Starting a Law Firm | The Best Law Firm Website

If you are starting a law firm and haven't thought about what your website will look like, how you will get people to your website, or what purposes your website will serve, you have not yet gotten out of the starting blocks. And you will notice that I didn't mention considering having a website. If you are going to have a law firm in this day and age, you need to have a website. And if you are going to have a law firm website, you might as well make sure people can find it. Below I'll give you a little information answering the questions answered above, just in case you haven't considered them yet.

1. Website Design

A successful law firm website does not need to be flashy. Streaming video and bells and whistles, while nice, won't necessarily get you new client (unless your potential clients will look for this - something you need to know before you begin to design your website). What your law firm website does need is three things:

(1) it needs to quickly and easily identify the firms practice areas, the firms value proposition, and why the firm is good for the client;

(2) it needs to display your address and contact information on every page; and

(3) it needs to look clean, like you spent some time on its design and work flawlessly.

Quickly and easily identifying the firms practice areas is easy. Simply sit down and write out what it is you do, why you are good at it, and how you can help those that find your website. You can say more about each practice area, the individual attorneys, and whatever else you want on separate tabbed pages. I would also recommend placing an RSS feed on the front page of your site to display your latest blog postings from your practice area blogs (another must have).

For example, my firm will have on the opening page something about ending the billable hour and providing clients with efficient, effective results with fixed fee legal help. It will invite people to contact us for more information, and my two practice area blogs, one on Seattle Washington eminent domain and condemnation, including:

receiving just compensation for Washington land takings,

and one on Seattle small business law, including:

choosing a business structure;

starting a Seattle business;

dissolving a Seattle business;

hiring employees in Washington;

Seattle employment law;

and how to find a good Seattle small business lawyer.

The key here is to be short, sweet concise, and honest. This will be your first contact with potential customers most of the time, and it is important to begin to build that trust with them.

2. Display your Law Firm Contact Info on Every Page

A primary goal is to make it easy for customers to contact you once they've decided you are the one. Why make them search around for that information? Prominently displaying that information at the bottom of every page (along with your legal disclaimer) is the best place to put it, as that is often where people will look first.

Separate from your contact information but equally as important is putting your logo on every page. Seeing that you have a specific law firm logo (and hopefully one that has been at least semi-professionally designed) helps to build that sense of trust, if for no other reason than people will naturally think that a firm with a well put together law firm website and a well designed logo must have their stuff together.

3. Make the Law Firm Website Look Great and Make it Work Flawlessly

A messy law firm website is like a messy desk - even though you think it makes you look busy, it really just makes you look unorganized and errant. Take the time to really think about what your firm website looks like. Get on the internet and look at other websites (please DO NOT just look at legal websites - doing more of the same is not a recipe for success in this business). Take notes on what you like and don't like and incorporate those things into your site.

If you do not know how to create a website, don't fret. Part of being a lawyer, and starting your own law firm, is creatively solving problems. In this day and age not only is there plenty of software that makes website design easy, but nearly everyone under the age of 23 has designed or knows how to design a website. Put a flier up outside the local college and let a computer science major put it together for a few hundred bucks and the authority to let him take credit for designing your sight. Having a great website will get you clients. Don't skimp here.
And finally, make sure your law firm website works. Once you have it up and working, go online and test every link and every page on the sight. Make sure not only that all the links work (and convey the image you want) but that they work at an appropriate speed.

If you go to many law firm websites they have a bunch of bells and whistles but load so slowly by the time everything pops up you are ready to find someone else. Imaging you are a potential customer looking for an attorney. Are you impressed? Don't stop working until you are.

Now that you have figured out what your site is going to look like (this is on my starting a law firm to do list this week, and once my site is actually up and running I will direct it to you so you can let me know what you think) you need to start taking steps so people can find it when they search on the internet. Optimizing a law firm website is not hard, but it isn't necessarily natural. My next post will help you with this.

Related Posts:

Staring a Law Firm Blog | Part 1

Starting a Law Firm Blog | Part 2

Starting a Law Firm | Internet Marketing

Starting a Law Firm | The Google Sandbox