Presenting a professional image to your customers is paramount to your success. This is true of any industry, but doubly so if you are in a legal profession. Clients come to you expecting for you to be an expert in your given area of law. Presenting the image that you are, begins with your website. This might be the first thing that a client sees when they start looking for a lawyer, so you have to make sure that your website is as close to perfect as possible.
Aside from the cool graphics and pictures of your legal team, what people will notice the most is the quality of content on your site. Does your webpage show your firm in the best light possible? Is the site free of typos and errors and is it consistent across the entire branding of your firm?
Peter Boyd is an attorney and also the founder of PaperStreet and addresses these very questions in an article in Forbes. In the article, “Tips For Creating A Consistent Writing Style Across Your Law Firm’s Website,” Boyd looks at several key areas to make sure that your content is representative of the quality of your firm. He covers; style, naming conventions, capitalization, biographies and the details. Creating a professional website leads directly into creating a professional image for your firm.
Everyone has heard about SEO or search engine optimization so customers can find your website, but equally important is making sure what they find is quality. Boyd talks about creating a “style” for your site. The style references how you use abbreviations and suffixes. If you have long titles, journalistic standards allow for the second reference to be abbreviated. You can decide how you want to handle those abbreviations or shortening of titles on your site.
Going along with that idea is naming conventions. Again second references don’t have to be as complete as a first reference. Boyd recommends using the full name the first time and then just the last name in all subsequent references. Capitalization also goes with this same line of thoughts. You can decide if you want to capitalize titles in your firm or capitalize any names of the various groups in your firm. While convention normally states that these titles should be capitalized in titles which include the person’s name, subsequent references are more of a stylistic choice.
Another key section of your law firm’s website is going to be the biographies of your team. This is most likely one of the first places that your clients will look as they will want to see who they are working with. Boyd advocates using a style guideline in these sections so there is consistency across the team. He said there is also the choice to spell out terms like Juris Doctorate or abbreviate them to JD. Again consistency is the key so as not to create confusion.
The last focus for Boyd is minding the “small details.” Any client looking for a lawyer, wants to see a website that is error free, consistent and pays attention to all the little details, just like you would hope they will do for the case you might be filing. This is also what Ryan Klein speaks about in his legal marketing podcast.
On the internet conversion rates indicate how often someone searching for your site decides to buy something from it. One of the most important ways to do that is to make sure that the site your client lands on is written and coded well. And keep in mind that the legal field is loaded with competition. According to the American Bar Association, there were 1,338,678 lawyers in 2017, which was an increase of .2% from the previous year.
A well written and laid out website is like any professional marketing tool. The better the site is, the higher conversion rate you will achieve. If clients are looking for a top notch lawyer for their case, your website should convince them that they have found the right firm. Practicing law is only one piece of having a successful and highly regarded firm. Marketing, and your website will help to complete that puzzle.
