The modern market of legal services is highly competitive, and for law firms to survive and thrive, they need to find ways to outperform their competitors and stand out from the crowd. Creating a thematic website for a law firm is one of the proven ways. It’s hard to stand out if you’re invisible to your target audience, and if you do not have a website – you do not exist for the customers.
Potential clients are looking for legal services online every day. To stay successful, your law firm needs to be active online, and your website serves as a showcase of your qualification and expertise and drives traffic. Before making a decision, the client looks at the websites of law firms, studies their advantages, pricing policy, etc. It turns out that your website is the first place that the client visits before making a choice. How to choose a professional agency providing law firm website design services? Read below.
How cool should the design of the law firm site be?
In this competitive field, you can find very stylish and expensive resources with lovely page transitions made by the best developers, but they have design elements that make it difficult for users to find the information they need. There are also very simple sites that, despite the classic design, attract new customers and generate a profit. To reach that golden mean, you will need to perform a series of actions:
- Find templates for basic website designs that match the specifics of the legal business.
- Include the accents identifying the pains and needs of the target audience in the design.
- Add elements to the site that correspond to the values and objectives of the firm.
- Develop several design drafts;
- Conduct A/B testing of the site, aimed at identifying a more attractive design layout.
After completing all these steps, all that remains is to approve the final version of the design of the resource and launch the site. Some customers ignore the recommended scheme explaining that there is no time to complete all the steps. However, the design of a site that has not been thought out and tested has to be redone. It means that you will have to overpay and wait a few weeks until the designer makes a new layout.
Website for a lawyer – The functionality is paramount
The functionality of the site means the collection of interactive sections and elements that the client must browse/scroll to find the desired information. More than half of users form an idea of the reliability of the law firm based on the design of its website. To avoid a negative attitude towards the site, we recommend you stick to the simple rules:
- Easy navigation – Page titles should indicate what the page is about. The navigation bar should be at the top of the site. Subpages should be placed in a dropdown menu linked to the main navigation bar.
- Clear sitemap – This is a visual diagram of all the pages on a site. It helps search engines (such as Google) index your site, which improves search engine optimization.
- Scrolling – Adjust the length of your site pages and minimize the need to scroll through them.
- Search function – Users looking for something specific often turn to the site-wide search feature. Be sure to add this element, which will make it easier to find the information needed.
- Adaptive design – Make sure that your site design adapts to small screen sizes and looks attractive on any device.
When creating a website, you must eliminate any barriers that prevent you from fully enjoying the site. This includes the accessibility of the site, and its adaptation for people with disabilities.
How to choose a web design agency?
Choosing an agency to create a website is a decisive factor in the success of your business. If you want to build a professional website for your business, you should consider hiring a web design company Houston that specializes in creating customized and user-friendly websites. But how do you select between hundreds of web agencies that you can easily find online? What are the essential factors to consider when choosing?
Good website
A good web design agency must have a great website. However, we recommend you focus more on the functionality. Can you easily find the information you need on their website? How easy is navigation? Good websites should have a good user interface and beautiful design. If the agency has a poor website, this is not what you need.
Good portfolio
A good agency should have and provide you with a portfolio. Visit the websites of the previous clients. Make a user assessment of their speed, responsiveness, convenience, and presence of the latest design trends. Developers with a clear specialization should be given an advantage, especially if the agency has already developed complex sites for reputable legal companies.
Employees
It will be great if you can meet with real designers in the agency, and not just with their representatives. You will have to spend quite a lot of time communicating with the designers, so you must get along with them. Pay attention to other departments of the agency as well: if they have a marketing department, SEO department, technical support department, etc. After launching your project, you will need extra services to develop your business, and these are SEO, SEM, and SMM.
Working stages and conditions
Finally, you should familiarize yourself with the terms and conditions of your partnership. For this purpose, ask the following questions:
- Are there any hidden costs?
- Are updates and maintenance included in the site creation fee?
- Is there a fee for fixing bugs?
- Will you receive a copy of the original files?
- Who owns the source code?
- Are there file backups?
It is also important that your site is designed in accordance with current standards. Many Internet browsers are now available, including Safari, Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox. It’s important to make sure that your site can be viewed correctly in all of these browsers. Before hiring an agency, ask what design ideas they have. You must be sure that they have a plan. If they don’t have anything new to offer, it is better to find another contractor.
A nice and functional website also needs optimization to guarantee presence on the web. Dagmar Marketing listed all that is needed to get your law firm site visible for better marketing.
