Law firms understand the importance of a website. After all, 87% of legal practices have one. A website acts as your law firm’s calling card on the internet, where people can find your services by searching relevant keywords on Google.
But just having a website isn’t enough. An outdated or non-user-friendly website can be one of the biggest hurdles to lead generation. There are lots of ways a website can scare off potential clients.
Scare factor #1: Outdated design
Your law firm has one chance at a first impression.
Think about your website the same way as you dress for meetings. You wouldn’t attend a motion hearing in casual attire, so you shouldn’t expect your website to be casual either.
In addition, an outdated design can make your team look unprofessional. Your prospective clients may question if you’re capable of paying attention to details or able to meet deadlines.
The solution: A website should have a professional design that impresses the user upon arrival. Include high-quality photography, branding that reflects your firm, and sufficient spacing to make the content easier to comprehend.
It’s also important that your site reflects the unique needs and expectations of the legal industry. Working with a legal-specific provider, like Tabs3 Websites, can ensure your site meets the brief.
Scare factor #2: Poor mobile responsiveness
Over 60% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. In today’s digital landscape, every website must work as well on mobile as it does on desktop.
After a long workday, potential clients don’t want to spend more time on a computer to try and solve their legal problems. They’re far more likely to look for legal services while scrolling their phone from the couch.
If you don’t take this into account, you may end up with a website that looks great on desktop but isn’t sufficiently responsive for mobile. This might include:
- Slow loading times
- Difficult navigation
- Clunky mobile forms
- Clumsy touch input
- Frustrating mobile popups
- Hard-to-read fonts
And these nonresponsive sites will frustrate users, causing them to leave your website for a competitor. What’s more, this can lead to poor bounce and/or conversion rates, which can directly impact your website’s search engine rankings.
The solution: The first step to a better mobile experience is to thoroughly test out your website and content across desktop and mobile devices. Tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test can help you identify and fix issues.
Scare factor #3: Confusing and outdated content
Many clients will want detailed information about your law firm and its services, but they don’t speak legalese. Confusing content deters clients from reaching out because they don’t understand your services.
Confusing content is only half the problem; outdated content on a website can make your firm appear inactive or unreliable. If you only have listed awards from 2014, a potential client may wonder what happened in the last decade to the quality of your services. Plus, the less often you update your content, the lower your firm will rank on Google’s search engine results.
The solution: Explain your services using clear, straightforward language that’s easy for clients to understand.
Break your content into separate pages for each practice area, ensuring potential clients can quickly find relevant information. Regularly update your blog with posts that address common legal concerns.
Scare factor #4: Poor user experience
A website with poor user experience (UX) can frustrate visitors and drive potential clients away. Without thoughtful UX design, your site may feel clunky, making it harder for users to navigate and find key information. Common UX issues include:
- Unclear or hidden calls-to-action (CTAs): If users can’t easily find buttons like “Contact Us” or “Schedule a Consultation,” they may not reach out
- Confusing menus: A disorganized menu makes it difficult for users to navigate and find what they need
- No search functionality: Without a search bar, visitors struggle to locate specific information, leading to frustration
- Lack of visual hierarchy: If your content isn’t organized by importance, users may feel overwhelmed by information or miss critical details
The solution: Collaborate with a UX expert to simplify and enhance your website’s design. Focus on intuitive navigation with clearly labeled menus, a clean layout, and CTAs like “Schedule a Consultation” or “Contact Us” that are easy to locate.
Keep forms short to avoid overwhelming users and use a logical content hierarchy with clear headings and subheadings to break up text. Regularly review site analytics to identify areas of improvement and remove any potential barriers to a smooth user experience.
Scare factor #5: Lack of Search Engine Optimization
You could have a professional, clean website design, but if no search engine optimization (SEO) is completed, no one will find you.
Some SEO best practices that your law firm needs to follow include:
- Keyword research and implementation into blog posts and content pages
- Technical SEO such as a logical site structure, mobile responsiveness, and submitting extensible markup language (XML) sitemaps to search engines
- On-page optimization such as descriptive alternative (alt) text, meta descriptions, and proper heading structure
- Local SEO such as a Google My Business listing, managing client reviews, and citations from legal directories and local business listings
The Solution: Make sure your site includes keywords specific to your practice areas. Focus on implementing keywords naturally into your content without overstuffing. It’s also necessary to review your site’s technical SEO, checking for image sizes, redirects, server response time, and more.
For local SEO, make sure your firm is listed on Google My Business, and regularly manage your online reviews and citations. By consistently optimizing these elements, your law firm can increase its visibility to potential clients searching for legal services.
Scare factor #6: Absence of client engagement tools
A potential client shouldn’t just be able to look at your website, you should encourage them to be a part of it.
Client convenience tools increase engagement, through filling out a form for potential clients or accessing important documents and making online payments for current ones. When these tools aren’t active on your website, it creates more administrative burden for your team and you miss the chance to make your client’s life easier.
The solution: When you integrate client convenience tools on your website, you save administrative time while providing a better experience for your client. Tools to consider integrating include:
- Logic-based intake forms to gather relevant information ahead of client consultations. These can also help weed out potential clients who aren’t the right fit for your services.
- Legal client-relationship management tools to nurture leads and improve communication.
- Secure client portals for easy information sharing and messaging.
- Online payment to help clients manage billing and pay bills faster.
The right client engagement tools don’t just integrate with your website; they should also integrate with your legal practice management system. A comprehensive integrated solution reduces administrative burden, ensures greater data accuracy, and allows you to deliver better client services.
Make your website user-friendly with a modern design from Tabs3 Websites
By addressing these common website pitfalls, you’ll improve both user experience and search engine rankings.
Get started today by reaching out to schedule a demo and see how Tabs3 Websites can help you create a modern, professional online presence that attracts and retains clients.
