What DOES matter is whether, once having accessed your website, that person seeking legal advice decides to hit the “contact” button and follows through with a call or email enquiry.
If your website visitors – most of them potential new clients – don’t like what they see they’ll probably never contact you. An opportunity lost which could have been gained if your website was designed well enough to speak clearly to that captive audience who need legal assistance.
Your law firm’s website is your most powerful business development tool, working around the clock to attract potential clients. If your phone isn’t ringing or your inbox not filling up with quality leads, it’s probably wise to wonder whether your website is falling short despite it being sleek and professional-looking.
Digital agencies like ours that specialise in creating websites for solicitors, law firms and legal services in south west England have learned by experience what it takes to transform a poor website into a client magnet.
We’d like to share with you some key areas we’ve identified where most legal websites are failing, so you can see how your own site measures up. We also offer some practical solutions for improving your website’s performance as an effective client acquisition tool.
1. Address Real Client Concerns
It may be surprising for many legal professionals to hear, but prospective clients aren’t drawn in initially by your CV and credentials. When they first arrive on your website they aren’t there looking to read your firm’s history, or admire your qualifications.
They arrive seeking legal help and are doubtless experiencing stress, confusion – even fear – when they land on your home page. Depending on the channel of law your firm deals with, your website visitors will be dealing with things like divorce, criminal charges, business disputes or personal injury claims. Their priority is to find help and reassurance.
If website visitors are confronted with a page full of pompous legalese that reads like an academic paper, they are going to flee to find a friendlier firm that promises an empathetic and re-assuring solution for their legal challenges.
The Fix
Focus your website content on the client’s perspective – shift from “we” to “you”, identifying and appealing to your target clients’ pain points, fears and aspirations. Structure the content around the clients’ problems and bring in your legal expertise in the context of how you can provide effective solutions. Connect and engage with site visitors using headings along the lines of: “Overwhelmed by Your Divorce? Let us Handle the Legal Complexities.”
2. Poor Visibility
Before we go any further it’s worth remembering that even a perfect website is useless if nobody can find it! Since most legal services are location-dependent, in the case of law firms you want to be found by people looking for legal help in your local area, where potential clients will be putting out search prompts like “divorce lawyer Bath” or “conveyancer near me”.
If your website isn’t optimised for local search, you’re essentially invisible to a big chunk of potential clients, who may well be captured by your competitors instead.
The Fix
Implementing local SEO strategies in your website content means taking actions such as incorporating location-specific keywords naturally throughout, maintaining consistent business information across online directories, seeing to it that positive reviews are posted from satisfied clients, and publishing helpful articles about common legal questions. Ideally you need to invest in some professional SEO help to make your website rank high on the localised search engine results.
3. Clear Calls to Action (CTAs)
When a website visitor lands on your website he or she already has a purpose or intent in mind – to get legal help for a problem. Once they hit the home page they want to easily get the answers (and as discussed earlier, the re-assurance and empathy) that they are seeking.
Cluttered navigation, excessive menus, and a lack of clear calls to action (CTAs) are the death knell for any competitive website – particularly a legal one – because they quickly cause frustration for the already stressed-out user. Your potential client will probably choose to bounce away to look for the relevant help and information more effortlessly elsewhere, rather than have to fathom their way through the maze of your website.
The Fix
Make sure your website is a map, not a maze, and visitors can find their way to find what they need quickly and easily. This is particularly true of those critical CTAs, which are the prompts that facilitate the website visitor’s ability to contact your firm. You need plenty of CTAs with action-oriented language imbued with urgency that speaks to the visitor’s needs, so that they will take that step and get in touch. Use prompts like “Speak to our Specialist” or “Arrange a Consultation”, rather than just spinning out generic phrases like “Contact us”.
4. Technical Issues
As is obvious by now, website users are impatient and easily frustrated, particularly those who are visiting a law firm’s website needing urgent advice or answers. When it comes to your website’s technical performance there are several things that can reduce the chances of user’s sticking around and contacting your firm:
- Your website is not mobile friendly. Yes, it’s hard to believe in these days when more than 60% of website traffic comes from mobile devices that there are still some websites around that are not mobile-responsive – in other words they don’t display properly on small screens. A clunky, difficult to navigate appearance on a mobile will surely send potential clients packing.
- Slow and insecure. Slow page loading times obviously frustrate users and will negatively impact your search engine rankings as well. The same goes for websites that don’t have an SSL certificate (indicated by the prefix https://). On a legal website especially visitors will be wary of sharing sensitive information if the site security is lacking – and once again you’ll be penalised by the search engines.
The Fix
If your website is really out of date it would be worth investing in a new one, or at the very least an upgrade. However, things like speed can be optimised by compressing images, leveraging browser caching and choosing a reliable hosting provider. Responsiveness and an SSL certificate can be implemented as well – preferably by a professional web design and development company. Your website needs ongoing attention to keep working for you.
5.Social Proofing
The term “social proof” in the context of digital marketing is based on the psychological premise that people are naturally inclined to follow the crowd. If others have blatantly endorsed and used your services, others will be encouraged to do the same.
If your website lacks social proof you’re missing a crucial opportunity to build trust and credibility with your prospective clients. Your website should showcase your reputation and expertise to reassure website visitors.
The Fix
Dedicate prominent parts of your website to authentic client testimonials. Proudly display awards, professional associations or any other forms of recognition. Video testimonials are very powerful. Brief case studies also work well (with appropriate discretion and client permission of course).
These five points will hopefully help you understand why your law firm’s website is underperforming. If you would like help addressing these common pitfalls and realise your website’s potential to serve as a dynamic lead generation engine, please get in touch with our experts at Dentons Digital.
