These days, a website is often your first opportunity to make a good impression on a potential client. Even if you were recommended by a potential client’s friend, family member, or business associate, he or she will go to your website as the next step in evaluating you – before you even know they’re seeking counsel and before you have an opportunity to speak with them. Your marketing efforts should also be driving potential clients and referral sources to your website. So, it needs to be ready to educate, influence and impress!
Gone are the days when you paid for a great website and then you were done. Your website should be constantly changing, growing, and improving. In fact, Google algorithms rank such dynamic websites higher than those which are stale and stagnant. So, yes you need a new website – and it should be in a constant state of improvement.
Up-to-Date Photography
Your website should include pictures of you – recent ones.
Imagine the disappointment when your potential client actually meets you (live or virtually) and you look 25 years older than they thought you would. That doesn’t convey a feeling of comfort and trust. It’s also a good idea to show you in your element – at your office or at least in some settings other than a photographer’s studio with a blah matte background that looks like a discounted kitchen countertop or, worse yet, is a fake (or real) bookcase (that doesn’t convey an up-to-date practice). Remember, this is your chance to convey a little about who you really are but also to impress someone looking to hire or recommend you.
Your Services, FAQs, and Blogs
Your website should naturally include the type of work you do. And it’s helpful to describe and explain a little bit about each category rather than simply list them.
This will help with your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and also with the engagement by your visitors. Consider some FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) or short blogs about various topics. These are not only helpful but help with SEO.
Contact Functionality
You should also provide means and mechanisms for those potential clients to get in touch with you, either via phone, an online form, text, or an interactive “chat bot.”
These are those floating, interactive, live conduits by which a website visitor can “chat” via text with “someone” who can answer some questions, schedule an appointment, etc.
Detailed Bio
Include a little about yourself – more than where you graduated from law school and what you did there (unless you are a very recent grad).
People assume that you were educated as a lawyer so no need to bore them any further. Identify as many things about yourself as you feel comfortable doing. This will help establish a connection with those potential clients and distinguish you from all those other lawyers who simply list their degrees and schools attended in their bio. It will also make for a more pleasant experience as you represent people with whom you may have something in common.