How YOU Can Improve Your Law Firm Website’s Usability. When it comes to the visitor experience, your website’s usability is the most important factor. Visual design and content are important, and will significantly influence the way potential clients think about your site. However, if they can’t find the information they’re looking for, or don’t believe your website to be relevant to their search, they’ll bounce away without paying much attention to your pretty visuals or legal prose. That’s why it’s essential for you before you even approach a designer–to think about the purpose and goals of your website. By thinking about what you hope to achieve, then designing your website around those needs, visitors will have a better understanding of your company and be more likely to hire you in the end. Here are some questions you can ask yourself when approaching your law firm’s website design or redesign.
1. Goals
That is, what is your lawyer website supposed to achieve? Are you looking to make sales online? Or are you hoping to expand your reach by appealing to clients in different geographical regions? Perhaps you want your website to serve as a resource that clients can use as a complement to your representation. Whatever the purpose is, define it, and make sure that every aspect of your website speaks to that.
2. Differentiation
Consider that your law firm has its own brand. It’s important that you establish your brand as separate from others. How is your firm different than any other law firm in your practice area? What legal services do you offer that surrounding attorney do not? Why do your clients choose you over other lawyers?
3. Focus Areas
Every law firm website should have a flow that guides visitors to important parts of their website. Maybe you want to encourage potential clients to visit your practice area page. You probably also want them to end up on the contact page, eventually. Identify these important pages and think about how you can increase flow in that direction.
4. Presentation
Almost every attorney website lists their practice area categories such as “Estate Law” and “Business Litigation.” You may not realize it, but that is lawyer-speak. Most laymen don’t think of their legal problems in those terms. Which legal terms do you find confuse or alienate your clients? Which phrases do they prefer to use? By placing easy-to-understand phrases on your homepage, your potential clients will immediately understand how your attorneys can make a case for them.
Once you’ve answered these questions, bring them to your professional web designer and they should be able to incorporate your answers into your web design. At Law Promo, we always target visitor usability as an important area for improvement. Call us today to talk about your attorney website design.
