Websites are an important part of our everyday lives. From a consumer point of view, we turn to websites when we want to know any piece of information. Consumers want to conduct the search and receive good and accurate results quickly and with little effort. From a vendor or supplier point of view, you want to showcase what your firm can do for its clients.
A bad website with unclear content and confusing navigation can cause a potential customer to seek what they are looking for elsewhere, like to your competitor. Website visitors will close out of a site within 10 seconds if they feel they can’t or won’t find the information they need. This is why it is important for your website to be inviting and user-friendly.
Your website should be clear, concise, and easy to use so your visitors naturally navigate to the pages you want them to visit. How do you get website visitors to naturally navigate to those pages, you ask? You can begin by asking yourself the following 5 questions to make sure your website fulfills the needs of current and prospective clients.
1. Do you have a strong call to action?
A call to action is an instruction to website visitors intended to initiate an immediate and purposeful response. Typical calls to action are “Contact Us Now”, “Call Us”, or “Fill Out The Form.” A strong call to action is essential for any law firm looking to grow and convert website visitors into new clients.
The call to action should be specific and easy to accomplish. Your call to action should:
- Be Concise and Direct – Convey to website visitors exactly what you want them to do in as few words as possible. It should be relevant to what they are looking to accomplish by visiting your website or completing the action.
- Stand Out – Make sure the size, shape, and color of the action go with the design of the overall site. The call to action section must also contrast enough from the overall design to be noticeable.
- Be Visible – It is estimated that 80% of website visitors do not scroll down on a page, so it is important to have the call to action above the fold (the starting page of the site where you don’t have to scroll down).
A strong call to action will help you to encourage visitors to give you their contact information. With this information, you have the ability to pursue the conversation about a case they may need help with.
2. Do your form–fills obtain useful information?
Website form-fills are essential to driving leads and referrals. People who visit your law firm’s site are looking for something specific. Sometimes they are actively seeking an attorney and sometimes they are browsing for options, you want your form to be able to support both types of visitors. The form-fill should include – at a minimum – this basic contact information:
- Full Name
- Email Address
- Phone Number
After that information is filled out visitors can complete the form by selecting a strong call to action, such as, “Request Consultation” or “Contact Us”, for example.
To take it a step further, you could add another section labeled “Message” or “Explain Your Consultation Need.” Knowing the nature of the potential client’s request prior to contacting them will help you be more prepared when you speak with them, making your consultation meeting more effective.
3. Is your navigation bar user friendly?
The navigation bar, the collection of links typically placed toward the top of every page on a website, can dictate the type of experience a visitor will have while on your site. For this reason, you want to make sure the navigation bar clearly and accurately lets visitors know where they can find for the exact information they are looking for.
A good navigation bar can increase visit duration, which decreases bounce rates, and engages visitors so they are easily able to find what they need with the end-goal of converting visitors into clients.
Wondering where to start? Good navigation bars guide visitors to the most popular pages, which typically include, About Us, Practice Areas, News or Blog, Testimonials, and Contact. You will want to focus on making those pages the most useful to website visitors.
4. What does your bio page say about you?
When someone is looking to hire an attorney, they may be apprehensive. Whether it’s because they have never needed one before, are unsure of the process of getting their situation resolved, or don’t think they have money to hire an attorney—whatever it may be—you can put your potential clients at ease by letting your personality show through your bio on the “About Us” page.
Your bio should include basic information about you. For example, where you went to law school, a little bit about your personal life, and your hobbies. Tell potential clients why you became a lawyer and any brief stories that help convey the type of attorney you are and your passion for helping people.
If you have the technology available, it would be worth doing a short (30-60 second) video of your bio to include on the page. Through your presentation on the video, you can help visitors get to know you and feel comfortable with the idea of hiring you as their attorney.
Add contact information or a call to action graphic to the bio page to give visitors a convenient way to contact you after reading your bio.
5. Are your practice areas accurately highlighted?
Since attorneys can have a wide or narrow number of practice areas, it is important to let website visitors know what your law firm focuses on. This is especially important as you want to grow your firm in general or focus on certain areas of the law, be it medical malpractice, workers’ compensation, hospital infections, wrongful death, defective products, or car wrecks.
Highlighting your practice areas can be done a few different ways. One way is a clear and direct navigation bar. Another way is to clearly list on your bio page what your specialty areas are. And lastly, and most importantly, your practice areas should be listed in depth on its own page or section of the site so visitors can get more in-depth information on what they may need from you.
Have You Answered These Questions?
At LaFleur Legal Marketing, we know that a user-friendly website is essential to growing your law firm. We use best practices and data-driven innovation in the legal sector to design and develop websites that get you results.
Call us at (888) 222-1512 or fill out a brief online form if you’d like to discuss how we can work together to help you get more cases.
Subscribe to our blog to get more information about how to improve your website and other tips about growing your firm.