Must Have Law Firm Website Features to Convert Visitors into Clients
I hope you enjoy reading this blog post.
Grant Growcott | Founder of Ninja Devz Web & Mobile Designs
How can law firms convert their current and future traffic into consistent clients? This age old question is crucial to address for any novice or even established firm.
Knowing how to give viewers immediate answers to their questions can be the difference between a person calling, and immediately bouncing to your competitor.
Even though there is no one strategy firms can use to convert more clients, my hope is that some of these tips will create immediate benefits for you by going back to the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and content creation.
Here are the steps I will cover in this guide.
1. Ensure your Meta Title and Description matches your client goals
Our goal is to match the intent of the person searching in the their browser of choice (Google, Bing etc) with the words we directly use on our website. Specificity will be a proxy for competency. The closer we are to matching their search, the more likely they are too click on our website for our services.
The Meta title is the first thing your potential customer will see. It is in large font and makes a big impact on whether a person will click on your website or go to your competitor.
Meta descriptions give users an even longer summary of what the page is going to be about when searching for something on a major search engine like google.
I can personally attest that providing a description that broadly answers a potential client's will draw people in much easier.
Depending on whether you use WordPress, Wix or strictly code, you will need to make changes to the HTML such as below. If you need help, contact your development team.
When creating the title, try to be specific on the niche(s) that you have the most expertise. Consider using a combination of niche and location for optimal targeting.
Ex:
- Legal Contract London
- Personal Injury Law Vancouver
- Los Angeles Family Law
For the description, list your primary areas of specialty,statements of authority such as your total years of experience and consider adding limited time deals such as free consultations or discounts.
Ex:
- New York's premier firm specializing in Personal Injury law for over 20 years.
- Serving Houston with trusted advice for your legal needs.
- 20% off our local Family law services for a limited time.
An Important Point to Note:
Make sure the meta description is under 160 characters in length. Descriptions longer than this will be cut off on smaller screens.
2. Have an easily accessible Call-to-Action (CTA) Button or Form
We want our potential customers to know how to find out how to contact as quickly as possible. If you place your form to far down the page (middle or bottom section), the viewer is more likely to click away from your page.
Design your Call to Action using these key features:
- Contrasting Color from your background to stand out
- Bold text
- Language that is appropriate for attracting client such as "Contact Us", "Get in Touch" or "Let's Chat"
Here is an example:
Here we can see a Call-to-Action (CTA) button with a white background that creates a large amount of contrast with the dark blue background. It is highly visible and tells the user exactly what they are going to do. This is to be placed in the first section of the website (typically on the home page and is known as the hero section in technical terms).
This section can re-direct to your contact page or use services such as Calendly, Acuity, or SetMore depending on your firm needs.
3. Fast Loading Website
An underrated factor in your ability to retain potential clients is how fast your website loads. When a person struggles to get on your website (or load parts like images once they are on your website), they are far more likely to becomes frustrated and leave.
When looking at speed, here are a couple potential options to consider:
Perform a Lighthouse Assessment
This will determine if you are using the proper tags in your code, have slow loading pages and other issues going on with your website.
You can check this by using a google extension called Lighthouse
Once installed, you will need to run the test using incognito mode in the google browser for accurate results.
Compression of Images
Decreasing the size of images (especially the images that first appear when a user visits your websites) can drastically alter the initial load times of your website.
You have two major options, .webp and .png. If you are concerned with compatibility on different platforms and care less about the size of the files, use .png.
If you want the smallest possible files while still maintaining the overall quality of each image, use .webp
Use this tool to convert any image that is large. Images greater than 1 MB justify compressing into a smaller image format.
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
As your firm (and subsequently your website) begins to scale, you will need to consider using different technologies that ensure your users can easily view your content.
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) serves images and other resources over a server to vastly decrease loading times.
Consider using a platform like Cloudinary which provides a variety of different free and paid options for optimizing your website.
Server Side Rendering (SSR) the Website
Though a more complex endeavour, this can drastically decrease load times for your website. The Next.js framework is a great potential option to discuss with your development team if speed is of high priority to you.
4.Include Client Testimonials
You may think this is a simple point, ask your client for a review and post on your website or get them to review your business on Google.
There is however a misconception of what you should be stated within these reviews.
We want to make these reviews personal and include information that targets pain points that are clients had that you were able to solve.
We want to include the following:
- Client First and Last Name along with their picture (if they are comfortable)
- The area of focus (personal injury, family law etc)
- The concern they initially had (finances, timeliness, lack of understanding of legal terms)
- The resolution they received (free consultation, discount, free legal advice, a favorable outcome)
Try to include an emotional connection such as: "I felt supported every step of the way." or "They explained every step clearly and fought for my rights".
Here is a potential template you can follow:
Targeting key pain points of your clients will truly sell them on your services.
When paired with Google Reviews, you will be far more likely to appear higher in the search rankings.
