6 Pitfalls to Avoid on Your Law Firm Website
By: Aaron George
Tags: Marketing, Law Firm Marketing, SEO, Ethics, Online Marketing

When going about building a new website for your practice, whether you’re starting from scratch or redesigning an existing site, there are several critical elements necessary to ensuring your web design is worth it. While not every law firm website is the same, and many sites have different goals (e.g. getting traffic vs. impressing referrals), there are some common pitfalls that many law firm websites fall victim to. Here are the 6 pitfalls to avoid, along with some recommendations and necessary elements that every law firm website should have.

Pitfall #1: Not Mobile Responsive

Over half of all web traffic today is coming from mobile devices. Though you may think, “Who is going to look up my website on their smartphone?” the data suggests otherwise. For people referred to your firm — who want to see that you have a website to check in on the existence of your online presence — they will look up your website the second they get your business card. And if your site doesn’t look good on a mobile device, it will reflect poorly on your firm. A non-mobile site is the Internet equivalent of having your law office located in an abandoned warehouse.

No one should have to struggle with their phone screen, trying to zoom in on certain areas of text on your website to read your content. This shouldn’t be any potential client’s first impression of your law firm.

When you are exploring what web designer or platform to use, mobile-readiness is essential. But, “mobile-ready” comes in two main varieties. If you are sold the wrong one, not only may it hurt your search engine visibility, but it be extremely costly to remedy that mistake in the future.

The two types of mobile sites are “responsive” sites, and second “mobile sites”. A responsive site is a single website. What makes it mobile-ready is the ability for the site to automatically change its dimensions to fit the width of the viewer’s screen. As an example, if you go to jurispage.com and try to make your web browser’s window narrower, the text will automatically adjust to fit on your screen. Like magic. No matter what the type of screen is — whether it’s a tablet, smartphone, laptop, or desktop — the content on the site will always be the same. It will just be rearranged to be easy to read on your device. No additional work is required on your part to maintain the mobile aspect of the site.

A “mobile site” is a completely separate website made for a phone’s screen. Mobile sites were a viable solution before responsive sites gained popularity and became more cost-effective. Second mobile sites were the answer to the question, “What’s the cheapest way to make my site work on phones if I already have a large website?” Now, though, doing a responsive site redesign is often just as cost effective, and are more user-friendly. If you are starting from scratch, a mobile-responsive site is a no-brainer, as it should not cost extra. Your web designer should not be charging more for a responsive website.

Second mobile sites require that you replicate the content from your main site onto your mobile site. Often, web designers try to sell quick-and-easy mobile sites to law firms that already have websites. Here, the mobile site replicates some of the website content, in a layout that looks very different from the firm’s regular website. Not recommended.

Also, because of the replication requirement for mobile sites, that means that if you are blogging, you have to add the same post onto two different websites. It’s more time-consuming, and it can also be problematic for search engine optimization (SEO) if you don’t know what you are doing in that arena. Google hates seeing duplicate content on sites and will penalize you for it unless you know how to optimize your mobile site. Overall, a second mobile site is not recommended.

Personally, at JurisPage, we only do mobile-responsive sites. Even with redesigns, it’s much better for the firm. Creating a separate mobile site is just a headache and ends up delaying the inevitable switch to a responsive site.

Bottom line: Make sure your website is mobile-responsive.

Pitfall #2: A Generic, Unfriendly Layout

Firms in different practice areas serve different types of clients with different needs. Personal injury and corporate transactions lawyers generally serve different types of clients. Sure, this makes sense. But your firm’s website also needs to reflect the type of client you serve. The firm’s website must consider the needs of the ideal visitor and what they are looking for when they visit websites in your practice area.

A law firm looking to get traffic and volume business via their website (as is often the case with more consumer-focused practice areas like family law, personal injury, probate, criminal defense / DUI, and bankruptcy) should focus more on having strong calls-to-action on the website. The phone number should be prominent and in large text. There should be a contact form on every page. Some lawyers might think this look is tacky, but if your goal is to get more clients via your website, this is the most effective way to convert visitors into potential clients.

A law firm looking to appeal to other professionals or corporate clients is not going to need a more aggressive-looking website. For these firms, where clients generally come in from referrals, the website should be geared towards highlighting the lawyer bios, firm experience, and practice area pages. The website visitor already likely knows of the firm, so a phone number in large text at the top of every page is unnecessary.

Pitfall #3: Boring Lawyer Bios

Your website bio isn’t just a place for you to list your achievements. It’s not a virtual wall for you to hang your diplomas. It’s a place for your potential client or referral source to understand your abilities and connect with you. Once they feel comfortable knowing about your abilities, they can then reach out to you.

No one cares what you wrote your note about in law school.

When writing your website bio, think with your reader in mind. What do they care about most? Two things: 1. They want to know that you have experience handling cases similar to theirs and can handle their matter well; and 2. They want to know that you’ll answer the phone when they call with a question. Anything outside of this frame is not as important.

