Ask any of the best digital marketing agencies specializing in internet marketing services for lawyers what they think is the most valuable advertising asset for law firms in 2020. The answer will always be their website.
Every company has a website, but not every business has a dominating website that consistently rises to the top of a search engine’s results page rankings. And once the website is found and visited, what is it about that website which makes it shine?
All of the best web design companies in the Philadelphia region will also tell you that there are certain essential elements that every legal services website needs to possess to make it the “go-to” website for clients seeking legal representation. Depending on the digital marketing agency, the “must-have” lists for lawyer & legal services websites will vary in length and order of importance. Still, all will likely follow common themes and concepts.
For most law firms and legal services agencies, your website will be the source of most prospective clients’ 1st impression of your firm. We are all well-versed with the reminder that you never get a 2nd chance to make an excellent 1st impression. So what 1st impression do visitors to your website get about your practice? That could depend on how many of the below items your website is already getting right!
To establish your “Brand Identity” – what you wish your practice to be known as and for – there must be cohesion between the website’s elements. Some examples of the more critical elements that contribute to a cohesive brand identity include: The use of consistent logos, color schemes & font choices, and inclusion of high-resolution visual content, such as pictures, relevant videos, infographics, blog posts & podcasts, E-books & White Papers, and any “fresh content” that maintains consistency with your brand.
If visitors to your website struggle with finding the information relevant and specific to their needs, they will not stay for long – and likely never return! Make your website’s navigation as easy as possible, and place the navigation tool in a location that most visitors will see first – near or at the top of your homepage,
Create a consistent user experience (UX) for visitors to your website by making it “friendly” with the three major digital devices used today: desktop/laptop computers, tablets, and perhaps the most important, smartphones.
Nobody wants to hire a lawyer or law firm that is mediocre or just “above average” – they want the best. There are several ways to lend an air of credibility to your firm’s value. And they all relate to how successful your firm has been for your previous clients.
There is more than one way to evaluate the quality of a Legal Services Agency. But there’s only one that prospective clients care about: Financial settlement results, as in “how much monetary compensation has your firm been successful in winning for your clients?”
If it’s quite a bit, you should take a moment to “brag” about it. You may cringe every time you hear another law firm talk about the many millions of dollars they have won for their clients over the years. But be assured – prospective clients are paying attention!
Anything that distracts from a visitor’s ability to “absorb” the content within your website is no good. Assist your visitors with the focus required by taking advantage of as much of the available “real estate” on each page to leave some space between various visual content pieces. Also, be sure to choose a font style & size consistent with your brand identity, making your site easy on the viewer’s eyes. Another best practice? Use headers & sub-headers to “label” the different topics and sections of content for more straightforward navigation – as we did in this blog, for example!
The primary, if not sole, purpose of everything on your website is to generate new clients & revenue streams; correct? As such, you want the visitors to contact you to initiate the next step in your relationship. Therefore, it is vital that you provide multiple methods by which they may contact your Agency. These methods may include (but not be limited to):
Your phone number(s), email address(es), submission forms to fill out that contains their essential contact information, and nature of their contact.
You may also wish to consider using an automated “chatbot” to serve as an initial point of contact for your Agency. Chatbots are always working, never moody, and can be the difference between a customer choosing your Agency or going to another.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember: Make sure to place these contact options in easy-to-find locations on your site, and perhaps on each page within.
For the few unfamiliar with this acronym, it stands for “Keep It Short & Simple.” some of the best ways to achieve this are:
Make your call to action (CTA) as clear & concise as possible. Don’t assume that people know what you mean – make darn sure that your messages cannot be confused for anything but exactly what you want them to say.
Want more information regarding the essential features that every legal practice should contain on their website and avoid? Please download our gift to you, a complimentary white paper on this topic.
Care to know how well your website stacks up against the best law firm websites in categories like website design, content, ease of navigation, SEO, and more? If so, we encourage you to try our FREE Legal website performance report. Learn for yourself why 1SEO ranks as one of the Greater Philadelphia region’s best web design companies and internet marketing services providers for lawyers and legal services agencies!
We’ve likely mentioned before that it’s always a challenge to write our last blog of the week, our Friday blog for the Professional Services vertical.
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