Effective Landing Pages for Law Firms. A website is an essential asset for any sized law firm in 2015 – whether you are a solo practitioner or have a firm with 50 attorneys, both existing clients, and potential clients expect businesses to be online. In addition, they expect that their lawyer will have a professional, intuitive website that looks professional and is easy to use. This all begins with the development of an effective landing page.
A landing page (also referred to as the home page) is the first thing visitors see when they go to your website. Once they type in your website’s URL, they will be served the content that exists on this landing page, which is precisely why it’s so important for law firms, sole practitioners, and legal counsel alike to make sure that it meets web design standards for 2015. A home page will have some type of navigation, which is usually a menu bar that stretches horizontally near the top of the page. Typically, a landing page will also include a large, attention-grabbing image – which is referred to in the web design world as a “Hero”. This image should be high-quality and imbue a sense of your business’s goals. For example, if you practice law in the financial sector, images related to Wall Street or currency might be applicable. Or, if your firm focuses its practice on intellectual property law, abstract images of computer code or a copyright symbol would be effective choices. The most important thing to consider when choosing a hero image is that it is applicable to your law firm, and is visually striking or interesting. Often a hero will actually be a slideshow that includes interactive elements or animations.
Remember, the goal is to capture the viewer’s attention and entice them to explore your attorney website further. But the hero image shouldn’t exist by itself – even in 2015, it’s still prudent (though debatably necessary) to consider designing above the fold. Including a tagline, or some additional, exciting information (like offering a free case evaluation) can go a long way to attract viewers. By cleverly using graphics, gradients, and other design conventions, you can have an interesting landing page that is both visually exciting and rich with relevant information.
