Attorney Web Design Must Have Components For Success

May 30 , 2023 | BY Matthew Stark

website for lawyers

Whatever city your law firm is in, you have plenty of competition. That is why your law firm website needs to stand out in the best way possible. After all, your legal website is the initial point of contact for many potential legal clients.

Therefore, your site needs to attract their interest, build your credibility, and show that you are the perfect attorney to solve their legal issue. Whether you are redesigning your site or building a new one, the following attorney web design practices will ensure you have an attractive and engaging web presence.

Make A Strong Initial Impression

As with anything in life, making an initial impression with attorney web design is vital. Unfortunately, your visitors’ first impression will happen in a fraction of a second, so you have little time to make a positive impression before they go to another attorney’s site.

There are many ways to make a strong first impression, but many successful attorneys use a professional, simple, elegant design, plus a bit of personality. The design should be attractive, but simple so users can get the information they want.

Less Is More

We all can be tempted to put more information and images on our home page because we want to give people more legal information. But when you jam too much information on the page, it can make people click away. In addition, many web design experts say that web pages that look too crowded can repel visitors rather than attract them.

Use Simple Navigation

If your website’s navigation is too complex and confusing, people will not know what to do when they visit. When visitors get confused, they go to another site almost immediately. Some ways to make your site navigation more intuitive are:

  • Use a fixed navigation bar at the top of the page
  • Put a small number of navigation links
  • Use a search icon or search bar at the top or bottom of the page
  • Include navigation links at the bottom of the page

Leverage Your Attorney Bio Pages

It is well-known in the legal field that people hire attorneys, not law firms. So, your law firm biography pages should be used to maximum advantage. This is not a time for any attorney to be shy, so lay out your accolades, awards, honors, and best professional photos.

Design For Mobile

Is your attorney website design mobile-friendly? It better be – being responsive to mobile is essential in the modern online world. For example, most people are more likely to look for an attorney on their phones than on a PC. This means it is vital that your site looks perfect on all major mobile devices, just as with a large computer screen.

Pay Attention To Load Times

Another critical factor in attorney web design is site load time. People are impatient and want sites to load fast. The longer it takes for your site to load, the more likely people will go to a competitor. Also, Google says that page speed is essential to determine search rankings for mobile.

This means focusing on how fast your attorney site loads on mobile and computer is vital. Some large website elements, such as large photos and videos, can reduce your load time. If you want to see how fast your site loads, check out Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

Hire Professional Photographers

Never use stock photography in attorney web design. Visitors will notice if you have stock photos and will think less of your site. But this does not mean your site should not be photo-rich: It should be. In fact, having excellent photographs on your site will enhance user interest, so remember to hire a professional photographer to get the best photos of your attorneys.

Use Videos

Video marketing is highly effective in the legal field. Compelling marketing videos improve legal lead generation and conversions and boost users’ time on your site. Also, having high-quality videos on your site answering important legal questions allow your possible clients to see what the attorneys are like and get a feel for their personalities. When people get a personal connection to an attorney, they are more likely to hire them.

Show Your Major Practice Areas

Attorney website visitors are usually there because They have a legal problem and want your help. So, it is critical to highlight your most important and popular legal services on the home page. Remember to include easy-to-see links to your practice pages in the page navigation bar. Remember that visitors get an impression of your site in under a second, so you want them to see your practice area links quickly.

Provide Plenty Of Legal Reviews

It is estimated that 90% of those surveyed looking for an attorney want information about their reputation, and 70% read legal reviews. These facts show that attorney web design needs to focus on social proof and related content that enhances credibility and trust. Your site also is enhanced by including other types of social proof, such as legal recommendations from other sites.

Never Forget About Accessibility

The CDC reports that 25% of adults have a disability. That statistic tells us how critical site accessibility is. Also, remember that accessibility on websites is required by federal law, and while there are no exact guidelines in this area, you can refer to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to get an idea.

Calls-To-Action (CTAs)

CTAs are vital aspects of attorney web design because they encourage legal prospects to act, such as calling you for a legal consultation or downloading a free legal report. If your site has catchy CTAs, you will successfully capitalize on the people who visit your site.

Updated Blog

Your site can have the best attorney web design, but user engagement will drop if you do not include informative content that is updated often. This means Google will index your site less often, and your site will always have a harder time becoming more visible in organic search results.

So, offer regular, informative blog content that answers critical legal questions in your most popular niches and specialties. When you add content to your blog every few days, you will build an audience and show your law firm is a thought leader in your city.

Provide Clear Answers

The content on your website should point out your unique value proposition in your legal niche and city. This means your visitors understand how you can solve the client’s legal problem better than others. Remember that how you get across what you want to say is just as important as the words themselves. For example, remember to break up the text, use bullet points, and add plenty of headers.

Readable Fonts

Your attorney web design also should have fonts that are easy to read. Most people will be reading and viewing your site for at least a few minutes, and you want to make it easy. The last thing anyone wants at your law firm is to abandon the site because it is difficult to read the content.

There are endless fonts available, but it is usually best to keep with the basics. Some of the best and most readable fonts available are Times New Roman, Helvetica, and Arial. These are proven to be some of the easiest-to-read fonts and are easy on your visitors’ eyes.

On-Page SEO Optimization

Your legal content plays a significant role in attracting and keeping legal visitors. But SEO optimization on the page is about presenting content to Google and other search engines, making a huge difference in organic search results. SEO can seem a bit tedious to some people. But optimizing content for SEO is the difference between being in the top five results and the top 100.

There are many on-page SEO tricks to get better search engine results. For example, putting a keyword relatively high on the page is helpful, also known as above the fold. This means they can see your keyword without needing to scroll down the page. It is perfect if you include the keyword in the page’s first one or two sentences. Also, consider bolding keywords here and there and put one on a bulleted list.

Remember to put critical keywords for the page in the meta description, too. The meta description matters because it is the text that Google could display when your search result appears. The meta description shows just under the page title and is a significant factor in whether the viewer clicks the link.

While on-page optimization is essential, do just what is necessary. If a page is over-optimized, your site could be penalized. For instance, do not try to include too many versions of your keyword so the page is hard to read; Google frowns on this practice!

Contact Forward Lawyer Marketing Today

Attorney web design is one of the most essential parts of creating a dynamic web presence for attorneys. While you and your legal staff can take this work on yourself, relying on professional web designers to handle this complex work may be beneficial. Please contact Forward Lawyer Marketing for your attorney web design and other marketing needs. Just call (888) 590-9687 today for a complimentary web design consultation.