What to Include on a Law Firm’s Website

A law firm’s website might be the most central part of any attorney marketing strategy; any marketing effort or referral should send clients directly back to it. The key is to make clients want to stay once they reach your website. However, if a website is poorly designed, hard to interpret, or appears to be missing information, it is likely the client will search for another law firm with a more user-friendly website. The good news is that a successful law firm website does not need to be overcomplicated or intricately designed; there are a few core elements that should be included on any law firm’s website and done correctly can help keep your visitors’ attention and engagement.

Key elements to include on any law firm’s website include the following:

• Practice areas. Each practice area the law firm represents should have its own individual page on the website. Ideally, these pages will include examples of common case types and associated damages or things to keep in mind. These should avoid legal jargon and provide definitions or examples in places where legal jargon is unavoidable.
• Attorney bios. Each attorney in the firm should have their own page with a professional photograph, short biography, explanation of experience and education, and information about any specializations they have. If an attorney has received awards or nominations in their field, this is a good place to mention that as well.
• Contact page. Every law firm should have a page dedicated entirely to ways to contact the firm with questions. A phone number, email, and contact form are standard to have, and many firms choose to include their brick-and-mortar address here as well.
• Pricing information. While the pricing information likely doesn’t need an entire page to itself, it’s a good idea to include this information somewhere on the site. Although it might not be possible to offer a number-specific breakdown, it’s a good idea to give potential clients an idea of how the payment process works. For personal injury firms, this likely means free consultations and an explanation of what “contingency” refers to. For other firms, it may simply be a range of hourly rates.
• Videos. Attorney videos can be utilized on every page of a website as they provide a useful alternative for people who have trouble reading or simply dislike it. Additionally, if creating extensive written content for a website sounds daunting, an informative video can replace a good deal of the text entirely. Videos also provide attorneys a way to synthesize a sort of face-to-face conversation with potential clients, allowing viewers to get a sense of their authority and personality. However, videos that are not professional in audio/visual quality can detract from the overall professionalism of the site, so it’s a good idea to reach out to an attorney video marketing expert for help with these.

Keep it simple.

One of the most important things to remember when working on a law firm or attorney website is to keep it simple. Someone seeking the help of an attorney likely has a lot of questions and is looking for clear answers; the site should be uncluttered and easy to navigate. There should be no confusion around which link to open or which tab to click based on the information a client is looking for.

It’s a good idea to avoid color palettes that are overly dark or overly bright, as the content of the pages should be what stands out. Considering how important professionalism is in a field like law, it’s a good idea to hire a professional website builder at least for the initial design of the site. Keep in mind that your website will be competing with other similar websites, and if other websites look more professional or are obviously more user-friendly, you are likely to miss out on business.

For more advice about what to include on a law firm’s website, reach out to a legal marketing expert.