6 Easy Ways to Create a Winning Website
If you want a more powerful website, make sure your office location, phone number and email are displayed prominently on your homepage.
Also: include a Call to Action inviting visitors to engage further by contacting your office, scheduling an appointment, or linking to your blog.
Another tip: keep your website clean, simple and uncluttered.
“Many lawyer websites fall into the trap of over complicating their website and making it confusing to the user,” according to Teresa Matich on the Clio blog. “Great lawyer websites are easy to navigate with services clearly laid out. The best law firm websites provide an effortless, client-centered experience while projecting a strong, clear brand for your practice.”
Click here to see Clio’s list of the Top 20 Law Firm Websites on the Internet.
Lawyers Mutual is here to help your practice grow and thrive. Our email newsletter “Practice Reimagined” offers timely tips, pointers and valuable links to keep you safe and successful in the new normal.
6 Ways to Have a Winning Website
- Showcase your expertise. The homepage of this Illinois’ firm’s website features weekly telebriefs that highlight their expertise. Their “About” page shows how they are uniquely positioned to help business clients. Content throughout the site emphasizes “how they are a client-centered practice rather than a billable-centered one,” says Clio.
- Add a Client Intake form. This Texas firm, which serves low-income clients in Houston, placed a simple, easy-to-find online intake form on their homepage. The results were immediate. “[It] makes the user experience much smoother for those looking to access legal services quickly,” says Clio.
- Come up with a great tagline. This San Francisco firm, which specializes in IP law, has this headline on its homepage: Dream big. We got your back. “All of the best law firm websites place a strong emphasis on branding and getting their message across as soon as the visitor lands on the website,” according to Clio. “[This site] does this in spectacular fashion with an eye-catching homepage header.”
- Tell people how you can help them. “[This] estate planning firm in Portland, Oregon, has a calming website that clearly highlights different services offered,” according to Clio. “And it’s clear what the firm does, because there are pages on wills, trusts, probate, and more that clearly lay out what’s included for each service in a bulleted list. What’s more, this even includes pricing, an important piece of information which lawyer websites often neglect to include!”
- Provide reassurance. In copywriting parlance, the term “reassurance” means words that ease a reader’s fear, doubts or hesitation about purchasing a product or service. Clio praised this Canadian firm’s website for its excellent use of reassurance copy: “As soon as a website visitor lands on their homepage, they’re prompted to schedule a free call. This is important, because it allays any worries about the initial cost of legal services, on top of the difficulties a potential client with legal issues may be facing.” Here are some other ways to reassure visitors to your site: state clearly who you are and what you do; emphasize that there is no fee or obligation for an initial consultation; post a video giving a virtual tour of your office and previewing what’s involved in an initial meeting.
- Put your picture on the homepage. This New York firm’s website earned plaudits from Clio for that reason: “[M]ixes up the traditional law firm website designs template by featuring images of the firm’s key lawyers, allowing prospective clients to put a face to a name right away. This is important, because it could potentially increase a prospective client’s trust in the firm.”
Source: Clio
Jay Reeves is author of The Most Powerful Attorney in the World. He practiced law in North Carolina and South Carolina. Now he writes and speaks at CLEs, keynotes and in-firm presentations on lawyer professionalism and well-being. He runs Your Law Life LLC, which offers confidential, one-on-one consultations to sharpen your firm’s mission and design an excellent Law Life. Contact jay@yourlawlife.com or 919-619-2441.
