Five things every law firm’s website should have

Word of mouth alone isn’t enough for most law firms to thrive – or even survive.

Having a website that draws in traffic and turns visits into conversions is one of the best ways to consistently get leads.

There isn’t a guaranteed recipe for a website that draws in millions of readers and converts at a rate of 100%.

But being aware of these five factors will give you the best chance of success.

1. Building trust

When people are about to enter into a high-cost, high-impact agreement with a law firm, trust is paramount.

Your website needs to be building that trust at every possible step. Here are some ways to do this:

• include Trustpilot or Google Reviews widgets on your pages
• mention awards you’ve won
• share partnerships you have
• talk about the credentials of your team members

Client case studies can also be very effective, even though they are time consuming to produce.

By interviewing happy clients and talking about how you helped them, you can build a compelling case for why other potential clients should look to your services.

2. A page for every service

Although you know which services you provide, you can’t assume that everyone else does.

Each service needs its own page that answers any questions your potential customers have.

These should be grouped into categories for easier navigation. For example, instead of putting all your family law services in one long list on a page, break them up into sub-topics.

These services should be grouped as sensibly as possible to make for an effective site structure.

For example, if you were looking to buy a parasol for your garden, you might head over to the B&Q website.

You’d look at the ‘Garden & Landscaping’ section, then under the ‘Outdoor Living’ subsection to find parasols.

It makes sense – and that’s exactly why B&Q has the menu arranged that way.

Not only does it help the user find their page, but it also helps search engines understand their structure better, which is great for organic rankings. Use this logic for your services.

3. Call to action

Your website’s main purpose is to build up awareness of your firm and drive clients to contact you.

Without a call to action (CTA), you can get all the traffic to your website that you want, but it won’t be likely to convert into the metric that matters – enquiries.

That means that CTAs should appear throughout your website, on everything from the home page to blog posts (more on blogs later).

These CTAs should be clear, compelling and actionable.

Instead of something generic like ‘Contact us’, consider more specific prompts like: ‘Get expert legal advice today – call now’, or ‘Download our free legal guide’.

You can also address misconceptions that the website user may have.

For example, if customers think a consultation call will be long, you could try something like: ‘Book your free consultation call – it only takes 15 minutes’.

Any CTAs can also be displayed as buttons, helping them stand out on the page.

4. Blogs

Blogs can be one of the biggest lead generators on your website.

A quality blog strategy can support other key pages on your website to rank higher through internal links.

If you wanted to rank well on search engines like Google for the term ‘conveyancing services’, you could write a blog about that topic and add a link to your main service page.

This tells search engines that the page you’re linking to should rank for search terms related to the linked text or anchor text.

It also suggests your website is an authority because you have multiple pages focusing on that topic.

In a complex field like law, being an authority is key. That means you should have blogs published regularly (at least once a month) to support each service page.

5. Meta titles and descriptions

Think of meta titles and descriptions as your search engine shop windows. They’re what people see when your website in listed in search engine results.

For example, if you type in ‘Add People’ on Google, you will see this:

The meta title here is ‘Add People The Digital Marketing Agency Built For SMEs’.

The meta description is ‘Partner with an agency that specialises in helping small to medium-sized businesses build their brand, drive more conversions and deliver a higher return on investment!’.

These give the reader an insight into Add People, whether they already know about it or not.

A well-crafted meta title and description can improve your search visibility and increase click-through rates by demonstrating your authority and relevance.

If you want to edit this meta title, it can typically be amended in the settings of the individual page that you want to edit.

For WordPress, it’s usually managed through an SEO plugin like Yoast or Rank Math.

These tools allow you to customise them easily, ensuring they are optimised for both search engines and potential clients.

When editing, focus on:

• clarity and relevance: ensure your metadata reflects the page content
• keywords: include legal terms your audience searches for
• call to action: make your description engaging, such as ‘get expert legal advice today’.

Getting more from your website

These tips can help your website become a genuine lead or enquiry magnet for your business.

After all, 96% of people start their search for legal help online. Can you afford to miss out?