Designing A Law Firm Website – 5 Key Principles

 22 Mar, 2024

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Website Design for Law Firms: A How-to Guide

Are you struggling to understand how to make your law firm website responsive and engaging? Are you wondering where to start? If you're looking for an agency to design and build your law firm website design, JanBask is the right door to knock at. We create websites that tell your law firm’s story and that quickly communicate who you are. 

Why Does a Legal Website Matter?

Do you know your legal website is the face of your law firm? A custom-made law firm website can help your firm stand out, increase brand exposure, and draw in your ideal client. Your prospective clients are going to make informed decisions based on your online presence. Your law firm web design has the potential to make or break your legal practice online.

Are you wondering and scrolling your current firm website to understand what message it conveys? We are here to help you. Get a classic and humane law firm website that is designed to deliver the right message and convert your visitors into leads for your firm. It’s no secret that the legal sector is one of the most competitive industries in the game. This means that in order to actively bring in more clients, you must always have your best foot forward and stay ahead of the legal marketing curve.

The Purpose of Law Firm Websites

Law firm websites serve many purposes. It has information about who you are, showcases your service areas and offers an easy way to your potential clients to get connected with you. Beyond that, your website should communicate what makes you unique to your target client. As an attorney or group of attorneys, your website is the single most important portrayal of your firm.

Is Your Law Firm’s Website Client-Centric?

Most customers begin the buying process by conducting online research first. Let’s look at two important statistics, one, a survey by Google which found that 96% of people seeking legal advice (in the US) use a search engine, and the other, from Legal Productivity, which found that only 35% of lawyer websites had been updated in the last year.

When your potential clients are doing their online research, you want to make sure your law firm’s website is set up for success and shows up as one of the top search results. With many law firm websites not being updated however, in reality, this is a lost opportunity. For your law firm to draw in new clients and remain successful, a strong web presence is a must. The cornerstone of your web presence is your website, the place to demonstrate your authority and expertise, as well as drive traffic and inquiries for your law firm.

Put simply, if you haven’t included law firm web design into your firm’s marketing budget, you’re behind the trend—leaving potential clients to seek out OTHER law firms that have.

Law firm website design refers to the aesthetics of a website or the visual aspects involved in website creation. It includes the creation of the overall layout from images to text. To make a great first impression using your website design, it’s critical to follow a few law firm website design principles.

Law firm website design

1. Don't Make Visitors Think

The attention span of the average person browsing the web today is much shorter than it used to be. A cluttered design makes it difficult to consume your content. Don’t leave your audience searching through piles of graphics and visual elements. Keep your design simple.

2. Make Your Message Clear And Readable

Ensure that your key messages (your brand's 'value propositions') are clear. Why should they choose your firm above all others? Use plenty of whitespace and spread visual elements out across the page. Use headings in your text as well as easy to read typography. While making your message clear, you need to provide value to visitors. Publish useful content; educate your website's visitors.

3. Create Easy To Follow Navigation

Is your navigation easy to use? Does your site work well on mobile? Is it easy to make an inquiry? Create easy to follow navigation and place it near the top of your website. This helps your potential clients find what they’re looking for quickly.

4. Build Trust

Building trust is crucial if you want your website to convert. Your law website design should communicate your brand. If you can showcase your own expertise and gain credibility through your site you will have a higher chance of converting visitors into paying clients. You can do this through testimonials or through publishing relevant case studies explaining how you have helped other clients.

5. Follow An “F” Pattern In Your Design

Most users follow an “F” pattern when reading content online. This means your visitors will read the top of the page first, down the left-side and then across the page again. Anything you want your potential clients to notice first should be in the top right-hand side of your page. The rest of your elements should follow the pattern.

A Guide to Increasing Your Law Firm’s Website Leads and Ensuring Best Practices

The very fact you are reading this guide would suggest you are interested in finding out more about turning your legal website into a client generating machine such as this - this is a great first step and one which has already put you ahead of the curve. Take the time to read through this guide and consider your options and you will soon be well on track to making your law firm website a success.

Dedicated Pages For Each Practice Area

If your law firm has been operating in multiple practice areas, give each practice area its own dedicated web page on your website. This will give you the opportunity to add or update information for each practice area so you can position yourselves as experts. This will also help with search engine optimization (SEO), so more people can find your website when searching for those services online.

Law Firm Blog

Adding a blog to your law firm’s website is an excellent way to showcase your knowledge and expertise. This also serves as a resource for current and potential clients who want to learn more about specific legal topics related to your practice areas. It can also help your law firm website rank on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Mobile-Friendly Functionality

Mobile devices have become the go-to gadget for most of the people across the globe. So, it should be no surprise that since April of 2015, Google has given search engine ranking priority to websites that display well on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Your website has to be flawless and mobile-friendly to rank higher in search results, increasing your website’s visibility to potential new clients.

A Call To Action On Every Page

Be sure to include a clear call-to-action (CTA) on every page of your law firm’s website. Without a clear CTA, your website visitors may not know the next steps to get in touch.  CTAs will often be in the form of a button, pop-up, side panel, or fillable form and will include action words. The CTAs used should drive and encourage the viewer to contact you.

Contact Us Page

People need to know how to get in touch with your law firm. You should be sure to include a “contact” page on your website with all of your necessary contact information, including your email address, phone number, and mailing address. You can also include a “contact us” form that people can use to email you directly from your website.

SSL Security

It’s imperative that your website is SSL secure, because visitors want to see the “https” secure URL when visiting any website, they are entrusting with their personal information. You may have noticed that some URLs (web addresses) start with "http://" and others start with "https://". The extra "s" in “https” means that your connection to that website is secure and encrypted and any data you enter on that website is shared safely.

