Internet Online Search Marketing for Law Firms

Website Design Tips for Lawyer and Solicitor Firms

Not all websites are created equal. Some are good some are bad.

Some perform well in search engines, some don’t. Some are easy to use and some are not.

There are many things that can affect the performance of a law firm’s website, or any other website for that matter, but there are some nuances in the legal services industry that need to be taken into account when engaging in a web design project.

The success of any website design project starts with understanding the goals of the eventual visitor.

All website visitors are goal driven. They come to your website for a purpose.

People don’t see traditional marketing messages on purpose; few people pick up a newspaper and look for an advert for a set of golf clubs they are looking to buy.

These types of marketing messages are opportunistic and designed to create the interest.

This is not generally the case with a company’s website. The visitor has consciously chosen to visit the site and has gone there to find something specific before they take action.

Now we can’t second guess the goal of the ‘average’ or ‘typical’ website visitor because there is no such thing.

What we need to do is design the site so that the visitor can pull whatever information they want from the site in an effortless way.

This means clear navigation, appropriate length text pages, subtle and appropriate use of image and so on.

My advice is to start by profiling website visitors into categories or ‘profiles’.
These profiles are created based on the priorities of your clients.

How do you know what those priorities are? Well by experience.

You’ll have dealt with enough clients in each service area to know the recurring concerns and questions, these are your starting points when profiling.

Let’s take a very simple case for the sake of example.

Say your firm specialises in conveyancing.

This technique is not specific to conveyancing, it applies to any service area.

You might create 3 potential client profiles:

1. Moving into their first house
2. Moved house before, but used a different firm last time
3. Moved house before and used your firm

Now each of these three profiles of visitor will have different goals when visiting your website so need to be treated in a different way.

The people who are moving house the first time will be looking for a lot of guidance on the basics.

They need to know exactly what the process is, how to go about it and they may even need to know why they need a solicitor when moving house.

The people who have moved house before but used a different firm last time, know the basics but need convincing as to why they should select your firm this time round.

This lends itself to a ‘Why Choose Us?’ page listing all the firm's unique selling points, client testimonials etc

Finally the people who have moved before and used your firm.

Why would this be a profile you ask? Aren’t they an existing client?

Yes they are an existing client, but your website shouldn’t just be a resource for new business, it should provide after sales service and repeat business opportunities.

My advice here would be to encourage people who had used the firm for conveyancing before to refer a friend in exchange for a discount, or something along those lines.

I’m not an advocate of arbitrarily offering discounts to get business because it devalues the product or service.

If it’s an exchange however, that’s a different story. The client helps you get yet another client, you generate some repeat business and the new client is in safe hands.

Once implemented, a website designed using this kind of profiling technique can have a dramatic affect on the experience visitors have with your site.

By building the information around their goals, they find the exact information they want quickly and easily, leaving a positive residue leading into the sales process.

To Your Success

Chris Coney

posted by Chris Coney BSc at 14:28