As a small to midsize law firm, having an operational website is essential. Creating a website to describe your legal services allows site visitors to determine whether you have the skills and experience to help them resolve their legal issues. Additionally, search engine algorithms like Google use your website when presenting searchers with results to their inquiries. Websites that implement search engine optimization (SEO) best practices and contain client-centered content often rank higher than websites that do not prioritize these strategies. It’s important to understand that creating a website to market your law firm is not a one-and-done effort. Law firms that regularly update and refresh their website content and engage with potential clients are more likely to rise among the search results pages and attract a more steady stream of clients. If your law firm is working on growing your practices and reaching more potential clients in your community, there are several digital marketing strategies you can use to achieve these goals. Let’s take a look at some of the key features you can incorporate into your law firm’s website to maximize its impact and grow your practice.
Highlight Your Legal Expertise
When someone is looking for an attorney, they want to trust that the professional they hire has the background and skills necessary to resolve their legal matter. Even if you have just started your own law practice, you can showcase your commitment to delivering high-quality legal services to your clients through the content you write for your website. However, there is a subtle yet significant difference between conveying your legal experience by focusing solely on you and adopting a more client-centered focus to achieve this same goal. A website that merely lists the attorney’s professional accomplishments technically highlights the firm’s expertise and impressive track record, but it puts the spotlight on the attorney—not the client. Instead, you can convey your commitment to serving the specific needs of your clients and working with each individual to identify the most appropriate and effective course of action to help them achieve their desired outcome. This minor shift in focus from reciting the attorney’s professional history to explaining how this background can be leveraged to serve the client makes site visitors view your firm as more client-centered (and, ultimately, more appealing).
High-Quality Content, Refreshed Regularly
Lawyers are used to writing legal documents containing insider jargon and terms that the general population may not understand. Your law firm’s website is not the place to showcase these complex terms—your website is designed to reach prospective clients, not other attorneys. As you write content for each page of your website, picture your typical client. Explain your services in a way that they can understand, and think about what they want to hear most from their prospective attorney. Use accessible language that conveys a sense of reassurance and cultivates trust in your firm’s ability to help the client achieve their goals. Once you have completed your website, make it a priority to refresh the content on a regular basis. For instance, consider adding weekly or monthly blog posts that explore various practice areas and share every new post through your firm’s social media accounts and client newsletters. Every year or two, tweak the content on your website to remain active and visible to search engines like Google.
Celebrate Client Success Stories
Nothing can capture the quality of your legal services better than client testimonials. You can use your clients’ words to show site visitors how your law firm is committed to delivering results. Consider incorporating client reviews on your home page or create a separate page to display these testimonials for site visitors to peruse. Most people use customer reviews to influence their purchasing decisions, and client testimonials serve a similar purpose. When a potential client views your website, they will see that you have helped others resolve similar issues to the ones they are currently facing. Even though they do not know the former client personally, they can trust their words as evidence of your commitment to serving your clients and obtaining favorable results. Moreover, search engine algorithms tend to rate websites with client testimonials and favorable client reviews more highly than those that do not.
Intuitive Site Navigation
The content of your law firm’s website is just as important as the organization of the website itself. When a prospective client lands on your website, they want to access the information they are looking for as quickly and efficiently as possible. Any obstacles that impede their ability to navigate your website, such as substantial load times (over three seconds), too many confusing subpages, or drop-down menus that fail to display properly, can prompt the visitor to give up on your website and go with another law firm. Take some time to navigate through your website from the perspective of a potential client. Identify any issues that may frustrate, overwhelm, or confuse your potential clients and take steps to resolve each one.
Create Memorable and Engaging Attorney Profiles
Many law firms do not take full advantage of attorney profile pages. These pages may seem less important than the practice area pages, but they have the potential to attract more clients when created with intention and care. Think of the attorney profile page as the opportunity to introduce the person behind the services. Of course, your clients want an attorney who has relevant experience, but they also want to know that they are in good hands. Clients come to you feeling vulnerable, and they respond favorably to attorneys who acknowledge their concerns and anxieties. Use the attorney profile page to build trust with your clients, showing them who you are both inside and outside of the office. Show them that you are human, too, and you care about helping them find the peaceful resolution they are looking for.
If your law firm’s goal is to engage with more clients and grow your practice, talk to the LegalRev team today about how we can help. Call us at (800) 893-2590 or schedule a quick meeting here to discuss your vision and marketing goals.
