8 High-Converting Custom Law Firm Website Design Tips

Are you seeking a custom law firm website design? If yes, you have made the right call. A site is no longer a mere brochure on a screen. If you were viewing it this way, then you have missed the plot. 

Your site should serve as the cornerstone of your advertising, marketing, and outreach efforts. It should help you generate more clients and revenue. 

Your website shouldn’t serve as a platform to provide information. In addition to thoughtful content, your website should have helpful tools, user-friendly design, and relevant marketing features that will make your visitors feel comfortable and trust you more. 

In this post, we’ll discuss all you need to know about building a custom website for a legal firm. After reading, you’ll have all the relevant information you need to make an informed decision. Read on!

Difference Between A Template And Custom Law Firm Design

We will discuss the reasons you need a custom designed site for your law firm. But before we delve into that, let’s discuss the difference between a custom and template website. 

• Template website:

A template website has no uniqueness. Websites built with a template or software aren’t different from each other. In other words, they don’t stand out from each other. 

The competition in the legal market is fierce. You need an effective marketing strategy to stand out from the crowd. 

A law firm with a template website won’t be unique and won’t stand out from the crowd. It will be difficult for a visitor to differentiate your website from your competitors’ sites when you use a template website. 

Another challenge that template websites have is the navigation function. It’s a bit difficult to navigate such websites. 

Template websites may also lack certain important details. They lack detailed graphics, and spacing is usually awkward. 

Actionable Tip: A template website isn’t a great choice for law firms. With the competition in legal marketing increasing daily, having a template website may make a law firm unappealing to prospects. 

You can’t customize or impose your brand identity on a template website. Your law firm won’t stand out, either. It will be difficult to differentiate your law firm’s website from your competitors’ websites. 

So, if you want to give potential clients a reason to rate your law firm higher than your competitors, avoid using a template website. It’s an important step you need to take.

• Custom website:

Serious law firms go for custom-built websites. Do you know why? It’s easier to stand out with custom-designed websites. 

These websites look more elegant and professional and are a breeze to navigate. However, that also depends on the design agency handling your website design project. 

If you hire the right agency, you’ll get a custom-designed website that embodies your brand identity. With a team of experienced website designers working on your website design project, your site will get a unique design. 

A website designer will help you create a new logo if the existing one needs to be more professional-looking. But, above all, you’ll have a custom website that uniquely differentiates you from your competitors. 

How To Differentiate A Template Website From A Custom Website

It’s easier to identify and differentiate a custom-built website from a template website. To do this, look at both website’s source code. 

The source code will reveal all the information you need to differentiate between both websites. Look for the following /template/,/skin/,or/themes/. 

In most source codes, you’ll find the company name before the wording above. If it does, then the website is template-built.

If you check the source code and find the company name after the wording above, then the website is custom-built. 

Potential clients won’t check or know whether your website is custom-built or a template website. Their major focus will be on the quality and uniqueness of your website. 

If your website is unique, professional-looking, easy to navigate, and has a responsive design, prospects will hold your law firm in high regard. They will trust your firm more. 

If reverse is the case, your law firm may lose clients’ trust and patronage. But that shouldn’t be the case. That’s why we’re taking the time to explain the difference between a custom and template-built website.  

Importance of Custom Legal Firm Website Design

Now that we have discussed the difference between a template and a custom-built website, let’s discuss how having a custom site can benefit your law firm. 

However, we’re going to discuss the importance of ensuring your law firm has a custom website. 

1. Your law firm website will look unique:

The benefit of custom website design is the uniqueness of your website. Your website will be completely different from your competitors. 

Potential clients will only consider you as a truly professional and serious law firm if your website is high-quality. If the reverse is the case, visitors may doubt your professionalism. 

Template websites are a breeze to identify. There’s also nothing to admire or like about such websites. They lack the sleek and professional design custom-built sites have.    

So, if you want clients to like your law firm and take you seriously, get a custom website.

2. Benefit from your site’s creative input:

Your legal firm is a brand, so your website must embody that status. Your website visitors must see that you’re a unique brand. 

With a custom-built website, you’ll have the freedom to create unique designs for your law firm. Unfortunately, that’s not something you can do with a template website. 

With a template website, the limitation you’ll encounter is on another level. You can only make a few changes to your template law firm website. 

3. Ability to redesign your law firm with ease:

The option to redesign a custom-built website even after creating the website makes it unique. You’ll have the freedom to modify, alter, improve, or change the website as you please. 

Unfortunately, template websites don’t have the flexibility custom websites have. Websites with templates will look outdated and uninspiring over time. 

