A website is the most basic marketing tool for any lawyer, but not every lawyer knows the must-haves of a website. If you are considering building a website for your law practice (or reworking an existing website), here are the must-haves:
Professional design
“Design should never say, ‘Look at me.’ It should always say, ‘Look at this.”
-David Craib
Your website is the first impression that you make online to potential clients and potential business partners. The design of the website should convey that you are competent, professional and trustworthy. It should be simplistic, but not rudimentary. Each page of the website should be easy to read and easy to navigate. You should use a maximum of two types of fonts for all the textual content and make sure there is enough space between individual lines.
Responsive design
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
-Steve Jobs
A responsive website design means that the website can adjust and change its layout itself to the size of the screen it is being viewed on. Henceforth, your website may not look uniform on all the devices, but it will appear in a manner that is appropriate for that specific device. A responsive design eliminates the requirement of building and maintaining a separate mobile website.
More people use mobile devices to perform a search rather than desktops. Your website should be able to provide a decent mobile experience.
Blog
“Your brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what Google says it is”
-Chris Anderson
The blog must be integrated into your website. There are multitudes of benefits of blogging; it:
- is a platform to exhibit your knowledge and expertise
- is a platform to establish yourself as an expert in a field
- helps in driving traffic to your website through search engines
- provides content for publishing on social media channels
- provides content for e-mail newsletters
An important point to remember while writing a blog post is to create content for your readers and not search engines.
Bio pages
“Your digital footprints speak volumes than your CV”
-Bernard Kelvin Clive
The amount of business your law firm generates directly depends upon expertise and knowledge of your team. Clients want to know whether you are capable of handling their cases before they appoint you. Bio pages provide a platform to list your core practice areas and achievements. You can use this space to highlight your affiliations, awards and certifications on your profile. But, do not just dump information like a curriculum vitae. Most law firm websites have pictures of lawyers sitting or standing in front of a bookshelf; avoid such clichéd pictures. You can also mention your social media profile links to exhibit the human side of your law firm.
Contact information
“Greatness can be contagious, but first there must be contact.”
-TemitOpe Ibrahim
Contact information is the most obvious must-have for your website. Remember that all visitors of your website may not arrive on inner pages navigating from the homepage.Therefore, it is important to mention contact information on every page of the website. You can mention it even twice on a page- one at the top right corner and another in the footer. Use contrasting colours for easy visibility.
Did you find some helpful tips in this post?
Let me know in the comments.
LawStrat 
Beautiful, brief and utterly helpful. I specifically find instructive the view about designing your website to suit multiple devices, as well as the position that a blog integrated into the website is a perfect score. Thank you. More grease.
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Thank you for your words of appreciation!
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I found this post helpful. It’s good to emphasize the 5 must-haves. On the other hand, one of my clients suggested that some “basic” samples of legal documentation should also be provided on websites, which can make such blogs more interesting.
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Thank you, Bulent!
Yes, apart from other information, clients expect to find helpful resources on a lawyer’s website. I believe that also increases the likelihood of them contacting for further assistance. What are your thoughts?
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