As time goes on, the Internet only becomes a more important tool to get your name out there than ever before. Great website design will make all the difference for getting your law firm some recognition. But what does great website design mean? And how can it help your law firm become more successful?
The merits of great website design for your law firm’s success
No matter how good your law firm may be, there are a lot of other good law firms with which you must compete. Even if you have a great law firm, if it is too difficult for people to be able to retain your services, no one will ever know. Website design for law firms is often going to be make or break for your law firm. When people find a website to solve a question or concern they have, they are not likely to stick around long if the website is too cumbersome to use.
There are some basic design choices that should be avoided at all costs when getting your law firm’s website set up. One of these is ensuring that the website, at bare minimum, has basic functionality that any reader of your website would expect. This means that every link they can click on is live, and that no glitches or errors are encountered. Letting them see behind the curtain, and see how the website is working (or not) not only puts them off due to it being off-putting, but honestly, it may prove distracting for them. The more that gets in their way of your services, the more likely it is that they will just go back to Google to find someone else to serve their needs.
While some errors, such as dead links, may be more obvious than others, one thing that too many websites fail to take into consideration is performance. A website that loads too slowly may see more impatient visitors decide to leave before they even have the chance to learn the first thing about what your law firm would do for them. Not only does this have the effect of losing you that potential customer, you also run the risk of your website’s placement in the Google search results going down. This is because Google will take into account the fact that visitors to your website are leaving it very shortly after they first load the page. This may be an indication that the website is of low quality, and thus would only serve to get in the way. One of the best ways to address long load times with your website is to find a good balance between the visual design of your law firm’s website and its technical performance. It is important to include images on your law firm’s website, but if you have too many images for the visitor to load, this may result in longer load times in order to get all the images loaded up.
Of course, not every aspect of quality website design is going to be based on objective qualifiers relating to performance. As such, it is important that you understand what the best visual design will be for your readership. The best way to design your website is to design it with your primary demographic in mind. For example, a website that caters to children may feature bright, attractive colors that seek to stimulate the child visitors to the website. However, a law firm’s website will, 99 times out of 100, be built pretty neutrally and plainly. Now, granted, the last thing you want to do is make a website that is virtually indistinguishable from other websites like it. Creating an identifiable brand goes a long way in this day and age to expanding a brand’s marketshare, and originality and innovation in a brand speaks volumes to your prospective customers. However, you usually do not want to go with, for instance, a color scheme too vibrant for your own good.
When having a website designed and utilized for a law firm, it is key that the website ultimately manage to navigate the visitor from their Google search, all the way to becoming one of your clients. This is where several of the above-mentioned keys to success come into play. A website that is visually appealing, performs well, and is very clearly complete has relatively lower chances of the prospective client going to a different law firm to handle their legal issues. One of the best ways to keep a potential client on your website is to ensure that there is valuable content to be found on your website. For example, automotive injury law firm websites may include blogs that intend to help drivers drive safely and understand the different rules of the road.