With a custom-built website, you can improve and update your site occasionally. Improve your site to meet the latest trends to capture the attention of potential clients.

You can keep your design up-to-date. That’s one benefit custom-designed websites have. They are also a wise choice for law firms looking to expand. Add new functions and features to your site to improve user experience. 

Have a new marketing material or new team member you wish to showcase on your website to potential clients? A custom website offers you the flexibility to add them. 

You’ll have the opportunity to create a new profile for your new legal team member. With a template website, you’ll encounter several limitations. 

4. Improve search ranking:

Having a custom-built website can help your SEO effort. With clear and easy navigation, potential clients will find your content easily. 

Making it easier for visitors to navigate from page to page means they will spend more time on your site. 

An increase in dwell time can improve your search ranking. Though dwell time is not a direct ranking factor, it imparts search ranking. When more visitors stay longer on your content, Google assumes that they did before the content is high-quality. 

Google will consider ranking your website high on the search engine result page if it thinks that your content is high-quality and unique. 

5. Increase organic traffic:

An increase in search ranking means prospects will find it easy to locate your site. Ranking high on search engine result pages means prospects will be able to identify your site and get your contact information. 

An increase in organic traffic means an opportunity to get more cases and generate more revenue. An increase in income means that you’ll have the capacity to expand your law firm or get more capable lawyers to join your team. 

Things To Consider When Creating A Custom Law Firm Website Design 

Every law firm needs a website. But it’s advisable to get a custom-built website for your law firm. The possibilities for expansion are endless with a custom-designed website. But let’s not focus on that in this section. 

Here, we’re going to discuss important factors to consider when creating your law firm website. 

1. Ensure your CTA is clear enough:

CTA (Call to action) is important in every website, not just law firm websites. You use the CTA to tell visitors what you expect them to do. 

The reason for creating a website isn’t to be among the law firms with an official website. The major reason for establishing a website in the first place is to convert. 

A website that isn’t converting needs a rebuild. But, in most cases, the CTA could be the reason for the poor conversion. 

There are two vital things you need to consider when adding CTAs to a site. The first is the location, and the second is the language.

Where your CTA is on your website can make a huge difference. It’s important to place it where your visitors can see it.

Ensure you’re consistent with the location of your CTA. Please place it on all the pages so your readers miss it. You can place CTA at the end of a blog post. 

Just ensure your CTA appears on all the pages. That way, your visitors won’t miss them. 

Use bold text and clear buttons. The button should be large enough so visitors can see your CTA with ease. It should be visible on every page. Remember that. 

Actionable Tip: Make sure your call to action is concise and captivating. A long CTA will leave the readers confused and abandon the task you want them to perform. 

An example of a short CTA is “Call Now For Free Consultation. 

Potential clients that stumble on this CTA will want to give you a call. It’s enticing because it’s free. 

2. Using pop-ups? Ensure they are well-timed and minimal:

Pop-ups are a great way to improve a website’s conversion rate. And you can use them to make visitors take action, just like CTAs. So, a few pops here and there won’t hurt. But be mindful of how often you use them. 

Having a chat widget, offer, or form pop up now and then can be quite annoying. A wrongly timed pop-up can also get your visitors upset.

For instance, visitors who don’t know whether they need a lawyer will be upset at a “free consultation” pop-up. But someone who’s at the bottom of the sales funnel will jump on a free consultation offer. 

A potential client at the bottom of the sales funnel has already done the necessary assessment and concluded that hiring a lawyer is the best decision to take. Expect such leads to jump on a free consultation pop-up. 

Your pop-ups should be well-timed. They should appear at the right time in the buyer’s journey to have the most impact. Displaying pop-ups to potential clients at the wrong time is worse than not showing anything in the first place. 

3. Use custom videos and photos:

Your visual identity is crucial as a business, whether a law firm or other companies. You can build your online reputation and trust with the visual materials on your site.

Why is this point so important? Most law firms or businesses use excess stock photos and videos. Unfortunately, many use popular stock photos potential clients can easily identify. 

Using stock photos or videos will make your law firm look generic and unreal. It can make potential clients have terrible perceptions about your law firm. 

No one is against the use of stock photos or videos on a site. But if you must use them, use a handful. However, the best thing to do is use custom visual materials. 

Use custom photos and videos to highlight your brand identity. None of your competitors will upload your genuine images and videos. If they do, then they’ll help to showcase your law firm to a new audience on your behalf.

4. Avoid cluttered homepages:

Having a cluttered homepage won’t help your law firm create a good first impression. You need a professional and clean homepage so that potential clients won’t feel confused the moment they land on your site. 