So maybe focus less on your Dean’s List, where you went to school and what you studied, and focus more on making a connection with your audience. Write with your client in mind.

Pitfall #4: Low-Quality Headshots

Many lawyers think of website headshots as an afterthought, and they rush to get photos taken quickly and cheaply in front of a bookcase or boring backdrop. This does not inspire confidence from the visitor’s perspective. A picture of a lawyer standing in front of a bookcase full of law books is cliche. It will make you forgettable to your potential clients.

You need good photos shot in visually interesting locations. Your website visitors are going to go to your bio page and look at your picture. If they haven’t met you yet, they’ll be judging you on your photo.

Moreover, if you are a solo, you should have a good photo of yourself on the homepage. People hire lawyers, not law firms. And if you are a solo, you are your firm.

Great photos can make an otherwise cheap template of a website look like an expensive, high-quality production. If you have an interesting background for the photos, even better.

What separates bad or OK photos from great photos? Two things mainly: background and lighting. Here are the locations you shouldn’t use:

Bookcase

Inside your office (without additional lighting)

Court steps

In front of a portrait studio’s high school yearbook photo-like backdrop

These have been done before by every other lawyer and will make you less memorable.

What locations might you want to use?

Outdoors with cityscape scenery

Outdoors in natural scenery

A local landmark in your city

Inside your law office (if your photographer brought extra lighting)

Lighting is key to good photos. It can make a lawyer look either like Ebenezer Scrooge or Ryan Gosling. This is why you may want to do the photo shoot outdoors on a sunny day. If you live in a city where you only get 1 hour of sunlight per day, this may not be a great idea.

At JurisPage, we also recommend the photographer get more horizontal images (landscapes) than vertical (portraits) for websites because of the site layout. The homepage in particular benefits from having a landscape shot of the firm’s lawyers. It’s also much easier for web designers to crop a good landscape photo to be a portrait when necessary, but not vice-versa.

Pitfall #5: Zero SEO Optimization

Your website doesn’t magically show up in Google once you publish it. It also doesn’t magically show up with the title and description you want it to either.

You may not necessarily be looking to get more traffic or potential clients with your website, but every law firm website needs some basic search engine optimization so people who are looking specifically for you can find you in Google. When someone searches Google for a lawyer by name and city, that lawyer’s website should be on the first page of results. If someone looking specifically for your firm can’t find your online presence, it gives a bad impression of your practice. If a potential client is left thinking that you don’t have a website, they may wonder if you are out-of-date in other areas of your practice as well.

Any web designer you hire should do basic SEO of your website. Sometimes they try to upsell SEO packages, but at the most basic level, your website should be indexed into Google so people can easily find your firm if they are looking for you. At JurisPage, for example, every site we work on is indexed into Google and contains relevant title and description tags to make sure the sites can get found by people searching for them.

Pitfall #6: Lack of Ethics Compliance

Not every web designer (nor lawyer for that matter) is on top of the ethics requirements related to law firm websites. Many web designers are completely unaware that there are certain things you can’t say on your website. But, knowledge of the relevant ethics rules is critical. Lawyers cannot delegate away their ethical responsibilities. Even if a web designer “messes up” and the law firm is violating an ethics rule, the law firm is ultimately to blame.

Each state regulates what lawyers can say in advertisements, including their websites. Rule 7.1 of the Model Rules requires that no communications may be “false or misleading.” Many states have adopted them Model Rules or some variation.

Some states have even stricter requirements than the Model Rules. New York, for example, requires that each page contain an Attorney Advertising disclaimer. Moreover, if there are any testimonials or discussions of cases, an appropriate “Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome” disclaimer is also required. Because New York prohibits false or misleading communications, any actor portrayals of lawyers or clients (including stock photos) must disclaim the fictionalization. As another example, in Texas, the ethics board has to approve all advertisements.

There are a few common advertising issues. One issue that web designers miss is that in many states lawyers cannot claim they “specialize” or are “experts” in any given area of law unless they have a certification. In Matter of Dannitte Mays Dickey (SC 2012), the disciplinary board reprimanded an attorney for claiming he was a “specialist” on his website in addition to making some false statements.

Last point about ethics: states often have retention requirements for advertisements. This means you may have to keep a record of your law firm website in a given state, even if you make changes or updates. This can be anywhere from 30 days to several years.

Make sure that your web designer, and you, are aware of your state bar’s relevant ethics rules.

Conclusion

Keeping these elements in mind, you are destined for a successful, professional looking website that appeals to your potential clients (and that keeps you out of ethics trouble). While this article doesn’t cover everything there is to know about building an appealing website for your practice, it will get you headed in the right direction. If you are looking to create a modern, professional web presence for your law firm, the team at JurisPage can help.