short period of time! Do you know the reason for this? It’s very simple, it can be assumed that for a person who has a problem in one of the legal branches, the only solution to find his questions is to contact a lawyer and search on Google for a website for a good lawyer. In this case, neither Instagram, nor Telegram, nor any mobile application will help him because it does not arrive and cannot be a suitable platform for receiving an answer! Developing a website for a law firm is actually a greater exposure to people who need legal services