Five Easy Ways to
Update Your Website and
Attract More Clients
In the days of COVID-19, more people are staying home and working from home. Many are shopping online more for everything from groceries to home goods to legal services.
Yes, right now your potential clients are online more than ever looking for answers to their legal problems. Are they finding you?
If you’d like to attract more clients with your website, read on for five easy, actionable fixes that will drive business to your site and persuade potential clients to contact you. This advice is from a law firm marketing services company.
Optimize Your Site to Load Quickly and for Mobile Devices
This is important because if you performed the following four fixes but your site still loads slowly or is awkward to navigate on mobile devices, the viewers you worked so hard to attract will simply click away and move on to the next site.
Not only have you lost potential business, but your ranking will suffer. The click rate is something Google considers when ranking websites. If viewers quickly navigate away from your site because it is too slow to load or is not easily viewed and navigated on a mobile device, Google assumes they had a poor experience and your rank will suffer as a result.
The fix:
- Organize your sitemap for easy navigation using Google’s Search Console Sitemaps.
- Optimize/minimize images by compressing files.
- Cache files that won’t change, such as your logo or social media image.
- Fix broken links by adding 301 redirects.
- Remove outdated or unnecessary plugins and add-ons.
- Use a mobile-optimized theme, such as in WordPress.
Add Location Pages to Your Site
Many people search online for services “near me.” To capture that local business in your practice areas, your site must include location pages.
In order to determine which of the geographical areas you serve to require location pages, google “[your practice area] lawyer near me” from your office location, and click on the top results. What locations are targeted by those pages? Create pages for those locations for your site.
Be sure to create original content for each location page. Why? If Google perceives that your location pages are duplicates, your rank will suffer.
Be sure to link internally from the location pages to your areas of practice pages with the practice area keyword. For example, if you are a divorce lawyer, in a location page you will link to your divorce page with the text “divorce lawyer in [location].” If you also practice child custody law, then also link to that practice area page with “child custody lawyer in [location].”
Focus on one location per page. Do not link location pages to each other. This will confuse Google.
Post to Your Blog
If your site does not have a blog, add one and place a link to it in your main menu. If you have a blog but don’t use it or use it only to broadcast the news of the firm or legal developments in your field, you are neglecting a powerful tool, perhaps the most powerful tool, to attract potential clients.
People with legal problems tend to ask Google questions. If you write a comprehensive blog post answering their question, they will click on it and read it. Then, if you include a link to your practice page and a “call to action” to contact you for help, they may do so.
To find out what potential clients are asking Google, experiment with Autosuggest and People Also Ask.
Autosuggest
You may have already noticed that when you start typing in Google, Google will suggest ways to end your query. You can use this to find questions commonly asked about your areas of practice.
For example, if you are a workers’ compensation attorney, open a new private window and type in “how does workers’ comp…” and chances are Google will offer suggestions. In my case, Google offered:
- How does workers compensation work
- How does workers compensation pay
- How does workers compensation pay in [my state]
Take a look at the top results for these. Are they blog posts by law firms? Do they answer a potential client’s question or solve a potential client’s problem? Write and post a comprehensive blog post that includes the exact search language.
People Also Ask
For most searches, Google will supply a “People Also Ask” box with other common, related search queries. Look at the top results for these queries, and if they are blog posts by lawyers, write your own post on the topic but make it more comprehensive than theirs.
Update Staff Bios and Photographs
The aspect of a website that turns viewers off most, second only to a slow-loading site, is an outdated site.
All content should reflect the current status of the firm. Keep results, settlements, and judgments up-to-date. When there are developments in the law, update a blog post on that area of law and add “[current year] Update!” to the title.
Bios should be updated annually with honors, awards, results, and education. Photos of individuals should be retaken every year to reflect their current appearance and today’s fashions and hairstyles.
Post Your Firm’s Results and Client Reviews
You must provide potential clients with extrinsic proof that your firm does what it advertises it does. That proof is on your results/judgments/settlements page and your client review page.
If your area of practice does not lend itself to advertising its results explicitly, get creative. For example, if you are a criminal appeals attorney you might advertise “1250 successful appeals and counting!” If you are a bankruptcy attorney, you might say “Over $2.4 Million Discharged Since [Firm Opening Date]” or “We got more than 1300 clients a fresh start since [Firm Opening Date].” Be sure whatever numbers you advertise are accurate, as it is an ethics violation for an attorney to advertise results that do not exist.
Use software such as Constant Contact or MailChimp to gather client testimonials. Let your potential clients hear from people like them how well you do your job and how happy they were to have retained you.
These five easy website fixes are sure to attract more business to your firm. You will be glad you took the time to implement them.
About the Author
Veronica Baxter is a writer at Assignyourwriter.co.uk, blogger, and legal assistant living and working in the great city of Philadelphia. She frequently works with ACE legal marketing company.
