Website Redesign: Why Now is the Right Time to Update Your Law Firm’s Website
Have you been considering a redesign for your website? What’s holding you back? For many people, it’s a question of whether the investment, both financial and temporal, is worthwhile. In many instances they know the answer is yes. Especially during the pandemic, there just isn’t a better way to reach new clients and make a good impression than through a professional website.
Some attorneys that hesitate wonder what they might be able to do with a new site that they can’t do with their current site. And while you may have the navigation and basic functionality to get the job done now, we want to tell you that keeping your site up-to-date, mobile friendly, and optimized for search engines, can allow you to do a lot more for your firm. So, we put together five reasons to update your website right away.
Make Your Best Impression and Strengthen your Brand Identity
Does your site look out of date? Does it not reflect your legal capabilities and reflect the level of expertise of your practice? Are your photos out of date? Is the site still not mobile friendly? Is the imagery and graphics generic or antiquated? Does your logo need a refresh? If you answered yes to any of these questions then you need to move fast. If you answered yes to all of the questions, then your current Website could be causing you to lose business.
A website redesign project is a great time to look at your brand – things like your logo, your colors, the font and style and come up with something new. This new polished look can go a long way ahead of you to impress clients and make sure they see you in the best possible light.
Track Online Metrics for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Do you currently track the traffic on your site? Many lawyers would answer no. With a newer site, it is easy to gather information, run reports and analyze data to find out things like: How are people getting to my site? What is my click through rate? What are the most frequently visited pages on the site? How long are people spending on each page? What is the bounce rate? Where am I showing up in search?
Many law firms aren’t tracking that important basic piece of info using a tool like Google search console to understand what terms drive traffic. This can provide valuable clues into what opportunities exist for your law firm on the internet and can help influence the focus areas of a new site.
If you haven’t yet, now is the time to set up metrics for your business and look at them regularly. These tools can help you decide what content and info you need to have and where you can set goals and strategic plans for growth.
Do Additional Keyword Research & SEO
You have the chance to help more people find your law firm website through optimizing certain key areas of a site. This means utilizing keywords a potential client might search for when looking for a firm. There are keyword research tools such as Google adwords or other research tools such as SEM Rush.
Search Engine Optimization for attorneys involves a series of best practices that will make your law firm’s website more relevant and more likely to appear in search engines. Certain things like having keywords built into the text of your home page or linking to practice areas within the website and placing accurate keywords in the title tags of your site can make a world of difference. A best practice is to optimize for attorney terms, practice area terms, regional terms and superlatives. Many searches break down along these primary and secondary keyword categories and if they are strategically placed then your site will perform. If this is too complex an undertaking then you can always hire a firm like Qlegal to do SEO for your law firm’s website.
Start a Blog and Keep Blogging
With a newer site, you should use a platform such as WordPress that has the ability to blog built into the site. This will allow you to build more robust and interactive landing pages and collect data more easily. Take full advantage of this kind of new functionality and then be strategic about how you create content to drive traffic to the site.
This section gives your firm a place to show your expertise in the field, by giving you a dedicated place for sharing stories, perspectives and successes. The content you create here will create more traffic to your site, especially if you use SEO terms. Having a schedule for when you will post is a good way to keep the site fresh, and the more you post, the higher it will make your firm come up in search engine result pages.
Video
You also will want to consider this for your new site. Creating a YouTube channel and adding a weekly video (yes weekly) can make a big difference in your organic rankings. Potential clients love videos, not only can they engage with you and “meet” you before meeting you, but you have a chance to inform and connect with them like no other. Adding a video with your blog post and putting it out over social media is a great way to connect with clients. Just think how excited you will be when a new potential client calls you and says they found you on YouTube.
If this sounds like what your firm needs, consider partnering with an agency like Qlegal that understands how to strategize and execute on these tactics and more. Let us help you today. Contact Francis McGoven at 617-816-2969.