Use your homepage to capture attention and create a good first impression. You can write a headline that captivates and responds to potential clients’ pain points or questions. 

Your headline doesn’t need to be long to capture attention or pass the right message. A short headline can do the job. So, make your headline brief and simple. You can even use it to explain what you do to prospects. 

So we discussed two things in this section – de-clutter your homepage and use a powerful headline to capture attention, target prospects’ pain points, and explain what you do. 

5. Check speed and mobile-friendliness:

These two factors are the reasons most websites aren’t yet ranking high. While most website owners ensure their website is mobile-friendly, many don’t pay attention to loading speed. 

Site loading speed and mobile-friendliness are two important ranking factors. Google appreciates websites that load speedily. 

The search engine giant Google wants sites to load in as fast as half a second. But we all know most sites take longer. However, the acceptable loading time is 3 seconds. Any extra second delay will lead to a drop in organic traffic. 

The number one or main reason most law firm pages take longer to load is the media content they contain. It doesn’t make sense to have multiple videos on a page. It will only slow down your web page and chase potential clients away.

You should have a maximum of one or two videos on a page. That’s enough for a page. Adding too many videos will help clients understand your content properly, but note that if people can’t access that page, it will be a waste of time and effort.

Actionable Tip: Have an expert check and monitor your website speed occasionally. When an expert notices a drop in website loading speed, they will fix it immediately to avoid losing organic traffic. 

There are several tools available that you can use to check your website speed. Some of them include GTmetrix, PageSpeed Insight, etc. 

If you can check and monitor your website speed, it will make sense. You will save money and ensure a poor page loading speed doesn’t ruin your chances of getting clients. However, if you’re always super busy and won’t have the time to monitor your site’s loading speed, hiring an expert will make a whole lot of sense. 

6. Create the right copy to connect with potential clients:

It’s important to create client-first copies to capture attention and connect with prospects on a deeper level. Use your copy to address clients’ needs and show them you care. 

When you do, you can easily convince prospects to consider hiring you. However, the tone used in your copies matters a great deal. While the right tone will convince prospects to choose you, the wrong one can compromise your message and cause prospects to turn their attention from your law firm. 

Actionable Tip: Don’t know how to create a client-first copy? Here is what you need to understand. Potential clients go through three major stages before contacting a law firm. When an incident happens, the first phase is awareness. A potential client at this stage wants to acquire more knowledge. The goal at this stage would be to get more information. 

The second important phase clients go through is the evaluation phase. In this stage, expect the client to evaluate the information gathered and your expertise. Expect clients to evaluate you using every detail they have about you.

 The final stage is the conclusion. This is where the client decides to hire you. At this stage, the client has gathered a lot of information, evaluated your firm, and come to the conclusion that hiring you will be the best decision. 

You can create high-quality and client-centered copies to make it easier for potential clients to hire you. Provide quality content that solves clients’ problems and establishes you as a thought leader. 

Be consistent in content publishing. You don’t have to publish content daily. You can have a schedule to publish two or three content per week, depending on your capacity.

But don’t allow your site to stay idle for a long period. Publish new content occasionally. 

If you can’t keep up with the demand of content writing, find an expert legal writer to help plan and produce content consistently for your law firm.

7. Take SEO seriously:

It’s one thing to have a custom website that captures attention and another to ensure your site ranks high in search engines. Having a website doesn’t guarantee you a top position on the search engine result page. It’s your SEO effort that takes you there. 

SEO involves on-page and off-page. On-page, also called “off-page,” involves search engine optimization activities performed on the page. It includes conducting keyword research and using the keyword in the content. 

For on-page SEO, here are strategic places to insert your keyword:

• Title tags
• Meta description
• Headers (H1, H2, etc)
• Body of the content
• Alt Text
• URL

8. Build strong social proof: 

The concept called “social proof” is simple. It involves a scenario where people are motivated to take action or purchase a product because others are doing so. 

Testimonials will help your law firm to build solid social proof. With this, you can convince potential clients to trust and hire you. 

Insert testimonials into your website to build robust social proof. However, ensure your testimonials are genuine and verifiable. 

Conclusion

You have read the benefits of having a custom law firm website design. We have also explained the difference between a custom-built and a template website.

A custom-built website will offer you more flexibility. It’s a wise choice for law firms that wish to expand in the future and stay up-to-date with the latest trends. 

Having a custom website will enable your law firm to stand out from the crowd. It’s easier to build a unique brand identity with a custom website, owing to the customization capacity it offers.