The power of a well-designed website for law firms: maximising potential for affordable enquiries
Law firm website: beyond the aesthetics
Search engines pay close attention to the technical elements of a website, favouring those with solid technical foundations.
This means that having a strong technical foundation for your website can result in higher search engine rankings, leading to more clicks and enquiries.
On the contrary, a website with poor technical foundations can negatively impact your search engine visibility and hinder your marketing efforts.
To ensure the technical health of your website, there are several key website components that you need to consider.
Site speed
The loading speed of your website can affect your law firm's reputation and client acquisition.
If your website is slow, it can cause frustration for new prospects and create a negative impression of your firm and can also directly impact your search engine rankings.
This is because Google now takes page loading time into consideration when determining where to rank your website in its search results.
The current recommended loading time is in under 3 seconds.
To avoid your rankings from being negatively affected, you need to ensure your website is fast. There are free tools to check your website speed.
Website security
Security and SSL certification is crucial for your website's reputation and organic search engine rankings.
The SSL certification:
- protects sensitive information, for example client enquiries
- signals to both search engines and visitors that your website can be trusted
The presence of the SSL certificate is indicated by a "lock" icon next to your URL.
Search engines, like Google, give priority to secure websites in their search results so it’s important to have it.
Without an SSL certificate, your website may be flagged as insecure by a browser, leading to warning messages for visitors and potentially causing them to leave your site without making an enquiry.
To generate enquiries, make sure your website is secure.
Web hosting
A quality web hosting solution is a critical component for the technical stability of your law firm website.
Choosing a subpar hosting provider can result in frequent website downtime and a frustrating experience for your potential law firm clients trying to learn about your services.
This can negatively impact your search engine rankings and drive away visitors who expect a smooth and reliable experience from your website.
With a solid web hosting solution in place, you can be confident that your website will perform effectively and allow prospective clients to easily submit their legal enquiries.
Mobile-friendliness
A website that is accessible and optimised for all internet browsers and devices is crucial for maximising your potential to generate legal work.
As mobile devices are now the primary way many people access the internet, you should make sure your website has been designed with mobile in mind.
Search engines, including Google, give higher ranking to mobile-friendly websites, leading to increased visibility and ultimately more client enquiries.
Use this tool to check if your website is mobile-friendly
A website that is not optimised for all devices may warrant a redesign.
Other essentials
To deliver a seamless user experience for your visitors, you need to ensure:
- user-friendly navigation – your website's structure and menu should be intuitive and easy to use; pages should be easy to access and URLs simple
- enquiry capture forms – a simple and accessible contact form is essential for capturing client enquiries; without functioning forms in convenient places, you risk missing out on potential opportunities
- analytics tracking – assessing the analytics data can help you make data-driven decisions about your website and legal marketing
- sitemap
- redirects
Technical condition
PPC advertising
The technical health of your website plays a crucial role in the success of your search advertising (pay per click (PPC) / AdWord) efforts.
Poor website design can harm your ‘quality score’ – a metric used by Google to measure the quality of your landing page and the overall user experience.
A low ‘quality score’ can lead to:
- higher costs per click
- reduced ad visibility
- lower click-through rates and conversions
This can severely affect the performance of your advertising campaigns.
In addition, technical issues can prevent search engines from understanding the content of your website, which can impact the relevance and cost of your ads.
To ensure the best results for your PPC campaigns, you need to maintain a technically healthy website.
This will help search engines show your landing pages to potential clients and improve conversions at a lower cost.
SEO results
Good technical website foundations also play a vital role in the success of your SEO.
SEO stands for ‘search engine optimisation’, which involves optimising website content and technical factors to improve a website's visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Good technical website foundations, therefore, play a crucial role in ensuring a website's visibility and ranking in SERPs.
Without them, optimising a website for search engines can become more challenging and may even lead to a more expensive SEO process in the long run.
By ensuring that your website's technical foundation is sound, you can lay the foundation for a successful and more affordable SEO strategy.
Before embarking on any SEO campaign, ensure that all the fundamental elements of your law firm website design and functionality are covered.
This will help you generate cheaper enquiries and grow your firm.
Conclusion
A visually appealing law firm website can help establish trust, but it is important to focus on the technical functionality as well.
Key components such as site speed, security, web hosting, mobile-friendliness and other essentials should be in place to ensure a seamless user experience.
Investing in these technical aspects can result in increased visibility and a positive reputation, leading to more affordable client enquiries for your law firm.
Moreover, good technical foundations can help you make the most out of SEO and PPC advertising.
A good website will not only help you generate affordable enquiries but also help your law firm grow, making it a valuable asset in the long run.
If you would like a free review of your law firm’s website, PPC campaign or SEO, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team at Intellistart Law Firm Marketing.