Making a good law firm website centers around three elements: SEO, lead generation, and design. The mistake most law firms make is starting with design. Do not start with design. Start by building your law firm website to be found by people on search engines. After all, isn’t the primary goal of a website to get visitors? And then to convert those visitors into paying clients?
That’s how we approach making law firm websites, and generate more leads for clients than any AdWords spend or law directory placement. So, how do you make a good law firm website that attracts visitors, generates leads, and gets clients? Here’s a quick guide.
What should be included in a law firm a website?
A law firm website should include 8 basics:
- Blog Article Library
- Introductory Homepage
- Practice Areas Pages
- Attorneys Page
- Attorney Biography Pages
- Contact Page
- Lead Generation Tool
- Privacy Policy Page
1. Blog Article Library
Your law firm blog article (and video) library may be the single most important part of your website. Why? For small- and medium-sized firms, your blog articles are likely to drive the most organic web traffic. For example, if you’re a family law attorney, you might write an article about “blended family divorce.” This article may then be found by people facing blended family divorces. After reading your article, they might reach out to you for a consultation.
As your blog library grows, and the number of topics you address increases, suddenly you have an organic lead generation tool that brings in high-quality leads and clients. It’s very realistic to plan for blog articles and videos, otherwise known as content marketing, to be your primary lead generation source (as it is for most of our clients.)
2. Introductory Homepage
Optimizing your homepage to be found and indexed by Google Search should be the #1 goal of every website. Even if your clients are searching for your law firm by name, ex. “Acme Partners”, you still need to make SEO your first priority.
And if you’re a complex business litigation firm in New York City, it’s even more important to design your website and homepage for search. Why? So that Google prefers to show your firm in search results ahead of all those other firms.
So, make sure your homepage H1 headline includes your primary practice area, i.e., “The #1 Complex Business Litigation firm in New York.” Note, your H1 headlines need not be the first nor the biggest headline on your homepage. You can have a big, clever headline atop your homepage, and tag it as an H2 header. Just ensure your H1 header describes your law firm to Google succinctly: Complex Business Litigation + New York.
Then, be sure to link to all your secondary pages from your homepage. And put a full sitemap in your footer. This helps Google see all the pages on your website for proper indexing.
3. Practice Area Pages
Create a Practice Areas page that showcases all your practice areas, and then links to individual pages for each practice area. Make sure your Page Titles and Meta Descriptions repeat and isolate each practice area. Why? You’re creating individual pages that help Google understand that you’re experts in each practice, whether it be probate administration or insurance law.
4. Attorneys Page
Create a single page showcases all your attorneys, or at least all your partners (if you have too many lawyers to list.) This page simply helps Google associate your website with lawyers.
5. Attorney Bio Pages
Maybe more important than the Attorneys Page, each Attorney bio page becomes the URL to which law directories link. The more links from law directories, the better. And make sure the links within SuperLawyers, Avvo, and all your directories are updated and correct.
6. Contact Page
Your contact page should feature your name, street address, phone number, email, and Google Maps link — more specifically, it should feature your Google My Business shortlink. This link is essential to help Google better understand your actual street address.
Also, if you have multiple offices in multiple cities, we do not recommend listing all those street address on one page. We believe this “confuses” Google. So, make individual office pages for each location.
7. Lead Generation Tool
There are lots of lead generation tools and services for law firms, i.e., Lawmatics. However, we still recommend Calendly as a tool to help prospects schedule a consultation. Why? Calendly loads quickly and works seamlessly across mobile devices.
In any case, choose a tool that makes scheduling a consultation or sending an email easy on mobile devices.
8. Privacy Policy Page
While most visitors will never go to your privacy policy page, it’s essential. You may also have to display a cookie warning, if your website tracks visitors.
How do I build or redesign a great law firm website?
Find an experienced law firm marketing partner near you, or one that works with law firms nationwide. It’s crucial that you see examples of their work, and understand how those other websites performed. A good looking website is great. And yes, you should expect a great looking website. But it’s crucial that it’s Google-friendly, and helps generate quality leads for your firm.
Have questions? We help law firms like yours, every day.
hello@seolos.com
About Seolos
Seolos is an advanced SEO and content marketing agency in Los Angeles, CA. We serve law firms and attorneys in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Denver, and nationwide. Across practice areas, from probate litigation to complex business law, our past and present clients have all seen dramatic organic traffic growth quickly. Our best-in-class strategies include Advanced SEO, Content Article Writing, Youtube Video Creation, Law Directory Optimization, and Website Design. Have questions? Schedule a free consultation or email: hello@seolos.com