Law Firm Testimonials

 You should strongly consider adding a testimonials page on your law firm’s website. According to research by BrightLocal, 76% of people trust online reviews as much as recommendations from family and friends. Moreover, positive reviews make 91% of consumers more likely to use a business.

Attorney Bios

For most law firm websites, the attorney biography page is the most visited page. So, it's no surprise that a well-written, up-to-date bio can result in new leads. Visitors want to know who they are going to deal with, they need all relevant information about the attorney to trust them with their cases.

Law Firm Website Disclaimers

All law firm websites should have appropriate disclaimers, including a disclaimer at the bottom of each page (possibly in the footer), and a complete disclaimer on its own dedicated page. The disclaimer listed on every page should link to the complete disclaimer. Since your law firm’s website will contain information pertaining to your area(s) of practice, you’ll definitely want to add a disclaimer that explains that the information on your website is created for general purposes only

Law Firm Website Privacy Policy

A privacy policy is a statement or a legal document (in privacy law) that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer or client's data.

In the case of a business website, a privacy policy is often a statement that declares a party's policy on how its website collects, stores, and releases personal information it collects. It informs the client what specific information is collected, and whether it is kept confidential, shared with partners, or sold to other firms or enterprises

Cookies Consent Pop-Up

The growing use of consent notices for cookies—pieces of data that are sent by websites and stored on the user’s computer by their Web browser—is most often attributed to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, commonly known as the GDPR. Under the Cookie Law, you are obligated to publish a Cookie Policy on your website as well as a consent form and pop-up notification. You must also provide detailed information on the types of Cookies you are using as well as an option for users to decline or delete Cookies

Website Accessibility Functionality

Website accessibility is the comprehensive practice of ensuring there are no barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to, websites by people with physical disabilities, situational disabilities, and socio-economic restrictions on bandwidth and speed. The best way to approach website accessibility is to follow the guidelines put forth by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) under their Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

There is a lot more to keep in mind when building a great website for your law firm, but the tips above should help you get started. 

Mobile Website Design for Law Firms

  • How are you reading this post right now?
  • Are you working on your laptop?
  • Are you traveling home on the train with your smartphone?

Either way, there is no denying the endless number of devices available today to browse the web. More than half of all traffic to law firm websites now comes from mobile devices. This is trending upwards and shows no signs of slowing down.

What does that mean for websites today? With the proliferation of mobile devices with an advanced web-browsing capability and so many variants in screen sizes, it draws massive attention to the vital importance of responsive website design for lawyers. We can ensure that your visitors have a positive user-experience and they will be far more likely to do business with you. If your site is not properly optimized for mobile devices, there are high chances that you might lose your potential clients.

Growing Your Firm's With Conversion-Focused Web Design

Wouldn’t it be great if your firm had a website generating leads on a regular basis? Our talent for law web design coupled with expert marketing knowledge and legal sector specialization sets us apart from other web design agencies, because our main objective is to generate business for your firm. Our core business has always been helping law firms grow and our dynamic team has the skills to make it happen.

It’s not enough to have a solid website. You can increase your website traffic exponentially and still not see any benefits. To make your website work for you, you must use it to generate leads and inquiries for your law firm.

Law Firm Web Design, Without The Risk of Being Disappointed

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Willing to invest in making a stellar law firm website that reflects your personality? Ready to revamp your law firm’s site and increase your conversions?

Entrusting a law firm web design agency to create and build an entire website for your practice isn’t an easy pill to swallow. How will it turn out? What if you don’t like the design? Do you pay for revisions? We are in the business of creating websites that our clients are proud of. A great law firm website design services goes far beyond aesthetics. With years of experience and expertise we exactly know how to build the right structure to creabetter search engine rankings.

Easily Update Your Website

Add, delete and manage anything from new case results, client testimonials, blog posts and ate the professional atmosphere you want a prospective client to experience.

We design stylish, functional, impactful & secure websites for the modern law practice. Our sleek, modern attorney websites, coupled with our stellar customer service and plain-speaking business practices, make the law firm web design process pain-free and rewarding for our clients in the legal community.

Your Law Firm Can't Afford To Have A Weak Website Design

Designed Exclusively for Lawyers

With several years of industrial experience in the legal marketing world, we know what works, and what doesn’t. Each law firm design we produce is carefully structured to ensure it does its job: driving traffic, and capturing potential client leads

Search Engines Like Elite Websites

We are continuously learning the latest guidelines set forth by search engines. Our websites are designed to capitalize on all the features search engines appreciate, which can result in anything else, without any tech knowledge. We have custom built our own easy-to-use platform, which combines the industry standard software, with the features you need as a lawyer.

We only deal with the latest and greatest stuff. Your law firm's website will be as modern as it gets. We always start with just the homepage design of your website. If it’s not exactly what you want, we will keep working until it’s perfect.

To Sum Up

We respect and value your decision. Once you have made the decision to invest in your law firm website, a good next step is to consider setting up your firm’s site, asking yourself important questions, such as:

  • “What type of website will work best for my firm?”
  • “What do I want my firm’s website to look like?”
  • “How much should I spend on my law firm website?

How much you spend on your law firm’s website may depend on your industry and how your leads generally come in. From solo attorneys to large law firms, we design websites for law firms of all sizes. We design websites that respect lawyers and uphold the dignity of their profession. Every aspect of your law firm web design is meticulously crafted to get your practice the best results possible!

Let the professionals handle your website design.

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R

Rafael Lewis

Main topics covered. A good and informative read

K

Kyle Lee

The points are explained in a very vivid way. I liked it

R

Riley Walker

Kudos to the writer. A well researched and engaging blog

J

Jorge Hall

A good read on this weekend