There are certain things that you just expect from a business. For instance, at a restaurant, you expect a menu that is clear and easy to read. You expect the ambiance to match the food. You also probably check online reviews before you go. 

But what if the restaurant looks run down, and the menu doesn’t make sense? What if it had no reviews or online presence, just a couple of cheesy advertisements on neighborhood fliers?  

How likely are you to take a chance on that restaurant in the first place?  

So it also goes with your law firm. How your law firm presents to the world matters. Your presentation is key to creating a positive impression with your potential clients, and key to establishing your practice. 

Today, much of that impression comes from your digital footprint. More than 75% of consumers look at a business online before they visit in person. Depending on the quality of your law firm’s website, your online presence can be one of your best marketing assets—or one of your greatest detractors.   

It’s one thing to understand why a great website is so important, but it’s another thing to actually build a website and maximize its positive impact.  

Let’s look at five ways you can get the greatest return on investment from your law firm’s website, allowing you to boost your practice’s visibility, creditability, and profitability.  

1. Use a clean, modern design for your website 

If your website looks like it hasn’t been updated since 2002, it will give the impression that your law firm is outdated and out of touch.  

On the other hand, if your website is too complicated to navigate, then potential clients may give up on your firm before they even fill out an interest form. 

To encourage leads to take the next click, make sure your website: 

• Uses clean, modern website design that is easy to read 
• Looks appealing on both your laptop and smartphone  
• Includes high-quality photos to give your site a polished, professional appearance—if you don’t have the time to bring in a professional photographer, licensed stock photos can help supplement your website and create a professional aesthetic 

2. Provide value with your content 

Does your website copy provide valuable information for your clients and potential leads, or are you just filling space with marketing language you think you need? 

Everything on your website should serve to educate people about your firm and your practice’s services.  

Instead of filler pages full of industry buzzwords or general platitudes, consider how you can provide the following content to website visitors: 

• An “about us” that features leaders in your law firm and their expertise 
• Pages that highlight your specific practice areas and how your firm stands out from the competition 
• A blog section that answers common questions about your practice areas 
• A resource section that allows visitors to educate themselves (and for your firm to build trust with them), including downloadables, video content, or FAQs

3. Make your call-to-action visible on every page 

Incorporating well-placed, consistent calls-to-action (CTA) is critical to gaining new clients. Whether it’s your client intake form or a link to schedule a consultation, a CTA moves a person into and through your sales funnel.  

It’s important to have your CTA on every page. Every person is visiting your website with a different perspective, or a specific issue, and you don’t know what nugget of information is going to make them want to reach out.  

A visible CTA makes it as easy as possible for people to get in touch and creates an easy client experience from the very first interaction. 

However, keep your CTAs consistent throughout the pages. While you may vary them depending on the action you want to take, don’t include 3 to 4 different CTAs on one page—doing so will distract visitors and make it less likely they’ll take the desired action. 

4. Use SEO best practices to get your site noticed by potential clients 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a notoriously tricky concept. Search engines frequently change their algorithms, and there are a multitude of factors that can impact your website’s visibility.  

However, at its core, SEO is a practice designed to ensure that your website ends up in front of the right people. When a search engine scans your site, it catalogs different factors, such as: 

• Your geographic location 
• Your practice areas 
• The types of cases you specialize in 
• The services you offer  
• Your team and their qualifications 

It also looks at your content to see if your website is legitimate, or just a spam website. Here, search engines evaluate the quality of your content.  

• Is your website active (when was your website last updated)? 
• Are your blogs well written? 
• Is your content all AI-generated? 

SEO results don’t occur overnight. That being said, you can take these steps today to improve your website’s SEO and help people looking for your legal services actually find your website: 

• Use words that indicate your geographic location and jurisdiction on every page 
• Use different phrases that describe your practice area and common case matters across your website to include different search results 
• Focus on providing high-quality content. Filler text or poorly-written text won’t just annoy your website visitors—it may also hurt your standings in a search engine 
• Update your website regularly to show that your business is active

5. Use a website-builder that understands what a law firm needs to succeed 

Even if you have experience in website development, it can take a significant amount of time to build a functional, let alone optimized, website. It’s a lot of work!  

And for lawyers trying to balance billable hours with their endless lists of ongoing tasks, adding a DIY website to your to-do list is a recipe for a disaster.  

Many law offices choose to contract with an outside party to build their website. This is a fantastic way to build your marketing portfolio. But industry-agnostic agencies can come with a significant price tag, and it still takes significant time and energy to communicate your legal-specific needs. 

Instead, look for a website building service that is specifically designed for law firms.  

CosmoLex Websites are designed to address each of these problems and provide law firms with an all-in-one solution.  

CosmoLex’s “done-for-you” approach to law firm websites takes the burden off your shoulders and gives you a website designed to increase your firm’s visibility, creditability, and profitability.  

As experts in law firm website needs, CosmoLex Websites provide: 

• A modern, intuitive design 
• Quality content and quarterly updates 
• Search engine optimization 
• Easy access for clients to secure payment portals 
• Secure, compliant hosting 

Investing in a quality digital presence is more than a vanity project. It’s an investment toward your firm’s growth and long-term success.  

Explore turnkey legal website solutions with CosmoLex 

With CosmoLex Websites, law firms can go from “discovery” to a complete website draft in less than three weeks. We do all the work, so you don’t have to spend endless hours (and increasing budgets) on design, SEO, content creation, and more.  

Schedule a demo to see how CosmoLex Websites can build a winning case for your practice!